In the next 6-12 months, I would like buy a house to knock down and rebuild.
Are there any builders here who can provide advice with costs? And just answer some general questions I have.
I have not done this before. I have done some Google research however I'm hoping for more specific answers.
Note this is Western Sydney (40KM from CBD)
TIA
7 years..crazy. With no moving parts, i expect a house that i build to last at least 30-40 years structurally. 7 years is what ppl spend $20k on cars for, not 400k
1 moving part, the earth below the house!
You are correct, that is the earth below, the sample of soil taken by an contractor said that the soil is reactive clay class H1, that mean depend on condition wet or dry … thing can move up to 40-50 mm, that will cause wall crack on wall or ceiling.
A few colleagues have done this. Judging by their response and experience it's a nightmare. Cost is one thing, but the endless amount of defects and coordinating and keeping up with whichever builder you're dealing with will shorten your life by 3 yrs. I think the time and stress is a cost factor you need to put into it. Most builders don't care for quality, and even if they are caught the amount of chasing, threatening to go to x to report them would just make you lose faith.
That's why you engage a builder (a glorified project manager) to do it all for you. Let them do the hard yards and stressful work. (I recall my builder absolutely cracking the shits on the phone to his roofing company as to the delays, saved me the stress).
imagine if you werent there would he be still cracking the shits or cracking jokes?
I don't know, if a company you employed dicked you around making you look like shit / risk delaying your cash flow, would you?
rebuilding on your own is costly… if you need to knock down rebuild - just find a display home that you like and get them to build it - don't modify the display home… its the best cheapest way forward
good luck - in this climate it would be easy to find a builder who is not busy
Very interesting that so many people seem to have had such bad experiences. I wonder if this is purely knockdown-rebuild or new home builds as a whole. I cant see why they would be any different, except at the initial design/planning stage where a KDRB will take a bit longer, and of course the demo costs.
Anyway, we are trying to forward plan at the moment - thinking what we want our house to look like in 7-10 years. Only have a 3 bed/1 bath atm, and will need a 4bed/2 bath in the future. An extension would be great, but everyone i heard from says it will always cost $200k+ and really, it isnt THAT much more to go something brand new. I was hoping that a decent 28 odd square single storey might be around $350-400k (we are in melbournes east and have a flat block) but i understand it can be "how long is a piece of string".
Most people that I hear of who have bad experiences go in with their eyes closed and think they can just rely on and trust the builder to do the right thing
'eyes closed and think they can just rely on and trust the builder'
standard TV ACA bleeding heart story -
'I trusted that nice man in a suit - how come he took all my money … ?'
I been through this process from start to finish, including designing the house myself on an A4 piece of paper / getting the architect to put it into CAD. The more effort you spend on the process/getting involved the better the outcome.
If you expect to sign the contract with the builder and come back in 6 months to a perfect house, then you're dreaming.
Why bad experiences?
Once i saw a couple of tradesies piss in few bottles and put them on the frontyard, i think because the owner gave them water to drink than coke/beer (something like that anyway).
Just realise these are the same people building your dream house….
could have been worse….could have been burying asbestos under your new front lawn.
Whats a little urine between friends? As long as the frame is strong and the checks on the slab accurate
if you want to profit from this idea that many regard as risky and possibly foolhardy if you don't have building experience, then look for a big block that you could build multiple dwellings on - at least one at the back and front - and check council views on such BEFORE you buy.
if you just imagine you are gonna get your dream home for cheaper than otherwise - then a world of pain (what's the name we give to our mistakes? EXPERIENCE !) awaits …
What do you mean by checking council views? And where can I find up more information on that? Cheers.
I wanna build a snowman
Be VERY careful. It has been in the news that new house construction will be down massively over the next twelve months. I think the figure floated was around 50% reduction in new houses being built.
This will mean that many builders will go bankrupt. So you need to work out what would happen to you if you have paid for all or a significant part of your house and your builder goes belly up.
Also it seems quality is very questionable for many builders. You can read reviews on the usual review sites.
You would probably be better off buying an existing place in about 6 months. Prices will fall a bit as our migration numbers drop to basically zero as no international flights are allowed. Immigration is a major driver of house prices. Also there is a glut of rentals now as international students etc are not here. Might be some fire sales as investors sell rather than paying a mortgage with zero rent.
Once i saw a couple of tradesies piss in few bottles and put them on the frontyard, i think because the owner gave them water to drink than coke/beer (something like that anyway).
Just realise these are the same people building your dream home….
Having done 2 knock-down rebuilds in the last 10 years, I would definitely steer clear of the smaller builders. You need to know what you are doing.
Instead go with one of the Masterton/Clarendon/Edenbrae home world type builders. They will stand by the product and have very regimented processes where nothing gets forgotten and every question asked.
In Sydney, a pretty standard single level home on level block will leave you no change from 350K. Add another 100-150K for double-storey. And that is for brick-veneer - standard finish.
Not including driveway or gardening/landscaping.
Just be careful and go in with all eyes open. Read the homeone forum - I found this invaluable.
If you know what you are doing, and you know the building industry you can be home owner builder, like a few house next to me, owner have a big concrete pumper truck, he know where to get concrete , where to get brick layer ..because everyday he deal with them, If you don't know you will get rip off every time and the job not done well if you don't pay them enough, Masterton is expensive ( for house build 500K, a private builder can do it for 20-30K less for the same house ) but give you piece of mind, because they know how to organize thing, they have there contractors , and they offer warranty only 7 years structural, the home owner builder there contractors they will ignore your call if something wrong and sometime legal take 1 or more years to settle. lot of headache .
I don't necessarily agree, and I guess it depends where you build.
I've had builds done in Lindfield and East Ryde, and both had no builds around them, so no leveraging trades that were close by or anything like that.
We did observe a house-build next door to us, and this cost over 1 million dollars to just build. This included a driveway, front wall and a rear retaining wall. Was done by a private builder - some lebanese block Bill from out West - fcvkwit of the century in my opinion. I would've hated having to deal with him for insurance/warranty issues. I hated even just dealing with him as a next-door neighbour during the build - always stealing our water, damaging our land and trespassing.
The OP has not built a house before. I would STRONGLY recommend against doing owner/builder - you will never get final occupation certificate, and the house will never be compliant and able to sold later on if you go down this path as a new owner/builder.
Stay with the organisations who do this all the time. They have a solid process - sometimes frustrating - but they have escalation paths, so you have someone's head to kick in if there are issues. Owner/builder it's all you, and you will suffer because of it in the medium to long term, for the sake of 20-30k.
[updated] having built a house twice now, the next one I do will be to lock-up only - but that is only because I was so very well aware of what went on with the builds on a daily basis, visiting the site every single day and documenting all changes. I wouldn't dream of doing owner/builder for the base-build.
I’m currently doing a knock down rebuilt. We had a few surprises costs pop up. Would we do it again ..No!
Things we didn’t expect:
Knock down rebuild zone charge 5-10k
Abestos removal
Power pit 10k
Permits dispensation 2k
Asset protection permit 2k
Site cost 65k
Total cost for a big single story quality home 400k and double story 600k
There are still suburbs in outer west or northwest that are less than 1m for land and house build…
If anything Scotty from marketing should have let tradies' costs correct not give out grants to keep the Ponzi scheme going. Straya has the top 5 most expensive (but not best) tradies in the world.
Hello! I was wondering, were you able to finally bought the house and started the renovation?
Unfortunately not. With Sydney market the way that it is and our lack of financial stability, this project is still on hold! Thanks for checking in :)
Wanted to do something similar but essentially gave up after calculating costs, time, stress, including difficulty finding an architect (I'd like to build something different, not those houses that all look the same), then a builder, etc.
Haven't abandoned the idea completely but I can't see that happening in the next 5 years.
With all due respect, construction in Australia is so low quality that makes me miss the place where I came from. Architecture is essentially non-existent here, with rare exceptions… Most of the time it's hard to believe that architects are involved in such awful projects.
Big buildings in Melbourne and Sydney sometimes have a style, but houses are so ugly… Probably because they are built with the idea of investment even when owners are living there… There is no passion, no design, no charm, nothing different, just as many bedrooms you can fit in the space, cheap… It's sad… Terribly sad…
Certainly not the case with proper builders - the ones who do one build at a time - you can work with an architect and design whatever you want - and the build quality is totally up to your budget. But be prepared for a 1.5 million dollar build at the very least.
@JelIyfish: May be I mistake with the build cost, thank for verify (the house build cost 500000.00