Extensive consultation with prospective buyers of a new development in Clifton Hill, 122 Roseneath St, has contributed to 53 of the 65 apartments and townhouses selling on the first day, including seven of the developers buying into the project.

Potential buyers were involved at key stages of the design process, leading to a reduction in the total number of townhouses, increases in setbacks, and changing the location of the multipurpose communal room from the fifth floor to the ground floor so it was more accessible and to provide a better connection with the gardens and landscaping.

Owners also requested that cooking, dining, entertaining, an edible garden, and leisure activites, such as yoga, we given priority in the garden spaces, and this has been specifically factored into the design. Owner feedback also contributed to the project including an embedded energy network, changes to the car-parking allocation, and the floorplans of the two-bedroom apartments.

Owners have also provided guidance about the types of retail tenants they'd like to see on the ground floor.

So successful has been the development that seven members of the development teams, Wulff Projects Icon Co and Assemble, have bought homes at 122 Roseneath St. For some of them, it is their first home. All three directors of Assemble – Quino Holland, Ben Keck and Pino Demaio – purchased a home in the development.

The aim of the project is to create affordable homes, in a diverse and engaged community in the desirable inner-city suburb of Clifton Hill, where the median house price is now $1.161 million (Domain).

An unusually high proportion, 96%, of purchasers at 122 Roseneath St. are owner-occupiers, and the developers estimate that 40% of all purchasers were first-home buyers and that 38% came from Clifton Hill or surrounding suburbs.

“Selling almost all the available dwellings is an unprecedented result for an off-the-plan development that has attracted 96% local owner-occupiers,” said real estate agent Roland Paterson of Nelson Alexander.

“The highlight of Saturday’s sales day was getting to meet our new neighbours. A diverse but like-minded community of people has been attracted to the project,” said Demaio.

“With the multi-residential market becoming increasingly competitive and sophisticated, it’s great to see these innovative approaches gaining traction and success,” Icon Co founding director Ashley Murdoch said.

Melina Chan, who works in community development, says she has bought at 122 Roseneath St. because she enjoyed the community aspect. “Having spent the first years of my life in regional Malaysia, I suppose ‘village living’ is in my roots… Returning to Melbourne in 2013, I’ve been really interested in what the future of housing and particularly medium-density living will evolve into,” said Chan.

“I’ve been investigating cooperative housing, tiny home living, and even looking into forming my own cooperative to form an intentional residential community, and I fell in love with 122 Roseneath’s vision, design and practice of engaging its stakeholders,” she said.

Marion Arnott purchased a townhouse at 122 Roseneath St. because its rooftop deck and outdoor area provides enough space for her and her three sons. “Not everyone wanted the same things as me but that’s the whole point – to respect the wishes of the whole community,” Arnott said.

Arnott says 122 Roseneath St. was an affordable option in the suburb where her three boys attend Spensley Street Primary School. “This area has taught me the definition of community,” she says.

Downsizers, Pam and Ray Walford, said they were attracted to the aspects of “small-footprint living, the location and the prospect of a diverse community.

"The location is closer to where our two sons live than where we presently live, and close to major bicycle trails,” Ray Walford said. He and his wife purchased a two-bedroom apartment.

There are still 10 homes available at 122 Roseneath St, including two one-bedroom apartments and eight townhouses.

Read more: 

A call for better quality apartments 

Community-focused design 

Get to know Dominic Gibson of Melbourne Acquisitions