Building on a sloping block in NE suburbs of Melbourne

Hello

My husband and I are currently looking to buy a block of land in the NE suburbs of Melbourne. We want to do a knockdown rebuild in the Macleod/Rosanna area. One thing we have noticed about this area is that most of the blocks are 'sloping blocks'. I'm no good at stating what the slope is and the real estate agents don't seem to know/say.

We have been trying to find out how much this slope adds to the cost of a build but we are finding it hard to get any real information. Does anyone have any experience navigating this? We want to build a 4 bedroom +study , double garage, 2 living area house. What is the price difference between a flat block and a sloping block? Is it cheaper or more expensive if the block slopes up as opposed to down? Is it realistic to build a house for under 500k with a nice finish on a sloping block?

Thanks in advance for your advice.

Bec

Hi Bec, your questions have quite broad answers, and there are many factors. It will depend on, for example, the severity of the slope, whether the slope is from front to back (or back to front) of the block, or side to side - higher on one side than the other. A small slope wouldn't make a huge difference but if it is, for example, a 5m fall over 17m then that is severe and would have signficant ramifications, and the house would probably have to be split level. The other thing is the type of soil - a site with non reactive soil will generally cost less in site costs and slab than one with reactive soil.
If you are looking for a property to do a KDRB then it may be that the block is already prepared for a house and have retaining walls, etc, in place, making the building area fairly level already.
I am sure that there are many other people who have much more experience than me in relation to this, just thought I would add my thoughts.

I can see why you want to do a KDR - its really the only way to get a bigger block these days. There is soooo many factors that can make a difference but for $00k (not including land price) you can build a very very nice house indeed.
Things that you might want to look out for is any zoning issues etc on the block. We have just knocked our existing house down in order to re build. We are in a schedule 3 landscape overlay area and its taken us months and months of back and fourth with the council. We needed a planning permit to re build as our block was over 20 degree slope and can you believe its only 21 degrees!!! so close its crazy.
Site costs are expensive with a KDR too, usually a P class slab. ours is P class H2 so pretty much the worst type, so to build a 4 bed house with study and 2 living and double + garage the site costs are $44k, That's for the foundations and slab basically.
We have extra costs as the powerlines are on our side of the street so they need to use cranes etc.
The costs will also depend on the builder and wether you have a waffle pod or raft slab or even build on stumps etc.
Good luck on your search, its a beautiful area you have chosen.

Hi there
We are currently building and have a 2.5 metres fall over 39 metres from front to back.
We are building a 3 bedroom plus study, 3 living areas split level home.
Our builder is using a raft slab. We paid well under $500k for our build. You can check out my plan in my thread.

remember always.
1. Size and complexity of the build. Bigger gets economy of scale but complexity kills that.
2. Site costs vary enormously and are to some degree dependent on chosen design.
3. Level of finish. I reckon on a scale 1-10 most of my clients are level 5 - level 9. Now the difference between 5 and 9 can be as much as $200,000.
It is horses for courses.
cheers

Just finished a build with 7metre fall over 35 metre distance from high back to front of block, doesnt have to be split level, has ours is double garage with laundry and big doug out area under house with all bedrooms living rooms, everything on one level.