Valley Estate enters Phase 5: Still making your dreams a reality
For many young professionals, the primary goal of home ownership is little more than a dream. Today’s economic climate may seem like an insurmountable obstacle to achieving that important milestone in adulthood. But the dream is within reach, thanks to Valley Estate and their reasonable lease purchase agreements.
Over the past seven years, the housing experts at ICE (Independent Consulting Engineers) are doing all they can to make family home-owning easy, affordable, attractive and secure. The lots in the Valley Estate subdivision, located on the gentle slopes of the hill above the Ebenezer area, are selling at a good rate. The typical buyer is a teacher, a small business owner, a professional worker in medical service, telecommunications or government. Some are near retirement; some are just starting out as newlyweds. Some families are buying land in Valley Estate to someday give to their children or grandchildren. Others just want to make a real estate investment.
The area is near schools, churches, shopping and bus routes. The roads within the gated community are wide, with flowering bushes and lights along the verge. Entrance to Valley Estate Subdivision is protected by a security system with code-operated barriers, and an extensive camera protection system registering all movements in and out of the Estate. Since the system has been started up more than three years ago, burglaries have been virtually non-existent inside the development.
Valley Estate developers offer lots with all the utilities ready for hook up, including electricity, water, Cable TV and telephone. There are several design options from which homes may be built, and modifications are possible or the buyers can choose to build entirely with their own architect, providing the design adheres to the regulations of the Valley Estate subdivision.
Many opt for a package deal, where lots are offered for sale with complete construction plans and building permit included in the sales price! Project Manager Jan Vanden Eynde says the company wants to take the stress out of getting started. “We can sell land with the building plans and building permits already approved,” he explained. “We have noticed that people sometimes get caught in a vicious cycle. They want to buy a piece of land, so first they need an appraisal. They also want to have bank financing to build their house.” Vanden Eynde knows that the banks generally require building plans and permits in place before the financing is approved. “Then they need an architect to create plans, which will cost a few thousand dollars, and it can take several months. Only at that point can they get the appraisal done on what they want to build, and then they would go back to the banks for the financing.” On occasion, the desired piece of land is already sold to others before the financing can be in place, which means they have to start all over again. Vanden Eynde hopes to help people avoid all that: “We want to make it easy for people.”
The easy way is to start purchase of the land using the lease-purchase payment schedule (for which no large deposits are required) to secure the purchase of the land, start paying off the land and in the meantime arrange building plans and permit (if a lot with plans and permit already available was not taken) and arrange financing with a bank to start construction of their dream house.
The Valley Estate team has a keen awareness of what people need and want, as they have been through the process so many times, after successes such as Almond Grove and Valley Estates Phases 1, 2 & 3. The great news is they are willing to gently guide you through every step of the process.
As they enter into the Phase 5 portion of the development, the emphasis continues to be affordable quality, engineered with proper drainage, dedicated green spaces, maintained roadside landscaping, secure entry/exit and enforced building codes. Phase 5 is higher on the hillside and offers ocean views to the southwest, with Saba in the distance. This development, called Valley Heights, has its own secure entrance, home owners association and larger lots than the other sections, allowing for multi-family dwellings, townhouse or small apartment buildings to be built. Even these larger lots are priced to be affordable: starting at US $ 125,000 for 1,500 square meters.
There are plenty of lots still available in the earlier phases of the Valley Estates development. In the Phase 3 section, the infrastructure has been complete since the middle of last year, with 42 new lots, of which 16 have been sold. The Phase 3 sub-section, called Valley Estate Cottages, consisting of 10 lots of sizes from 501 to 1,050 square metres, became available only weeks ago. Each lot comes with an approved building permit and complete construction plans for a 2-bed/2-bath house with a studio apartment attached. It’s a design that can easily be modified and gives room for expansion. Cottage lots are priced from $79,000 to $95,000.
Another section, Valley Estate Villas, offers two different designs. Both designs are for two-storey villas with balconies and the possibility of a swimming pool. The living space measures 176.4 square metres in the villas. These Valley Estate Villas are designed on a section where the lots, with building plans included, go for $85,000 to $98,000. The budget for building the villas at this time is estimated to be about $250,000, without the pool, based upon what clients have recently been quoted.
The homeowners associations are overseen by ICE which requires a monthly fee of $70 for the phase 1, 2, 3 sections, and $100 for the Valley Heights section, to maintain the security, green areas and infrastructure within the subdivision. The homeowners association is also an organization that will protect residents’ rights and will function as an overseer of future projects, verifying construction plans on conformity with the rules of the subdivision, and act against problems such as blockages of view, septic run-off, dumping of building materials or other infringements.
Valley Estate is located in the Ebenezer area, on the east side of Dutch Cul de Sac. One can access the subdivision by turning right directly across from the St. Dominic High School gate, and following the road until the Valley Estate Sign and entrance are seen to the right side of the road. For more information, contact Independent Consulting Engineers at 542-2421 or send e-mail to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
