ON THEIR daily walks around their Point Cook housing estate, Stephanie Sikman and her son, Stefan, 4, kept seeing the same vacant lots. Months passed, but very little in Esperance Estate seemed to change.
Where scores of new houses should have been rising, the land remained empty, leaving gaps like broken teeth in the streetscapes.
In some parts of the subdivision, vacant sites sit in clusters of a half dozen or more, with residents left to stare out over fields of dirt and weeds. Advertisement: Story continues below
"It certainly doesn't look appealing compared to the brochures" - Blake Pistofian Photo: Craig Sillitoe
''We just assumed the people who bought all these blocks would build on them. We thought they would be like us,'' says Sikman, 34, who with her husband, Nick, started building their family home in the subdivision about a year ago.
Since moving into the neighbourhood in November, they've watched construction slow to a trickle. Instead of pouring slabs and building frames, owners are fencing off many of the vacant lots to stop a growing problem with illegal dumping.
''We're extremely happy with our house and we'll be here for 20 years. But this isn't the community we thought we'd be getting,'' Sikman says. ''There are still just so many empty blocks.''
Nearly two years after developer LinksLiving transferred the first lots in Esperance to their new owners, nearly one-third of the estate is empty and undeveloped.
And with nearly one in 10 properties in the subdivision recently listed for resale - a rate more than three times the city average - it could be years before Esperance is finished.
The estate's stalled progress is being blamed on a gap in planning laws that allows developers to sell land without setting limits on when owners must start or finish construction on their homes.
Planning experts and industry lobbyists say the state government should consider setting more building controls on new subdivisions in light of Melbourne's continuing problems with urban sprawl and housing affordability.
Many developers set starting deadlines of one year or a finishing deadlines of two years to ensure a steady pace of construction and set a de facto completion time for the project.
But LinksLiving set no time constraints over when - or even whether - owners in Esperance have to build. LinksLiving spokesman Ron Smith declined to comment on this decision despite repeated requests from The Sunday Age.
Industry insiders say subdivisions with loose building controls are attractive to speculators who hope to ''bank'' and then sell land for a profit without any obligation to build.
This strategy was reportedly common in new housing areas during the 2009-10 property boom, but many buy-and-flip investors - as well as owner occupiers - have since been caught out by Melbourne's slumping property sector. With owners unable to find a buyer, sell at a profit or afford to build a home to live in or rent out, the land is being left fallow.
Despite the lack of building deadlines, estate agency Oliver Hume, which sold the project on behalf of LinksLiving, made claims about the expected rate of construction.
''People are moving quickly, the Esperance buyers' sentiment shows 33 per cent of land buyers intend to commence construction immediately, with another 39 per cent to commence within three months,'' a media release announced in mid-2009.
But another buyer contacted by The Sunday Age says an Oliver Hume sales representative told him that investors were free to keep their land vacant for as long as they wanted.
''That's what I liked about it - that I could build later on,'' says the Sydney-based investor, who asked to have his name withheld. ''My original plan was to build, but things changed, and now I just want to offload it.''
Claims by the developer and its agents that Esperance would be a complete ''masterplanned community'' have angered resident Blake Pistofian, who feels he was misled by ''false hopes and false promises''.
''I was under the impression that houses would get built right away, the area would get built right away. It certainly doesn't look appealing compared to the brochures,'' he says, pointing to the garbage-strewn lots and overgrown median strips.
Work has only recently begun on turning a muddy gully at the rear of the estate into a landscaped reserve that was touted as a feature of the community. Not even the entrance to Esperance has been developed. There are just two houses now under construction among more than a dozen empty lots lining either side of the only road in.
''The other estates in the [Point Cook] area looked finished, they look established. Why is there so much vacant land in Esperance? It comes down to the fact there are no limits like in other estates,'' he argues.
Paul Ciprian, project director with Oliver Hume, says there is ''nothing surprising'' about developers selling land this way and it was made clear to buyers there were no deadlines over Esperance.
''All the buyers at Esperance, those who have built and haven't built, they've all purchased under the same guidelines,'' he says.
Ciprian also argues that the slowdown seen in the new homes market and the wider slump in the Melbourne property market are delaying the building plans of investors and owner-occupiers.
Despite the tough trading conditions, developers continue to release new subdivisions in the Point Cook area and elsewhere, effectively ''leapfrogging'' over estates such as Esperance that have been sold to individual buyers but are unfinished.
RMIT planning expert Michael Buxton argues that allowing land to sit empty, either by individuals or developers, is ''socially undesirable'' as it encourages speculation, increases urban sprawl and stresses infrastructure and services.
''Governments could easily overcome it by introducing new planning requirements or owners could pay a prohibitive tax on land withheld from construction outside of a reasonable time,'' he says.
Housing Industry Association senior economist Andrew Harvey says he is unaware of any statistics showing the extent of the practice but setting time limits could make sense.
''When we're looking at reforming housing supply, and saying we need more houses, if there's something like this that is holding up housing coming on-line, the state government really should have a look at it and see if there is a role for intervention,'' he says.
However, Mike Davis, regional manager for Stockland, says most developers set deadlines. ''We certainly ensure that there are build times so the communities can grow and develop in an orderly manner.''
Concerns about lax planning controls and land speculation are likely to intensify as the Baillieu government tackles the problems of housing affordability and population growth by opening vast swaths of new land on the city's fringe to development.
At the time Esperance was sold off in mid-2009, the planned subdivision sat close to the far reaches of Melbourne's urban edge. Several major new estates further on were already earmarked for future development or have since been brought to market. Mooted plans include a new suburb of 5800 people in Point Cook West.
A growing chorus of complaints from residents, councils and planning experts have highlighted the failure of infrastructure and services to meet the demands of the development and population growth in the city's west.
Wyndham City Council, which has claimed its resources are being severely strained by this pace of growth, charges higher rates on vacant land to ensure these owners make an ''equitable financial contribution'' to the city's services and infrastructure.
''At present, this system is considered effective and no further measures are necessary,'' chief executive Kerry Thompson says.
But the debate is of little consequence to the residents of Esperance, who see few signs that the 75-odd empty lots will become homes any time soon.
Construction has started on about half a dozen houses since Christmas. Nearly 10 per cent of properties - mainly vacant lots - have been on the market in the past year.
Sikman keeps a close eye out for anyone passing by who might be willing to purchase and build on the lot next door to her home. ''I just feel unsafe with all the empty blocks,'' she says.
Around the corner, Pistofian, who bought a second lot next door to the home he built, is getting a front-row view of just how tough selling land has become in an area already swamped with supply.
''I was going to build on it and then rent it out or sell it. However, the market has come down dramatically, to the point where it just isn't feasible. People just aren't interested.''
It's a big change from the booming conditions that existed in 2009-10 when land values rose in the outer suburbs by nearly 30 per cent, according to industry estimates.
Point Cook Real Estate director Rob Sinni says some blocks in Esperance, which were originally offered for $160,000 to $215,000, were fetching more than $300,000 at the height of the market.
''The average price down there is probably now between $250,000 and $270,000, which is quite realistic when compared with the rest of Point Cook.''
But Sinni acknowledges that trying to sell homes surrounded by vacant blocks can be difficult.
''You will pay more for a block of land that was surrounded by good-quality houses than a block that wasn't. Because of that uncertainty I think there'd be fewer buyers, for sure, and that would certainly affect the outcome in terms of price.''
There were already more than 2600 homes on the market for sale in Point Cook in February, according to SQM Research. This figure does not include the hundreds of land allotments and house and land packages being offered by developers and builders in the area's new home estates.
Home owner Mary Anne, who asked to have her real name withheld, is already looking forward to a time when the market and the area improves so she can sell up and move on.
''I don't think we'll stay here past five years. Esperance was sold to us as a 'boutique' estate that would be all about 'community living'. We've been here for about 15 months and there's so much that still isn't done. It's an absolute mess,'' she says.
