Beachside living just months away as construction moves ahead at Hali in Dromana

For many Victorians, the Mornington Peninsula is where summers were spent: a simple beach house, a terrace for long afternoons and the water a short walk away. For a growing number, it is also where they want the next chapter of life to unfold, just without the upkeep of a big house and garden.

At Hali in Dromana, the wait is nearly over. Construction has been underway for about a year on Samuel Property’s community of 70 townhomes, directly opposite the foreshore and set among more than 5,000 sqm of shared green space, a short walk from the village’s cafes, restaurants and pier. Figurehead Construction is delivering the project, and the first residents are expected to move in from May 2027.

Darren Blair of Blair Property Group said interest has been strong among downsizers and rightsizers on the Peninsula and in Melbourne, along with families looking to make the coast their permanent home. What they share is a want for a genuine home rather than a compromise: room for guests and grandchildren, private space to entertain and far less to look after.

"People we're meeting aren't looking to compromise on lifestyle — they just want less upkeep and more time to enjoy where they live," Blair said.

"With Figurehead now building, it's also becoming much easier for buyers to picture that next chapter."

The near-two-hectare site gave Samuel Property room to deliver more than a row of beachside townhouses. Managing director Illan Samuel said the scale of the landholding mattered as much as its position.

"When we looked at this site, the opportunity was bigger than simply building homes opposite the beach," Samuel said.

"We wanted Hali to feel like a genuine neighbourhood, with generous open spaces and places for people to connect. Bringing together the foreshore, landscape and considered architecture was always at the heart of our vision for Hali."

The homes themselves take their cue from a style of holiday house long familiar on the Peninsula. Cera Stribley's design reinterprets the Peninsula's mid-century beach houses through simple rectilinear forms, exposed structure, deep eaves and generous glazing, finished in creams, beiges and soft browns drawn from the coast.

"Our goal was to pay homage to the iconic mid-60s design aesthetic of the Mornington Peninsula," Cera Stribley managing principal Dom Cerantonio said. "We've reimagined post-modern architecture, creating a timeless, contemporary living experience."

Where the originals were built for summer weekends, these are designed to be lived in all year. Light-filled layouts are balanced with privacy, floorplans are intended to adapt as households change, and balconies and rooftop terraces look out toward the bay. Two-, three- and four-bedroom homes are available.

Giving up a big garden doesn’t have to mean giving up green space, and the landscape at Hali is designed with that in mind. Rather than each home carrying its own big block, Tract has woven that green space through the community around a “Seaside Commons” concept.

At its centre, lawns and mature trees shade a communal barbecue area and a nature-based playground. A community garden with raised planters gives residents who still want to grow their own produce the space to do it, and a quieter pocket park is set around a large existing tree. Native indigenous planting runs throughout, chosen to suit the local climate and keep maintenance low, while each home has private outdoor space.

The homes are all-electric, achieve an average 7-star NatHERS energy rating and include provision for EV charging, with rainwater harvested for toilet flushing and irrigation.

Selected residences can be personalised, and homes start from $995,000. The display suite is open in Dromana, and for buyers who have long pictured the beach across the road and parkland at their door, moving in is now only months away.