VILLA WORLD'S VICTORIAN EXPANSION CONTINUES WITH $44 MILLION MELBOURNE LAND ACQUISITIONS

PROPERTY developers Villa World (ASX: VLW) has expanded its footprint in Victoria with $44 million in land acquisitions in Melbourne's north-west growth corridor.

The acquisitions are part of Villa World's "Precinct Structure Plans" for the Plumpton region which will create more than 500 lots targeted at first home buyers and owner-occupiers.

Villa World Managing Director and CEO Craig Treasure says the acquisitions are in line with the company's objective to grow its Victorian presence to match its Queensland holdings.

"Villa World has signalled that we are moving towards a 20/40/40 split which reflects the strength in the markets in Victoria and Queensland and our re-entry into the New South Wales market," says Treasure.

The Plumpton acquisition follows Villa World's successful $80 million capital raising in March to continue its five to six-year land restocking program.

"Following the success of our capital raising initiatives in March and April this year, we are very pleased to secure these sites as part of our strategic objective to increase land stocks in growth areas," says Treasure.

"Our growing pipeline supports our target of continuing to achieve cumulative average earnings per share growth of greater than 10 per cent per annum."

The Plumpton acquisitions join the recently launched Sienna Rise in the same area.

The Melbourne projects, in the affordable to mid-price range, will feature a mixture of house and land product as well as vacant home sites.

Settlement of one of the Plumpton sites will occur in July 2017, and the other in July 2019.

The company says the Plumpton projects will begin contributing to the group's profit in FY19.

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