Rhonda Bracey: At Random

We had some long-awaited good news the other day – one of the two blocks of land we put a deposit on last year is due to settle before the end of the month. The other will be some weeks yet as it's in a later stage of the development. The second one is the one we want to build on; the first to settle is an investment block. 

And what an investment it seems to have been! So far, we've only paid $500 deposit on each block, but both have increased in value tremendously since we paid those deposits in late September and mid-October last year. The investment block (0.75 acres) has a contracted purchase price of $85K; other blocks in that same stage of a similar size are now on the market for $140K+. The block we want to build on (1.1 acres) has had similar growth.

Settlement has been a long time coming – we were told the investment one would settle in January and the other in March. It's now mid-June and only now is the investment one close to settlement (i.e. we'll then own it!). I suspect it will be July or August before the other one settles, unless they've made more inroads into getting the infrastructure finished than I heard a few weeks ago. We really should go down there soon and check out the progress of the road building etc. and take a look at some of the new homes going up in the development…

Of course, settlement is all well and good – but now have to meet the increased loan payments…