1) Background:
House price affordability for first home buyers is a big issue. After researching the market for about two years i.e 2012 to 2013 and also glancing at future outlooks it became apparent that buying an existing house and land is not what we wanted.
With a limited budget as a basis -an existing house has the benefit of large land, but lacks everything a new home has to offer (i.e. clean kitchen and wet areas). But a new house means small land but all new finishes and good house design/architecture. The government grant of 15k + no stamp duty on land was the deal sealer for buying land and building.
We are situated in Western Sydney so we were looking at everything west, south and north of Blacktown and directions in-between, even looked as far as Gosford-Wyong.
2) Land:
Housing Estates
There were a number of land estates available in late 2013. We have those around Narrellan-Camden areas, Orchard Hills - Caddens, and not yet released land near Riverstone - Elara and Greenway these are the areas which are affordable for us. Caddens appears to be the best choice in terms of distance to work and parents. The new estates are very appealing with many communal parks and playground facilities so missing out a backyard is not so bad, furthermore Caddens backs onto my old Uni. UWS which has its own bicycle paths, soccer fields and basketball courts. Another reason I was inclined towards Caddens was the results of a noise study for the new airport at Badgerys Creek, some estates near Camden may be within the noise perimeter as planes take off and land.
3) House:
As a first home buyer in mid 20s options are limited for new house and land estates. So automatically we are fixed to small land size and a basic house design. There are few builders that cater for this requirement, one such builder is Allworth Homes with their Price Leader series featuring a basic house and inclusions unlike say Wisdom Homes where you're pretty much forced to get an upgrade package for 5000 but they say its worth 15000 - a great offer but not what we need.
Allworth was ideal as a first home buyer or more specifically builder, a house design called Lumina maximised our living space on our small block of 365 sq. m.
4) Buying the Land:
I hadn't done much research on Caddens at this point in time as my thoughts prior were on a Willowdale release near Edmondson Park. On a spur of the moment in late 2013 I registered to receive information about land releases in caddens.
A few weeks later I responded to an email from Landcom and was put into one of those priority lists but was not in an ideal position, I think it was no. 43 (last third of the pack). However, luckily I ended with a land size as mentioned above. The land had a 1.5m drop from front to back, it wasn't what I planned on but nevertheless not a deal breaker so I put a deposit on it in May 2014. The land was eventually settled/registered in November 2014, 2 months late.
Our Lot is near toward the bottom part of the hill, well away from Caddens road so I don't expect to hear the M4 traffic. Being in a new suburb/community is also beneficial since I believe, there will be many young couples such as us and young families around.
5) Pre-Build
Initially began with looking at a few builders, namely: Wisdom, Eden-Brae, Montgomery, Wincrest, Jandson, Rawson, Champion, Fowler and Huxley Homes then narrowing it down to - Eagle Homes, Casaview Homes and Allworth Homes.
Gave up on Eagle homes after reading numerous poor reviews, Casaview Homes gave us contract price which was slightly higher than expected (215000) and I wasn't too happy with the design we chose from them (which was the best for our block). So we ended up with Allworth Homes. The staff at Allworth Kellyville saw our survey was done with Casaview Homes and as an incentive dropped our price by 1200 (which was the deposit price Casaview charges for their initial plans) which I thought was a clever gesture.
The pre-build phase started in April 2014. Plans were then drawn up with contours mid year 2014 with a confirmation price of $3000. After which we selected internal and external colours and finishes, such items were needed for council approval.
Variations made June 2014:
-Tempo elevation to front
-Extended side of meals/family room to by 130mm (max. i can extend to side)
-Wall oven cabinet
-NBN package
-1.2m high tiling in bath and en-suite
-Overhead cupboard to fridge
-Tiled splash-back to underside of range hood
-Slide out basket under sink
-400mm sq tiled recess/niche to shower
-Anti-con blanket to roof
-Upgrade to 2.0 wall insulation
-Tacked on skirting - so we can do tiling/flooring after handover
-Laminated glass + q-lon seals to master bedroom windows (acoustic requirement)
-Brickwork over garage door
-Chrome floor wastes
-Corner bathtub
Below is the type of tiles for the en-suite as demanded by the wife, appointment with Tile Power was in September 2014.
We noticed new houses have many greys, dark blue tones (monument -,-) and the like. We went slightly traditional with a Manor Red colorbond roof, Vanilla bricks (i think now called silica) from PGH, pale eucalypt downpipes and paperbark gutters. I tested the colours on those virtual programs, they look okay but I wont really know for sure until its up in natural light. fingers crossed. Our internal colours from Wattyl are 'Fleecy Lined' for the bathrooms, 'Moondust' on other rooms and all woodwork is 'Augathella'.
New silica brick, under are some external colours and bottom row are some internal colors. Appointed was done in July-August 2014.
Clipsal appointment for electrical provisions done November 2014, with an additional price 1200 which goes on-top of the standard inclusion of 3000 from Allworth.
There is a about a 1.2m drop from our rear sliding door to the yard so I need to construct a temporary stair access for the side and rear for an occupation certificate, later on I will build a timber deck at the rear and sides and connect the two with an elevated walkway. I also need to do the driveway and surface drainage to the front corner of the house.
Contracts were finally signed on 1st April 2015 with a base price increase of 6000 - cant forget that date nor my signature with how many times we had to sign and date our contract.
Got a look at the engineer details when signing contracts. The rear half of the waffle pod slab is suspended on piers due to the excess fill (over 300), the zone of influence also impacts on the rear piers but pier depth should be 1500 deep anyway so it shouldn't really matter. 230 PFCs (parallel flange channels) 2off are used as a truss support due to the zero lot boundary at the garage, the other is over the garage door holding a few bricks with a plate.
Our major delays were with Commonwealth Bank and State Custodians and Penrith Council, probably up to 4 month delays.
This marks the end of pre-build phase.
Cost Summary:
Land : 285000
House contract price: 206000
=491000
-15000 (first home owners grant)
= 476000
At this point in time there is very little chance of finding an existing house that is catered for what you want for such a price. Four bedrooms, double garage, etc etc. Its the logical choice for a first home buyer.
