Costs! Costs! Costs!

I'm a first time home buyer and am trying to keep my finger on the budget constantly but trying to estimate what to allocate to concrete, paving and landscaping is proving to be rather challenging for me. I have a 700m2 block of which my homs is 49m2. I want a U-shape driveway (sorry don't know the technically name for it) and my home is located 6m from the front of the block. In the back I will have approx, 12m, and on sides 2.7m & 1.2m. Would anyone have an idea as to what I should budget?

Thanks in advance!
Sally

Hi Sally,

It really depends on what you want to do. Landscaping costs can vary considerably, depending on the materials you use and whether you get someone to do it or do it yourself. For a paling fence I would allow around $2500 for your block. Depending on what type opf driveway you want (plain concrete, coloured, textured etc.) you're probably looking at around $100/m2. I would allow around $15-20k for the rest of the landscaping. If you don't mind waiting, you can lay out the landscape design first and then buy plants at a later stage as your budget allows. Plants will usually take up a fairly large proprtion of your budget (unless you have a fairly large deck or other feature of course).

Then you also have things like, clothes line, TV antenna, letterbox, garden lighting, front fence,...

Hope this helps.
Rob

Hello Sally,

As the prevoius person - a lot depends on your block, soil and what you really want to do.

driveway - I have paid $4k for short 5 metres driveway with stones - it is called exposed.

drainage - if you need a drainage the bobcat will charge you app. $85 per hour of work and it can take a 6 hours to do it. good drainage is important.

fence - I paid $2500 for 21 metres fence on one side of the land and two gates: one single and one double. I also got the quote for $4000 for the same job.

gravel - have a careful look around, even further from your block as we bought a nice white stones for a half price. we needed 3m2 and we paid $400 (just 30 minutes drive away from home). the same gravel 5minutes away was for $800. What's funny, we paid the same fees for the transport.

and so on so on. ALWAYS look for few quotes as some of tradsmen are so busy that they double up the price. Prepare yourself also as for some of them the job will be to small or too big and they are getting really fussy.

Check also your local government as some of them they are giving away some plants for free. As I heard, you are going to designated nurseries and just showing your rates, you will get a one or two plant for free a year.

good luck
kate