Plans for a new over 50s village have started following the purchase of the caravan park on Green Point Road, Pambula by Hampshire Property Group, which owns the adjacent, Acacia Ponds retirement village.
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Managers of Acacia Ponds Vicki and David Lee are also managing the new site, Merimbula Lake Village.
Mr Lee said there was a lot of work to be done before even submitting plans for approval.
Merimbula Lake Village is about 15 acres and already has a number of existing residential sites which will be incorporated into the overall plan for the new village. It also has holiday sites and an amenities block.
Mr Lee explained the first task was to get off the in-house sewerage system and hooked up to town sewerage - something he said which was likely to cost "a six-figure sum".
The company has put a draft proposal into council and there is talk of having up to 200 properties on the Merimbula Lake site - Acacia Ponds currently has 98 sites.
"The plan is to have affordable housing for the over 50s. Properties will be similar to the latest Acacia Ponds' homes with the bulk two or three bedrooms - that's what selling - with two bathrooms," Mr Lee said.
He said the quality of demountable properties had increased significantly in the last couple of years.
"It's somewhere where people approaching retirement can go on holiday with large car ports or storage for caravans so that when they do stop working, they can move in and also take off in their caravans knowing that they are in a gated community and their property is safe," he said.
However Mr Lee was adamant that holiday site rentals would continue for quite a while, adding that they were popular and provided on-going revenue for the business.
And while there are some big projects to be tackled at Merimbula Lake Village, it is reasonable to expect that Hampshire Property Group would want to see site development start promptly, once those projects have been completed.
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