It’s all good

Firstly, Happy Birthday to our web mistress and BIG thanks for the generous and competent work you do Marg.

The land at Narara is so beautiful. Last week we took a group of people on a walk from the entrance of the research institute, past the various buildings (where residents and friends will live and stay one day, where we can run enterprises and playgroups, have our cappuccinos and fresh juices, do our yoga and gym); above the creek flats (where our organic food can be grown); past the 45 megalitre dam (where we can swim, kayak, irrigate); into the adjacent rainforest (where we can sit in contemplation, listening to the bell birds and in awe of the giant heritage trees or jog on the paths through the dense woods); across the ancient tree trunk that fortuitously fell, forming a perfect footbridge across the creek or over the swinging bridge deeper into the rain forest.

Ohhh, Ahhh, Mmmm were just some of the reactions we heard.

I was talking to a friend last week who is doing a development comprising a block of flats.

He said that the bank now require 30 - 40% presales before they will even look to providing loan funds for a development whereas this time last year this was not a pre-requisite.

Kind of funny in these ‘tough’ economic times to feel more and more confident that with patience and perseverance, we will be the next custodians of this amazing land and involved in the development of a world-class ecovillage at Narara.

We are hopeful that the DPI’s new valuation will be lower. Also last year we were fearful that another developer would sail in, negotiate a higher price and win the land. However now we are hearing more and more that developers need presales - enter SCEV with around 500 people on our database.

We don’t know from that database just who will emerge as investors or potential residents as yet but all I can imagine is that many developers would be very interested in our project. Then let them show us their values, ethics and enthusiasm for the project and we will see if we can work together to take forward a true and holistic sustainable development.

Hmmmm, I like this feeling of confidence.