Public demand to be part of Bright’s largest residential development in decades is showing no signs of slowing, with Bright Valley Development revealing it has completely sold out the 78 lots of stages one and two, and has more than 2200 people on the waiting list for future stages.

Stage three of the development - comprising a 53 lot subdivision on 2.25 hectares of land adjoining the Great Alpine Road on the western entrance to town - received planning approval at last week’s Alpine Shire Council meeting.

All councillors, except Cr Jean-Pierre Ronco who abstained from voting, endorsed the next stage which will see roughly 17 lots per hectare, ranging from 198sqm to over 632sqm, with the majority (89 per cent) between 300sqm and 600sqm.

Developer Will Deague, who attended the council meeting, said he expected to start selling stage three lots in the second quarter of next year.

He said demand was incredible, with 2200 people on the waiting list from all over Victoria, NSW and Canberra.

Mr Deague said the mix of sales in stages one and two had been very pleasing, reflecting the desire for a large percentage of owner/occupiers.

“It’s been 60/40 split of owner/occupiers and investors, and of the investors a lot plan to use them as holiday houses and lease them out when they are not there, or plan on retiring there,” he said.

“A lot of owners, if not all of them, have gone for a lot of the extras, like stone work on the outside of the houses.

“About 20 per cent of sales are to existing residents of Bright looking at more downsizing than upsizing.”

Mr Deague said all civil works on the development are expected to be completed by the end of this year, and they will hopefully pour the first slab in late January or February next year, with the first house settling in July next year.

“We’ve been delayed a little bit due to weather, complexities of the intersection (with Great Alpine Road), and the controversy around the two large trees which were removed last Friday, with the other three smaller trees that were going to be relocated on to our property are now going to be relocated on to council land down near the splash park,” he said.

“The civil works involved in this first stage also incorporate the wetlands - which is where all the storm water goes - and the wetlands then has to go under the Great Alpine Road through an outfall drain down to the river.

“We are working with VicRoads at the moment to hopefully close the Great Alpine Road for three days in late October to do intersection work and the outfall drain.”

Mr Deague said there will be a price increase for stage three lots.

He said they are planning on smaller, more affordable products for stage four to meet buyer demand, as there “is not as much demand for $2m two storey houses, but probably more the three bedroom $1.25m houses”.

Mr Deague said the company was also introducing furniture packs so buyers could have their homes completely furnished and fitted out, ready to move in.

He said while the demand for blocks was huge, the company didn’t want sales to get too ahead of the construction program.

He said permits for stage four of the seven stage development were likely to be lodged with council early next year, with two of the remaining stages on the lower section of land and two more stages on the upper tier, where larger lot sizes will be offered.

Mr Deague said he anticipated all seven stages would happen within another five years.

“We’ve dealt with a lot of the development issues over past four years, such as the entrance, trees, CFA, flooding, and all those initial infrastructure works,” he said

“The biggest issue ahead of us now is North East Water only have enough sewage capacity for 135 connections.

“They are not bringing on more capacity until 2029, so we are working with them to come up with a solution for that gap while we wait for 2029.

“We expect we’ll eat up 135 connections within the next two years and there might be a period of time that 100 houses need connections so we will need to come up with temporary solution while NEW do an upgrade to the sewage treatment plant.

“There is not a problem of sewage going in to the plant but it’s the class four water going out.”

Mr Deague said some of the treated water could be used within the development for things like summer dust mitigation and nature strips.

“We’re very proud and excited by this whole development,” he said.

“What we really envisaged from the start about building out every house and keeping the architectural integrity of the estate very much like a Queenstown product is coming to fruition and we’re making sure they get that extra bit of luxury.”

Mr Deague said the $4 million to deliver the central monocline open space as part of stage one is going to be one of the best community facilities in the country in an estate like this, with barbecue areas, amphitheatre areas, playgrounds and dog parks.