HUNTER VALLEY TO GET FIRST NEW ULTRA-LUXURY RESORT IN 20 YEARS
A new 65-villa luxury resort complete with a longevity spa, vineyard villas and major Gillie & Marc art collection is coming to the Hunter Valley in 2027.
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A major new luxury resort development is set to reshape the Hunter Valley’s high-end tourism offering, with HVL Hotels unveiling plans for Laval Hunter Valley, a 65-villa resort opening in Pokolbin in 2027.
Positioned on the historic 165-acre Lindeman Estate site, Laval is being described as the first new-build luxury resort of its scale in the Hunter Valley in two decades.
The project is expected to generate about $49 million annually in economic activity while supporting up to 479 jobs across construction and ongoing operations.
HVL Hotels Managing Director Dominic Lambrinos said the development aimed to create a new benchmark for regional luxury tourism.
“Laval is more than the answer to a longstanding gap in the Hunter Valley’s luxury accommodation segment,” he said.
“It represents an ambition to do something that hasn’t been done before, on the most magical piece of land within the valley.”
The resort will feature 65 pavilion-style villas positioned throughout a working vineyard landscape, including a Wabi Sabi-inspired Presidential Villa designed by Tonkin Zulaikha Greer. Architecture will be led by EJE Architects, with interiors by Some Studio.
The development will also include a private helicopter landing facility, a 25-metre red-tiled pool overlooking Shiraz vines, landscaped meditation meadows, sensory gardens and a major ecological regeneration program involving more than 21,000 plants and 6,782 vines.
One of the resort’s defining features will be its art program, anchored by one of the world’s largest collections of Gillie & Marc sculptures. The collection will include 13 large-scale outdoor works alongside more than 130 in-room and digital pieces integrated throughout the property.
Food and beverage offerings will be led by chef Justin North, with signature restaurant Vallery drawing inspiration from Provence, coastal Spain, southern Italy and Japan. Poolside venue La Vida and a central lobby bar will round out the culinary offering.
A 10,000-bottle cellar and 1,000-label wine list curated by Jon Osbeiston will focus on Hunter Valley heritage alongside international producers.
Wellness will form another key component of the resort, with the two-level Veraia Spa spanning 1,000 square metres and offering 15 treatment rooms, thermal circuits and longevity-focused therapies.
The Hunter Valley project is scheduled to open in the second half of 2027.
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The US housing market remains under pressure as high mortgage rates continue to weigh on affordability and demand. Industry leaders say 2026 has been one of the toughest years for home sales, with slower price growth, weaker mortgage activity, and fewer buyers entering the market. However, experts say reduced competition and more price cuts could create opportunities for well-prepared buyers.
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The typically busy spring season for the housing market was a dud, and the summer isn’t looking much brighter.
Housing services companies like Zillow Group and Rocket RKT +3.78% were loud and clear last week on earnings calls: Rocket CEO Varun Krishna called the quarter through June “one of the toughest spring housing markets in years.”
Jeremy Hofmann, Zillow’s chief financial officer, said on a conference call that the company predicted earlier this year that the market for mortgages would be flat. “We actually now think it’s going to be down low-to-mid-single digits,” he said.
The rest of 2026 will remain challenging for mortgage origination volume, says KBW analyst Bose George. The question now is what happens in 2027. “If mortgage rates remain [around] 6.75%, I think that’s going to be challenging even for next year,” he says.
But what’s bad news for mortgage companies could be a positive for bargain hunters. Buyers can expect prices to grow more slowly—or mildly decline—with less competition as long as mortgage rates remain unpredictable.
Mortgage rates at the beginning of the year were solidly below year-ago levels, notes Zillow senior economist Kara Ng. But they surpassed last year’s levels recently, she adds, referencing Freddie Mac’s weekly survey of 30-year fixed mortgage rates. Last week’s reading, at 6.69%, was higher than year-ago levels for the first time in 2026.
“From the affordability point of view, it’s going to get more challenging in the second half of the year,” she says. “And when affordability gets more challenging, that impacts sales and home price appreciation.”
Mortgage application data tracked by the Mortgage Bankers Association has cooled since the beginning of the year. The trade group expects that the number of mortgage originations in the remaining two quarters will lag behind last year’s levels, after exceeding 2025 levels in the first half.
Rocket’s early-stage data—which the company told Barron’s it derives from its brokerage Redfin, demand for its mortgage products, and signs in its servicing portfolio that a homeowner is preparing to refinance or move—“leads us to expect the third quarter mortgage market to be smaller than the second,” Chief Financial Officer Brian Brown, said on the company’s call. He added that such an occurrence is “something the industry has not seen since 2022.”
Prices will be about flat nationally, Ng says. Zillow’s most recent forecast, which shows how values are expected to change in the year ending June 2027, show them dropping in roughly half of the 100 largest U.S. metros for which data is available.
Buyers aren’t rushing in at a time when mortgage costs are rising and unpredictable. But those with the right combination of patience and cash could stand to benefit. “If you are financially qualified to buy a starter home, you are facing less competition and you’re more likely to get a price cut,” Ng says.
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