In 1932, 35 year old Albert Victor Jennings was an experienced real estate agent working at his brother-in-law's agency in the growing suburb of Glenhuntly. At that time, there were no new homes to sell as construction had stopped due to the Depression and many building industry workers were without jobs. In an effort to create work for himself, Jennings mortgaged his own Glenhuntly home and contents and raised a £700 overdraft to start his own homebuilding business. This was enough to pay wages but not enough to finance the building of homes, so Jennings decided to pre-sell homes from architect prepared plans instead of the traditional builder's approach of building and then selling. The decision proved to be a corner stone of Jennings' later sales policies.

Working with architect Edgar Gurney and builder William Vine, A.V. Jennings established a company that continues to build houses across Australia. Jenning's house building philosophy was premised on a tradition of solidity, homeliness and value for money.

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