Thanks Bee, that's around what I was hoping it would be. Not too sure about the sub-division etc here, but need to look into it. Houses are so expensive in my area, that we figure if we can get a decent block, knock down the house on it and then each build, we should be able to get something good for about half the cost.
One thing to consider is that you are allowed to subdivide and have separate titles. There is a place around the corner from us where they built two houses on the block, but can't separate the land - so they have to be sold together which really limits the number of potential buyers. Just something to keep in mind.
We subdivided our block - the original house was way off to one side and we are living in it at the moment - and are building a new house. The builder is being mindbogglingly slow getting back to us about how much it is going to cost, but it came to about $14,000 for the subdivision and will probably cost $120,000 for the house once we add in all the juicy extras. We're in the country though and are building a reasonably large and fancy transportable - the starting price of the house was $85,000 so there's a LOT of extras above the listing price.
You can usually get something decent built for $160k and subdivision is usually around $20-40k, depending on how much sewage and water works you need.
Watch out for sloped blocks - sometimes it can be impossible to divide and build two houses on a block with a slope the 'wrong' way because the rear house needs crazy easements to get the water to the street.
As an architectural technician, I feel I can give you a bit more light on this.
Firstly, this is a very 'open' topic, with alot of variables that would effect the overall costs, depending on typical build costs (Tasmania for instance is dearer to build than say Melbourne or Sydney), and local councils way of doing things re subdividing.
So I will try to be fairly broad with my '$' and just say you'll have to do your homework.
- to get a ballpark figure, builders work on a $ per square metre rate. On average, in todays economic climate you can work on around $1000-1200 per sq/m, inclusive of EVERYTHING, floor coverings, appliances, paint.....the lot. Start with this. Again this fluctuates depending on state and if you are in metro or rural. (What I can advise though is the things that make a house more expensive to build are elevated and off the ground ie NOT concrete slabs, lots of windows, and handrails.)
- also dont always trust the prices shown by builders that mass produce houses, there is always hidden costs.
- you say houses are so pricey in your area, chances are that builders prices to build a new house are also high. Their costs follow the trend and market in particular areas.
- subdividing is a very open thing too. Yes it can be quite cheap to subdivide ($20000 mark) but this can depend upon local councils. Some councils do not like small subdivisions like you are suggesting, as they want developers to subdivide large parcels of land, because councils get certain monetary handouts when they approve subdivisions. This is quite legal, its just how it works. Developers want to subdivide land because they make loads of money, and councils only feel it is fair to receive their piece of the pie. A friend of mine wished to make a seperate title from his parents farm, and the counci charged him $60000!!! Again, do your research.
- another factor in subdividing (as someone suggested) is distance from existing water and sewerage mains, because if new piping needs to be put in, then the costs go way up. Same with power.
- also if you were thinking of doing something with say, 3 or 4 friends (ie building 3 or 4 houses) then council may want you to put in some form of road network, and this is very pricey. This obviously would be dependant on shape of site and location to existing roads, but councils can be very anal when it comes to town planning, believe me. They are not interested in people making gravel driveways etc, (again this depends where land is located ie rural or residential) and also depends of councils town plan.
- having 2 seperate buildings that people live in permantly is not permitted by the Building Code of Australia, only if the are deemed as units, and then that is another thing, which then involves development approvals from local councils which need to be drawn up , different type of construction etc etc (what I do as part of my job), and this all cost a decent amount of money.
- you mention getting a decent block and knocking down the existing house. This isnt as cheap as it sounds. You have councils fees for demolition (not too pricey), paying a demolition man to do it (its illegal to have a go yourself unless licenced), costs to remove the demolished material, if it is an older house extra cost to remove and dump asbestos. Demoltion can be quite pricey and not as clean cut as it sounds.
so yeah, a little bit of my thoughts/knowledge of it all from my experience
But, like I said at the start, there are soooo many variables to this topic, and just do your research, talk to local councils about subdividing of smallish blocks etc.
200k house (4 bedroom)
25k extras (the things we wanted like evap, carpets, tiling, etc)
20k extras (the things we didn't know about like upgrade slab, council fees, temp fencing, connections, etc...)
167k land
5k stamp duty
now that we are in our house we spent
2.5k fences
3k driveway
3.4k security doors
we are now saving for more concreting, slate tiles, grass and general landscaping
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