What's it cost to build a house?

[misty]

We built a 4br + study (27sq Inc garage) for 204k +land
That's inclusive of everything, driveway, floor coverings etc site costs ( we built on very rocky, reactive clay soil so big excavation costs and slab upgrade)

I want to move where you live!
We are building an IP at the moment. Land aside, the house itself is costing us 220k. That is for a small (115m2 Living + double garage) 3 bedroom, ensuite. But the cost of building here is quite high. Nothing fancy about it. Bottom of the range carpet, tiles, brick, everything - just plain old laminex benchtops. Seriously budget house. But that is all we could afford, and since it is an investment, it doesn't need anything but basic fittings.

Demolishing a house is very exxy. You could be looking at round 30-40k just for that (sometimes lots more, sometimes less), and you will have to call in the specialists if it has any aspestos.

Truthfully, it would likely end up cost just as much as buying an already established house anyway. And I would be extremely wary of your plan to do this with friends, because what happens in the 'worst case senario' and someone looses a job, or otherwise can no longer afford to service their portion of the loan. Unfortunately the banks will not care that you have already paid you portion, they will expect you to cover the rest as well. You will be liable for the entire debt, if for some reason they decide not to pay.

[Miss E]

And I would be extremely wary of your plan to do this with friends, because what happens in the 'worst case senario' and someone looses a job, or otherwise can no longer afford to service their portion of the loan. Unfortunately the banks will not care that you have already paid you portion, they will expect you to cover the rest as well. You will be liable for the entire debt, if for some reason they decide not to pay.

I would've thought that we would each have our own seperate mortgage and finance. Is that not possible?

Yes if they had to get out in the middle of it all we'd probably be forced to sell up too because we wouldn't be in the position to buy them out, but with the financial side of things being handled separately at least our credit and assetts would still be in tact.

[misty]

It isn't possible to have seperate mortgages for individual entities secured against the one property. A bank generally will not allow a mortgage against a security unless all the owners are listed as applicants and/or guarentors.

A crafty mortgage broker may know some ways around this, but as far as I am aware the only way around this in to use some other security for the finance, rather then the property which is being purchased.

[Miss E]

It isn't possible to have seperate mortgages for individual entities secured against the one property. A bank generally will not allow a mortgage against a security unless all the owners are listed as applicants and/or guarentors.

I was thinking that we'd use our own money to purchase the land (if we did it with my Dad he'd do the same, but not sure about our friends). Once we had the approvals etc then we would borrow to fund the building. Surely if we had the subdivision approved the banks would be happy to allow us to borrow separately for the building wouldn't they?

[deletedit]

Yeah, you'll have to go joint for the initial loan and then refinance so you each have half after subdividing. In the meantime you will each be effectively responsible for the entire amount of the loan. Silly, but that's how it is.

[~Phoenix~]

[QUOTE=misty;2405356]I want to move where you live!

Pandora - Wish it was that price round here too We've got reactive clay soil here too and are being slugged $23K just for footings!

Misty - wow it is expensive to build in Canberra!!! Even though we've only got 3 bedrooms we'll end up with 205m2 (not including garage) of living space plus alfresco area.