What's it cost to build a house?

[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.

[~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.

[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.

[The_Gudism_Master]

Gudism: Approx how much would it cost to demolish a house? We are looking into doing this but I think it is going to turn out to exy

Did a bit of asking around the office today re demolition. Depending on the size of the house and age (eg if it has asbestos etc) cost would be between $10000-$15000. (but as high as $30000)
Again this is fairly ballpark, some demo guys would do it heaps cheaper too. It depends on if they are busy or not, or want to do that sized job etc.
Most demo guys are fairly open to questions, so call up a few and ask.....I might be right off the mark with my price!

[The_Gudism_Master]

RumpledElf - great to see a council that isnt a PITA and bends their planning scheme and is reasonable

[Floweryfields]

Most builders will give a square metre price dependent of what you want. I have heard around $1500 from some people, but that would vary where you live.

[The_Gudism_Master]

Gudism can you explain how it works with Units or a duplex? Can you set up your own Owners Corporation and side step the subdivision process that way?

explained by RumpledElf as well as I can explain.