Phase one of an ambitious new housing development in Steinbach will be completed within about one year. Construction of 67 new homes began in May in the Lexington Village subdivision along the south side of Mckenzie Avenue, just west of the Meadows. Waldo Neustaedter of Century 21 Gold Key Realty is one of the developers. He says they are on target for the last home to be inhabited by April.

"Lexington has been a huge success for the people of Steinbach. We had an offering of 67 homes and we sold out. People are moving in, there's one home turned over every three days and we think we'll have that project, the first phase of it, completed in the middle of April."

Neustaedter says they set up a program where people could purchase homes with as little as one per cent down. He adds people of all ages responded.

"It's just been really well received. People who never thought they'd save up enough deposit for a new home, it's all real to them now and they can actually own a brand new home."

Neustaedter says they are already working on plans for phase two.

"We're hoping to have an announcement perhaps as early as February 1st as far as the next phase goes. We're working really hard right now to get our pricing in line and to make sure that we can deliver the quality product that we are delivering for a price that's affordable for folks."

He adds the subdivision will eventually grow to about 320 homes and says it could fill up more quickly than they originally expected.

"We didn't know exactly how it was going to be received. We thought that we had studied the market well enough that we knew there was a need for folks to own new homes that were easy to get into. At first, we thought it was maybe a 12-year project. Maybe it's a little bit less, maybe we're looking at seven years or six years, I'm not quite sure at this point in time. But we're pretty optimistic that as long as there's demand and market for the consumer and the people like what we're putting together for them, that we'll be done a little earlier than we had anticipated."