Buying a house in suburbia - tips
Mar 23rd 2010, 12:02 pm
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Buying a house in suburbia - tips
Having finally found a house that we are very happy with and having lived in various houses over the last 5 years in Perth and knowing how easy it is to get the 'wrong' house I thought I'd share a few tips from my experience for new migrants.
Things here are different to the UK - what might seem to be a good location in the UK can turn out to be disastrous here.
Personally, I like peace and quiet. I like to think that once I'm in my house then I won't get disturbed.
1. House construction - this is the biggest influence on whether many of the following issues are indeed issues. External walls in Australia have massive variation in quality. From single brick, to rendered blocks, to fibro, to double brick. Standard glazing is poor quality. cavity wall insulation is a rarity. Consequently, if you like peace and quiet, your house construction may put you at a disadvantage to start with.
2. Traffic noise. Due to poor quality glazing, what would be considered to be a liveable suburban street in England can be a nightmare here. Coupled with a tendency for a sizeable proportion of blokes (and some women) to think that having a souped-up V8 means that they need to over-rev at start up and late-night burning of rubber (in circles), living near what, on a Sunday afternoon might seem a pleasant road, may become a living hell.
3. Suburban shopping centres and pubs. Be careful Again although it might seem handy to live near to one of these, because of the problems highlighted in 1, early morning deliveries can become a pain. Car lights shining into your front room when cars leave the centre is also a pain. On the route home from the pub? Australians seem to have a tendency to throw glass bottles on to the pavement. be careful if you don't want to wake up to shattered glass each morning.
4. Neighbours. Because of the weather, Australians spend a lot of their evenings outside. How many neighbours do you have and how close are your bedrooms to their back yards? I've counted some houses with three backyard neighbours plus two on either side - and houses with poor glazing built right up to the boundary. I've been surprised by the lack of awareness of, and care for, suburban peace. If you live in certain suburbs be aware that I know of far too many families who have been plagued by teenage parties as parents seem to disappear each weekend leaving the house to the kids.
5. Corner blocks - if you thought you could escape neighbours with one of these be aware that you will have traffic noise (see above) coming throough two sides of the house.
6. House design - is your house designed so that problems highlighted above are minimised or maximised?
Things here are different to the UK - what might seem to be a good location in the UK can turn out to be disastrous here.
Personally, I like peace and quiet. I like to think that once I'm in my house then I won't get disturbed.
1. House construction - this is the biggest influence on whether many of the following issues are indeed issues. External walls in Australia have massive variation in quality. From single brick, to rendered blocks, to fibro, to double brick. Standard glazing is poor quality. cavity wall insulation is a rarity. Consequently, if you like peace and quiet, your house construction may put you at a disadvantage to start with.
2. Traffic noise. Due to poor quality glazing, what would be considered to be a liveable suburban street in England can be a nightmare here. Coupled with a tendency for a sizeable proportion of blokes (and some women) to think that having a souped-up V8 means that they need to over-rev at start up and late-night burning of rubber (in circles), living near what, on a Sunday afternoon might seem a pleasant road, may become a living hell.
3. Suburban shopping centres and pubs. Be careful Again although it might seem handy to live near to one of these, because of the problems highlighted in 1, early morning deliveries can become a pain. Car lights shining into your front room when cars leave the centre is also a pain. On the route home from the pub? Australians seem to have a tendency to throw glass bottles on to the pavement. be careful if you don't want to wake up to shattered glass each morning.
4. Neighbours. Because of the weather, Australians spend a lot of their evenings outside. How many neighbours do you have and how close are your bedrooms to their back yards? I've counted some houses with three backyard neighbours plus two on either side - and houses with poor glazing built right up to the boundary. I've been surprised by the lack of awareness of, and care for, suburban peace. If you live in certain suburbs be aware that I know of far too many families who have been plagued by teenage parties as parents seem to disappear each weekend leaving the house to the kids.
5. Corner blocks - if you thought you could escape neighbours with one of these be aware that you will have traffic noise (see above) coming throough two sides of the house.
6. House design - is your house designed so that problems highlighted above are minimised or maximised?
