CDM

Over here in the UK, building your own home can be quite a bit cheaper than buying a new home. The big problem is finding the land (cheaop enough) to begin with.

What are the prospects of having our own home built in Melbourne? Is it a realistic proposition? How much money up front would we need to put down?

- CDM

newjersey

Can't help with costs (varies greatly from place to place) but there are a few other items you are going to need - various permits, plus approvals for the plans, on top of which you can't do certain types of work (eg plumbing) without a license. You'd still have to hire licensed tradesmen for those, otherwise you can end up with insurance issues down the road.
HTH

NJ

CDM

The plan would be to 'have the house built' instead of physically building it myself. I assume it's not that difficult finding a house-builder?

- CDM

NatD1978

I think Buzzy is doing this, in Melbourne as well, and there are numerous other members that have threads going with updates on their own projects.

If you do a search for house building, you should be able to find them.

Pootle

There's absolutely loads of people building everywhere you look! There's land available in the outer suburbs, and plenty of people (like us) buy an old house and knock it down to rebuild. We built with one of the big builders and had a construction loan with the bank. The builders request progress payments throughout the build, the bank pays these and you just pay interest only until the house is completed.

Have a look here: http://forum.homeone.com.au/ for advice on homebuilding.