Alkababba

to get to Melbourne by train means changing trains at werribee and waiting another 30 minutes, try 1.5-2 hours getting to Melbourne, parks are run down and vandalised, local council do not maintain well, bus to geelong once an hour.

Lived here since buying a new unit in 2010 in Norlane West, and to be frank, it's an ideal place to live. Very quiet this side of the suburb, and when you look at it, there are so many advantages to living here.

We have the cheapest fuel in the state thanks to having the Apco head office just down Thompson Rd, we have local shops in Donnybrook Rd that have great pizza in particular, we're just a couple of minutes from Corio Village or Bellpost shopping centre, and genuinely about 10 minutes to Geelong city.

Where else can infrastructure like this be available for the sort of prices houses are here? It's much faster getting around in the Northern suburbs than say Belmont or Highton due to all the main arterial roads being four lanes...namely Anakie Rd, Thompson Rd, Cox Rd, Station St and Bacchus Marsh Rd. Travel is a breeze here. There is no need to change trains at Werribee unless you need a met train to a western suburb of Melbourne, generally the trains that stop at North Shore or Corio will also stop at Werribee anyway en route to Melbourne.

And yes, to Melbourne, it's maybe 45-50 minutes by car to the Charles Grimes interchange (mind you, barring the regular Melbourne traffic jams). But it's also just a quiet friendly neighborhood here. Not an issue in the world, and indeed this is the only place in the last 15 years or so that i have yet to have something be damaged on my car!

I highly recommend Norlane as a place for first home buyers, with the New Norlane housing project coming on stream, you can get a house for under $240K...and unlike the far-flung new suburbs of outer melbourne areas, you've got everything here. That's the thing....it's one thing to move into an new estate, but many of them have woefully inefficient roads and public transport. I drove taxis in Geelong for over 10 years, and the Northern suburbs are just so easy to get around. It's really a great place to live, and despite the reports and indeed there are a few examples of ferals here and there, but to be frank you can get them anywhere. If you are polite to people, they will respect you in any case. But why try and pay $400K or more for somewhere in a daraway Melbourne suburb when right here, you can live in a regional city, be close to everything that matters, for 60% of the price.

"Where else can infrastructure like this be available for the sort of prices houses are here?"
You obviously haven't had a look at the LaTrobe Valley. Ex-commission houses (VERY sound but poorly laid-out) can still be bought from below $100k up to about $130k ~ though recent ASKING-prices have been a bit cheeky. A 12%-15% discount is pretty-well automatic, and rental returns run at about 8%-12%
I'm currently sitting behind a 4.5 x meter-wide window with the sun streaming through it, looking at 60km views across the town and Lake Narracan and up to Mt BawBaw.
It's a solid 4-bedroom house, extended front and back near the top of the hill, with 60-yo gardens which I prefer to leave overgrown (rhodies, assorted fruit-trees, stone terraces, etc. (can't see the house from the footpath 10 metres away!)
I won't go on (andonandonandon!)
Point was it cost me $84k in 2009 ~ and, tarted up, would carry a price-tag of about $135k today.
In fact I'd sell it for that price UNtarted- up if you're in the market.

This is a fantastic read. Thanks people.

Mmm morons or opportunistic creeps waiting to pounce!!!

loved the comment cant see from the street first alarm bell telling us to KEEP AWAY FROM THE AREA!!!! Thanks for your masked up diversion!!!!!

The impact of COVID 19 has seen many people rethink whether living in Metropolitan Melbourne is necessarily a wise choice. Many people are looking to regional areas and I believe that this will give places like Norlane an incredible boost as many young families make the shift. I feel that it is only a matter of time before Norlane booms. Stay safe everyone.

Well, i made my comment in 2014, and i remain here in 2021. Happy with my place, my street and it's still nice and handy to all the shops i need and my workplace too. I just get annoyed by the council's penchant for putting speed humps everywhere (namely The Boulevard, especially on Donnybrook Rd, and also on Sparks Rd and Bellnore Drive). I mean I've noticed how congested traffic is now in suburbs like Newcomb, St.Albans Park and also South of the river....Norlane and Corio stisll have many dual-laned carriageways that handle the traffic much better than other parts of Geelong. House values have risen too which is nice for me, and funnily enough since Covid, many other areas of Geelong have risen by a fair bit more. So Norlane now is starting to have that value aspect like it did in the early-mid 2010's. I'll only pretty much move out from here if i'm horizontal that's for sure.