Stage 4 Ballot Application & Sales Process

Stage 4 Ballot Application & Sales Process 1

Community Garden Concept Plans and Pricing

The Ecovillage sales team has been very busy preparing for the pre-sales launch of Stage 4 (among other things). We’re excited to finally announce the publication of Stage 4 lot pricing and plans and invite you to take your time over the next few weeks, before our sales launch date, perusing our beautiful community garden concept plans. 

Stage 4 includes 46 lots (13 Cottage, 23 Family and 10 Groupie) across residential clusters 4A and 4B, as well as nine Residential / Short Stay lots in 4D (4C Short Stay lots are not for sale). 

Cluster 4A Plan and Pricing Cluster 4B Plan and Pricing 4D residential / short stay Plan and Pricing
What's included in a Stage 4 Ecovillage lot? Stage 4 drone video - 16 Feb 2022 Stage 4 site tours - events calendar

Stage 4 sales launch process

We will formally open Stage 4 for sale to the market on Wednesday, 18 May. After much deliberation, we have decided to simplify the Stage 4 sales process and make ALL LOTS available for sale through the ballot application process. This will make the process easier and fairer for everyone, especially where buyers list lot preferences across different clusters.

Please do not email us with your lot preferences before the launch date as we simply don’t have the resources for this additional administration and your preferences will not be recorded.

We want to ensure buyers are not rushed into these important decisions. So, from now until 18 May, prospective buyers have a few weeks to:

  • digest all the lot price information and discuss with family members
  • watch the drone video(s)
  • attend a guided walking site tour of Stage 4 in April and May (registration is a must)
  • talk to mortgage brokers or banks and seek finance pre-approval if necessary
  • decide on their lot preferences and best price offers BEFORE we open for lot sales.

Ballot application and bid process

ALL LOTS in Clusters 4A and 4B, and 4D Residential / Short Stay are part of a ONE WEEK ballot application window (18 – 25 May) in which we invite you to list your top three (up to six) lot preferences in order.

In addition, some lots have OFFERS FROM pricing, which means you need to nominate your best price offer when bidding on the lot. We believe the starting price on these lots represents good value for their exceptional attributes, especially considering the substantial cost increases we have borne across the civil construction works. 

On 18 May, we will send out a sales launch email to our database notifying prospective buyers that Stage 4 is now open for sale. You must have already registered your interest on our website to be on this database list. This email will include a link to the ballot application form on our website, which will clearly outline the process for listing your lot preferences and price bids where necessary. Applicants will receive an automatic confirmation receipt email from us of their successful application (if you don’t get this, make sure you check your junk mail before you contact us).

You will have ONE WEEK to submit your lot preferences and price bids before we begin our lot allocation process. The ballot will close on Wednesday, 25 May.

Bids and preferences in the Stage 4 ballot application process will open on Wednesday, 18 May and end at 4:00pm on Wednesday, 25 May.

All ballot applicants will be notified by phone or email within ONE WEEK as to the result of their lot application by Wednesday, 1 June. Please allow us this time to complete the lot allocation process before you follow up your application. We will continue to sell the balance of lots in Stage 4 after this time of course, but it won’t be through a ballot.

How will the WEV sales team allocate lots?

We want you to be thrilled with your lot and will do all we can to ensure a fair and equitable lot allocation process. The WEV sales team will make a discretionary decision based on:

  1. An applicant’s financial situation (e.g. cash offer and finance pre-approval will be favourably considered). All prospective buyers who need finance to purchase a lot are asked to provide a pre-approval letter from their preferred lending institution.
  2. The date of lot reservation (all ballot applications submitted within the first week will be considered equally.) 
  3. When an applicant registered their interest on the website, i.e. how long they’ve been following the Ecovillage project.
  4. An applicant’s personal background, aligned values and suitability for the Ecovillage.
  5. Any other factors we deem notable.

Finance pre-approval requirements

For buyers who need a loan to buy their lot, we will only reserve a lot once you can provide us with a finance pre-approval letter from your bank. Unfortunately, we’ve had to tighten our criteria as we cannot indefinitely reserve lots while waiting for buyers to organise their finances when we have such strong sales demand. So, if you are keen on a lot in Stage 4, we strongly advise you to proactively organise your finance pre-approval now in anticipation of the 18 May release date. Cash buyers and pre-approved finance buyers will be considered favourably when assigning lots.

Sales contract documentation

As per our normal sales process, once buyers have reserved a lot, you will receive an email with a link to a secure page of our website, which contains read-only versions of the Ecovillage sales contract, strata by-laws, strata levies and strata plan, among other documents.

You will have 7 days to read through all of this documentation before we require you to confirm your intentions and move to the contract signing phase. During this time, we welcome your questions and are happy to answer your emails or arrange a phone call, zoom or face to face meeting to ensure you are completely comfortable with the sales contract and understand everything you need to know about the Ecovillage.

You will need to engage a settlement agent to act on your behalf at this time. Our agent, Vicki Philipoff Settlements, is offering Ecovillage residents a special price and is very familiar with the project, making it a streamlined process if you choose to engage her office.

Once you give us the green light, we will send you the sales contract documentation via Docusign, which you will need to sign electronically. We prefer not to work with paper contracts as they complicate and slow the signing process, especially when working with remote parties as we must do. Once all parties have signed and the contract is completed, you will receive copies of the contract. We then ask that you deposit $5,000 into our Settlement Agent’s Trust Account to secure your Ecovillage lot.

Settlement of lots in Stage 4

Please remember this is a pre-sales process and Stage 4 lots do not yet have titles. Landgate cannot issue lot titles until Wormall has completed the civil works and we have achieved subdivision clearances from the likes of Western Power and the AMR Shire. There is a LOT of work that sits behind the achievement of this milestone.

Given the complicated nature of this process, we can only offer estimates of timing and at this stage predict Landgate will be in a position to issue titles for Stage 4 around Sept – Oct 2022. This process is not within our control, but we will keep you abreast of all progress during this time. Once titles are issued, it is typically 21 days until settlement.

Extended building timeframe

The Ecovillage building timeframe is in place to encourage the formation of community and ensure we’re not all living in an endless construction zone.

However, after extensive consultation within the WEV team and with prospective buyers, we have recently decided to extend the Ecovillage building timeframe for Stage 4 lots to FOUR years in an effort to address concerns about inflation, building costs, supply delays and availability of builders. Once your lot has settled, you will have three years to start building and a further year to complete your home, so four years in total. 

We’re delighted you’re interested in being part of the Witchcliffe Ecovillage and it is our privilege to help you create a beautiful and sustainable new life within our community.