One title
Nothing is ever sold off
The company holds the land and building on one title, for generations. No strata, no unit sold.
03 · The city village · Young Street, Crestwood, Queanbeyan
Young Street
Seventy four homes have stood here since 2012. The last part of the site is where the whole Sun Villages model gets built: no bank, no developer's margin, nothing ever sold.
A New Way to Own a Home Near Canberra · 2 min · Watch on YouTube
The place
Forty five years on one piece of ground
At Christmas 1980 Stina found two and a half acres on the New South Wales side of the border, close to Canberra. A group of thirteen secured it. Stina and Garry married on the site in October 1981 and moved in the following February.
It was once earmarked as the home of the Permaculture Institute, with Bill Mollison a regular visitor. In the early nineties its Friday evening markets ran one of Australia's first local exchange systems. Garry project managed the first two stages: seventy four apartments and townhouses, finished in 2012 and lived in ever since.
The remaining land sits beside an old railway line, so its outlook will not be built out, and a bike path runs to Canberra along one boundary.
How the village works
Held, not sold
No debt
No bank, no foreclosure
The company's constitution prohibits borrowing and security over the land. Changing that needs a 75 per cent vote of shareholders.
The lease
A home you cannot be evicted from
Residents hold shares and a 99 year lease with a 99 year option, with the rights of an owner. The lease fee rises with wages, not the rental market.
The Commons
A village heart
A cafe, workshop barn, library, gardens and storage, run by a not for profit so every surplus makes living there cheaper.
The ledger
Time counts too
Neighbours trade hours of help on the village exchange, and trades who build it can take part of their pay in shares, certified first.
Every age
Spaces that grow and shrink
Homes that expand and contract with life, so nobody has to leave the people they know.
The path being worked through with shareholders
Fund the stage, not the building
- 1 · The hub forecourtThe space in front of the existing hub, used now: weekly sessions and a community forming on site while the rest is planned.
- 2 · The car parkBuilt early to remove the largest cost risk, and doubling as hard stand for markets and film nights.
- 3 · S block and the CommonsThe first homes, and the village heart: cafe, workshop barn, library, gardens and storage.
- 4 · G blockThe larger residential building, raised separately once the first is built and lived in.
This is the directors' working proposal. Shareholders will see a fully documented proposal and vote on it before anything is committed to construction.
Films
Young Street, on film
The House That Breathes
5 min · A new way to own a home in Queanbeyan and the Canberra Basin.
An Ordinary Tuesday
10 min · What a house costs when the neighbours own the building.
A Village Where the Money Never Leaves
7 min · How money circulates inside the village instead of draining out.
I Am Not Built Yet
Short · A different way to own a home in Queanbeyan, in the village's own voice.
Where we honestly are
Done, under way, not yet
Done
- Seventy four homes built and lived in
- A development consent granted for the remaining land
- Audited reports for 2023 and 2024 received by shareholders
- Share register rebuilt and reconciled
- Story of Place research across the Canberra Basin
Under way
- Confirming the consent's status, the lot details and the scheme with Council
- The 2025 audit and annual general meeting
- Solicitor's advice on any future share offer
- Friday community sessions and site mornings
Not yet
- A quantity surveyor's cost plan
- A sworn valuation
- A construction certificate
- Any offer of shares
- A shareholder vote to build
Not an offer. Shares in Sun Villages (Queanbeyan) Ltd are not being offered. When an offer is made it will be through formal documents, to people who ask. If you would like to hear when that happens, or come to a site morning, email support@sunvillages.com.au.
Sources
- Stina Kerans, Can't Buy Property?, 2021 (site history, 1980 to 2014).
- Stina Kerans, speaker biography, May 2026 (Permaculture Institute, Bill Mollison).
- Canberra Times, Vision for retirement living alternative with village at its heart, 17 July 2024, branded content.
- Michael McElligott, Sun Villages Institute LETS system, Substack, 20 October 2026.
- Sun Villages films, youtube.com/@MichaelMcelligott-LivingPlaces.
The background picture on this page is an illustration of the village idea, not a photograph of Young Street.