spartaclaus

Hello forum members....

My first post here is to ask for comments and experiences associated with buying house and land packages around Perth.

My small family and I are emigrating to perth I April and although we intend to rent for a while we're drawn to buying a plot of land + house from a developer.

Free life homes has some good reviews online... we've been quoted about $33000 for a 3 bed detached house near Mandurah...


Your comments would be most welcome!

campervanfan

Bargain- we'll all have one! add a zero?

verystormy

House and land packages are just a marketing gimmick. You can buy any block and have the house put on it.

Also do remember when building a house, the price is not the complete price. There are loads of things you need to add on. For example site works can be anything between $10k and $50k.

Finishing the house itself you need to budget about $50k as base prices only include things like 1 single power point per room. Every additional is $$$.

I wouldn't even think about buying until you arrive and have a chance to get to know the area and it's suburbs - as not all are places you want to live. For example, in mandurah there is Frasers Landing. You can get a block with a house on it for under $300k complete. But, the blocks are tiny - no garden and in a area that is thick with mozzies.

Dorothy

And another $50-75k for finishing!

Our $410k build has so far cost us closer to $500 now we've added all the extras...pool, landscaping (don't be fooled by the advertised "landscaping included" - which means $500 toward the front garden only), gates, flooring, window coverings (again, don't be fooled by the "flooring and window coverings included - they're cheap lino and cheaper verticle blinds), driveway crossover, soakwells, site works, painting the interior, etc, etc, etc.

And don't get me started on power points! We put in over $900 worth of the suckers! Otherwise we would have had one single power point in each room. Imagine your lounge room with one single power point. Decisions would have to be made about whether to have the TV plugged in or the Foxtel box. Or maybe a lamp. But not all three at the same time.

campervanfan

And is the cost of heating/aircon an added $$$$$ extra too ?

Dorothy

Yup. You can count on $10 k for ducted or $7 k for split system for an average 4x2

kips

I would definitely recommend you consider buying a block of land and then building a house on it. House and land packages aren't as good as they sound. There are plenty of display homes and builders to choose from and you can tailor the house design to your needs. Lots of builders are offering deals such as ducted reverse cycle air con.

There are lots of new estates springing here in Baldivis and up to Mandurah so like others have said take a good look round before you make a decision. We bought a block of land in NSW and got a small builder to build our house which worked out well.

Here in WA we again bought a block of land and but this time went with a project builder as they offered best value for money, after spending months looking at new estates all over Perth and the outer suburbs. Our land price included fencing, front landscaping retic and $4,000 for solar panels which we have just had installed and the house builder offered a $5,000 discount.

Before choosing a builder we got quotes from 5 builders including a small company and budgeted for the costs to finish off the house ie flooring, blinds, painting, lights, kitchen splashback, pool, pavers for the patio and round the pool, pool fencing, landscaping, Internet and phone connections, TV aerial, clothes line, mail box. Still working on getting air con.

I can't stress highly enough be wary of the slick sales pitch used by the sales consultants working for project builders who try to get you to part with as much money as possible, and promise this and that is included in the quote to get you to sign up but appears as extra costs in your contract or isn't even included as we found.

Get detailed quotes from at least 4-5 builders and get the cost of EVERYTHING in writing, whether it's construction costs or upgrades in your house so you don't get any nasty surprises. And your house build will be less stressful if you get a good site supervisor who keeps you updated on the progress of your build, fixes any problems quickly and lets you look round your house while it is being built.

It's how I spotted the power points were in the wrong place in three of the four bedrooms and the plasterer had covered over the second double power point on the kitchen splash back - just three days before we had arranged for it to be tiled.

spartaclaus

[QUOTE=Here in WA we again bought a block of land and but this time went with a project builder as they offered best value for money, after spending months looking at new estates all over Perth and the outer suburbs. Our land price included fencing, front landscaping retic and $4,000 for solar panels which we have just had installed and the house builder offered a $5,000 discount.[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the really useful information! May a ask which suburb you chose?

kips

We live in Parkland Heights, Baldivis, which is close to my son's school and 45km from Perth.

verystormy

Hi Kips

Please could you pm me the name of the builder. We have been searching round the display estates and are currently thinking about WA Home Group - used to be Scott Park.

BadgeIsBack

I have the utmost respect for people who build their own homes.

I would not do it in a million years. The stresses seem massive - and there's no guarantee of anything. To be honest keeping an eye on the builders and contractors would bore me to tears.

Friends of ours built but they seemed to buck the trend - they built a smaller house (trend though seems to be that people are building smaller now) made it quite 'green' and are pleased with the effort.

verystormy

Ir depends on if you use one of the big building companies - WA Home Group, Blue Print and all the others. Or you manage the build yourself. If you use one of the big companies, then they project manage it for you. Heck, most of the houses built in my area are built by people who don't even live in Oz. The house opposite - a several million $$$ Mamansion was built without the owners never seeing it till completion.

Pomster

we had our own block (established area) and got a builder to build...we spent months going through the inclusions and what extras we wanted (20 power points became 45 doubles) etc. They gave us a final price- and even that has had extras -like reconnecting the electricity from the nearby power pole, extra for concrete base, and we contracted our own heating installers and evap cooling installers.
Once the contract was signed, extras became really costly so we have avoided any others. Just have to be savvy and think of the builders are lying cheating bastards and you will be fine!!!

RedDragon2008

We have 8 double points on our kitchen bench alone

In our lounge I counted 24 (double)

Dorothy

Us too. There are 7 double power points in our kitchen, 2 quads + 2 doubles in the lounge and at least 3 doubles in each bedroom. There are 2 doubles in our ensuite.

About the only thing we didn't look closely enough at was outside hosepipes. We had them both (front and rear) put on one side of the house. And that turned out to be the side we don't use so whenever we want to get the hose out we have to drag it all the way around from one side of the house to the other. I know it would be easy enough to remedy, but we never seem to get around to getting the plumber in to do it.