building v buying pre-existing

[DoubleK]

just out of interest, id like to hear peoples thoughts on building a house, as apposed to buying one already built..

personally, i wouldnt even consider buying pre-existing house.. i think if im going to be loaning so much money, and paying back so much, i want a brand new house, and i want is exactly how i want it!

but, at the same type, you'll never get me buying a house in a new estate where the houses touch each other.. we currently rent, and im so over having to close the windows in the toilet & bathroom because the neighbours would be able to hear whatever goes on in there! and as i wash my dishes, i look out my window and see a fence, then less than a metre from the fence is the neighbours back door, windows etc.. also, id never want a townhouse or a two-storey house.... lol

i know everyone is different, thats why im interestd to hear what people have to say!

[Phteven]

I can't ever see myself building.
I hate those McMansion estates and I love old established suburbs and the gracious old houses one finds in them.
It takes so long for a garden to be established so ideally I would love to buy a home with an old established garden full of mature trees.
I also hate dealing with contractors and subbies, the smell of paint, builder's dust and so on so if I built I would be totally hands-off until it's time for key handover - which is probably a recipe for disaster.
I have my days when I think I would love to build a sustainable, straw-bale home but not often.
Last year I was really keen on building or renovating but I ended up having to paint a few doors and decided that I must have been crazy lol. It's fun for about 10 minutes then it's just hard, boring work.

ETA - For me there is no point in building so I can have things just as I like it because I'm such a fickle person. One day I love kitchen islands and hanging saucepans and the next day I think they just annoying and that saucepans should be hidden in a cupboard so I may as well save myself (and DH) the stress of trying to make these choices and get what someone else thought was perfect because I'll probably be happy with it and if I'm not at least I won't blame myself.

In the book There's Something About Kevin there is a passage about how 'perfect/dream homes' are always a bit imperfect that really resonated with me.

[Arimeh]

ok - we tossed and turned about this situation ages ago. We ended up buying an established house for a few reasons.

1. The only land up here is really really tiny, and the houses are just crap to go along with them. Just your standard houses, with no imagination, and all the houses on the street look the same. Which is fine if your husband isn't an Architectural Technician

2. Stamp duty is higher when building. Even though you are building on the land, you get charged stamp duty as an investor - so that is HUGE compared to what it is as a first home buyer or even principle place of residence.

3. The cost of building what we would actually want to live in (brand new) is SOOOO high - because its against the standard building plans that the big builders put out - IYKWIM? So we figured, well we will buy a cheaper house, pay less stamp duty since we aren't getting what we would be able to afford anyway.

We figured things would change in years to come. And they have. My mum has offered us her spare piece of land in the hinterland area of the sunshine coast, and is building us a house on that - to DH's design. Then we're going to rent it off her, which is better financially for us. So we get to live in our "dream" house - but cheaply

[misty]

Not up to date on all the states, but I know you save heaps in stamp duty in the ACT if you build, over buying pre-existing house. The reason being if you build, you only pay the stamp duty on the land component, not the actual building. whereas if you buy a pre-existing house you pay stamp duty on the lot.

Building can be stressful. But having bought a house and land package for our first house and now just signing contracts on another to be completed next year, I couldn't imagine owing a house for me to live in that isn't new. I wouldn't rule out a pre-existing house but I am naturally inclined towards 'new and shiny'.

[Arimeh]

Not up to date on all the states, but I know you save heaps in stamp duty in the ACT if you build, over buying pre-existing house. The reason being if you build, you only pay the stamp duty on the land component, not the actual building. whereas if you buy a pre-existing house you pay stamp duty on the lot.

That is true - but some land is just as expensive as a pre-existing house. For example, it is rare to be able to find a decent block of land up here on the coast for under $300,000 - whereas we could sell this house for around the same. And I can tell you that the stamp duty paid to buy this house would be a HEAP lower (especially as new thresholds have been introduced) than it would be to by a block of land.

Its on the value of the land for sure - but only works out cheaper IF you manage to get a reasonably cheap block of land.

[*Ali*]

We recently had an offer on a block of land and were going to build a new house- I actualley found it quite stressful because everything was costing more and more tha we had first anticipated. In the end the site works on our block was going to blow out to $45,000 which for our house and land package put us over the amount we could borrow, therefor we didnt get finance, didn't build the house. At the end of the day I was soooooooooo glad it all fell through, I just didnt feel comfortable with how the prices of everything just kept going up and up.

Now we are going to buy establised, we are just about to do an offer an acceptance in the next few weeks, and I feel so much happier with it all, we know exactly what we are up for- and where we stand.

[Matryoshka]

We bought a 2 year old home that was the exact layout i would have chosen if we'd built. Its in an estate but our block is huge, and i never hear the neighbours and vice versa. I've just heard so many people having hassles and delays with building, that if you can find your perfect house why not just buy. Ours was almost 2 years old and perfectly looked after that it felt new. The only thing i didn't like was the paint scheme and the flooring, which we'll get around to changing eventually.

[Nelle]

It really does depend on your budget I think.

for what we want, it's much cheaper to move further out of the city and build what we want, than to buy around here.

[misty]

That is true - but some land is just as expensive as a pre-existing house. For example, it is rare to be able to find a decent block of land up here on the coast for under $300,000 - whereas we could sell this house for around the same. And I can tell you that the stamp duty paid to buy this house would be a HEAP lower (especially as new thresholds have been introduced) than it would be to by a block of land.

Its on the value of the land for sure - but only works out cheaper IF you manage to get a reasonably cheap block of land.

You are right of course, But I really think that the ACT is a market unlike any other in Australia. There is no such thing as a cheap block of land here, the cheapest is about $200,000 for 300-400m2 - stamp duty on this is about $5,500. It costs at least another $200,000 to build a basic 3bd home on that. House prices for a pre-existing 3bd home in ACT start at about the $400,000 mark ($17,000 in stamp duty). If you can manage to find an older house on a bigger block (say 500 - 600m2) for about the same price, you tend to be missing things like a garage. I only know this because this is what we have been looking at for the past 3 months.

Of course if you are actually lucky enough to find a property for under $320,000 and meet all the requirements for the stamp duty concession (ie, first home owner, owner occupier), then stamp duty is greatly discounted ($20 per thousand dollars of purchase price).

I guess it depends on if you are buying as a first home owner or not as much as anything else. From an investment perspective I would certainly consider older properties that have more land in comparision to new houses. But DH and I have already decided that when we are ready to upgrade our Primary residence, then we will certainly be building new - so we can get what we want.

NSW is a completely different story all together, and really depends on where you live. Regional NSW varies greatly from inner sydney

[Sweet Bliss]

When we do it again, I want to go existing I think FOR SURE!

We built our house about 2 years ago....and I am SOOOOO jealous of anyone that has gates, and concreted entertaining areas, and trees, and retaining walls etc etc.
These extra things cost THOUSANDS of dollars, so unless you can afford to cost these into your mortgage, or have some spare cash lying around, you have to get used to living in the dirt while you do everything bit by bit. That being said, we are getting there, but have to do all of it ourselves (well except the concreting- we have been getting tradies for that). It takes up every spare cent that we have.
There is also a great feeling of accomplishment when you get things done, but all the same I think in many ways it is much cheaper to move into somewhere that has everything already done for you I would love a holiday instead of a few more slabs of concrete

[Jaycee]

We're just about to build, but we were luck enough to find a 1300m2 block just outside of the suburbs in Adelaide for $75k! It's not in an estate, and we're not packed in like sardines!
Our house, however is costing around the $300k mark but it's huge and we plan to be there for a very long time!
So for us, building exactly what we want is better off than buying established that we wouldn't be happy with.

[Nelle]

That is amazing Janine!! Nice find!

[Matryoshka]

It really does depend on your budget I think.

for what we want, it's much cheaper to move further out of the city and build what we want, than to buy around here.

This is what we did.

For our budget, we could have bought a tiny delapitated 30+ year old house only 15 mins from the city, in an area mixed with oldies, students & not many young families OR we could have done what we did which was move 45 mins away from the city, in an almost brand new area, full of young families, with beautiful parks, 1 min from the beach in a huge almost new house. SO this is what we did and i'm so happy with it.

People always say it must be annoying living so far from the city, but honestly i love it. I hate the city, its too busy and polluted and there's no reason i'd ever go there.

[~Hestia~]

The only way we would ever build a new house is if it was in the bush somewhere & we could build exactly what we want.
Seeing that's quite unlikely (sigh) we're happy with a pre exisiting house!! We've had our house for years & have slowly been renovating it. We don't like a modern look & we love what we have done to this house to make it our own. I also love that it's on a large block in a quiet court & doesn't look like all the other houses in the area.
My sister built brand new in an estate only a few years ago. So far they have repainted, extended the pergola, ripped up the floors & are now talking about re doing the bathrooms, kitchen & adding a 2nd story!! I don't understand how a house can need so much when it's relatively new IYKWIM.