Rosewood blooms

The NSW Department of Finance and Services reports that only four of 166 homes remain unsold at Rosewood Grove, formerly known as the Gordon Estate.

But getting a foothold in the suburb is still possible with 151 of 202 vacant blocks of land yet to be snapped up.

The department has provided a progress report on the transformation of the estate that the metropolitan media referred to as a ghetto after an alcohol-fuelled riot on New Year’s Eve 2005.

Television footage of about 100 people attacking police, setting fire to a police car and damaging homes shocked the nation and forced dramatic change.

The former state government enacted a controversial $52 million strategy to transform the estate dominated by public tenants.

It is understood about 1300 people were moved out of the estate as the government prepared to dispose of hundreds of properties.

In April last year the then NSW Housing Minister David Borger said the ambitious program had resulted in a marked decline in crime rates in the city while at the same time boosting affordable housing options.

This week a spokesman for the Department of Finance and Services was singing a similar tune when revealing that only four public dwellings at Rosewood Grove were still to be sold.

“The Rosewood Grove development has proved to be an unqualified success,” he said.

“There has been an overwhelming positive response from the local community as well as significant falls in crime levels across many important indicators.”

The spokesman said the project encompassed the disposal of 374 properties, including 166 upgraded dwellings and 202 vacant blocks.

“A further six properties were sold without upgrade,” the spokesman said.

Dwellings, which ranged in price from $95,000 to $160,000, were sold to individuals, many of them first-home owners.

The spokesman said each property carried a covenant requiring it to be owner-occupied and their release was timed to “avoid oversupply on the market, but also to maximise the return for the government”.

“The sale program has been extremely successful and only four properties remain unsold,” he said.

The spokesman declined to say how many houses had been bought or built for public tenants in Dubbo as a result of the sell-off.

“Revenue raised by the disposal of the properties will be reinvested in social housing in NSW,” he said.

Responsibility for the transformation of the estate has rested with The Land and Housing Corporation, until recently a division of Housing NSW.

It has been moved into the Department of Finance and Services in line with changes introduced by the new state government.