Ceri

I

an idea for people who are having the same trouble as you had - my mate built his house last year - no savings, he used his first home owners grant as the deposit - if you've got PR, it's worth looking into this - using the grant as your deposit - some loan companies will let you do this. I know a few house building companies advertise - No deposit etc etc , and they will arrange a loan for you. Not quite sure how it works myself, but I think Tammerwood homes is one of the companies that advertises this. This bloke by the way although an Australian - he had debts up to his eyeballs - car loans etc and no previous house, they still lent him the money - Westpac bank loan I think he has.

PB - our windows we're having are Tinted black, we paid extra for the tint - which wasn't that much actually, without digging my contract out - I think it was around $600 to have black tinted windows (glass is actually tinted - not a foil) rather than the clear glass, we actually ordered them this way more for the "look" of them.
We spent over a year on getting the plans just right - the money we are forking out now are for extras which we knew we would spend - things like extra power points (can never have enough of them) and ceiling fans etc, and extra TV points - all extra's . The basic house was cheap, but we changed so much of it and added things like Spa baths - dwarf walls - again without digging my contract out I think we spent 40 grand on top of the basic listed price - plus what we are paying now for extra wiring and things.

It's taken us ages to get this far, because we wanted it "just right" - fussy b*ggers. The bloke who I mentioned did his house very quickly - signed contracts, didn't change much of the plans - his house took about 6 months from the actual date of signing up with a house company.

cheers

P.S - watch these banks here - this bloke has borrowed more money from the bank - well what" they"do" is tell you your house is now worth this much (because of the boom) - for example, say the bank tell's you your house has now gone up by 50 grand - they offer you more loans - this bloke has taken more money out on his mortgage to buy a car etc - I personally think he's getting himself into debt - he'd be in trouble if he lost his job.

pommie bastard

We had a sight tint in the windows but not good enough so out came the check book again .
Good point about the banks here we were told that on our earnings we could have a $500k mortgage , to get this figure all I was asked was what limits do you on your credit cards and what loans do I have .
The living costs factored in required us to beg for food on the streets and never use any power or gas ,and bugger our luck if interest rates rise above 1% .
The nice man at the bank also told me to borrow another few $100K to buy an investment home , just in case I had the price of a pint left .

april

I think the first thing I would put in a new house in Australia would be Air-conditioning, this befor I bought even a toaster...................

My hubby just said put insulation in all walls and ceilings. makes a huge difference

bored_bean

Get some ceiling fans and adapt to the weather (it does happen eventually). If you have a cool climate in your car/house/office it comes as a huge shock to the system when you go outside. That was the worst thing about Singapore, so much air-con you can't acclimatise or you need a wool sweater to go into any building!

pommie bastard

Spot on well worth it also get ducted heating its gets very cold at night and not many places have any heating that will heat all of the house.
Insulation here is only put in roofs in double brick houses and its pricy , plus no double glazing which would improve most homes