Knockdown Rebuild - North West Sydney

Hi guys! We are at the stage where we will start house hunting in the near future, the preference is to find a house that meets all our requirements, but that doesnt seem likely because we want a new house in an established suburb without it costing us an arm and a leg, will still keep looking though.

That brought me to think of buying a crap house, knocking it down and rebuilding. From what I have seen of the sales in the suburbs I am interested in, KDR might save about 200-250k for a similar property, ofcourse a lot more hassle involved in building but we're willing to go through that grind for our dream home.

Would appreciate your inputs on-
1. Do the councils (Blacktown, Hills Shire) want new builds in old suburbs to have set backs similar to other houses on the street? If the neighboring houses and most houses on the street are set back by 9-10m, and I want the set back to by 6m (which is what both councils legally say, as an example), can there be any objection?
2. I read somewhere that with KDR one runs the risk of not getting the loan from the bank easily because they compare the value of the new house (post construction) with other similar properties around in the area and obviously the newer one will be more expensive, sometimes by a few 100k. Is this true? Have you experienced anything of this sort?
3. A builder told me that it is more expensive to build in a KDR situation because of the hassle involved with water, sewer, electrical, gas connections etc and building in a new estate is much easier. Your thoughts?
4. None of the suburbs I am looking at have any heritage properties, so apart from that what are the things one needs to be mindful of when looking to buy a property for KDR to avoid surprises later? In terms of building restrictions that is

We are doing a KDR in the Hills Shire. Our setback went from around 10m to the minimum 6m. New distance from back fence is also the min 4m

We did have issues with Sydney Water, with a pipe their records insisted was in a certain place, and we would have had to pay to protect it. Except my builder couldn’t find it as it wasn’t there. SW wouldn’t believe him, even after sending their own guys out. The 30 year old records were wrong, but we had to prove it and it delayed us by 5 months.

On the plus side, any covenants on the area had expired, so we weren’t constrained by design or materials to use etc.

Thanks mate. Would you recommend the builder you went with? Volume builder or custom?

It’s a custom build, and I would absolutely recommend them. We are at fitout stage and the quality/workmanship is excellent. They don’t do designs though, so you’ll have to get a draughtsman/architect on board as well.

Thanks mate, I saw the thread which you've put up detailing your home build. Did the build take so long for a specific reason? Please send me a PM if that's more comfortable

Custom builds take longer than volume builds anyway I believe. Not counting the design phase and time for council approval, this will probably take us to just under two years to build. The delays due to Sydney Water and AGL account for about 6-7 months. At least a straight month of no work due to weather. And then all this has a knock on effect on the rest of the scheduling and availability of contractors which results in more delays. Builder has a policy of using top quality contractors so was keen to wait for their availability.

Some factors due to the one-off uniqueness of a custom build - frames took 2 months as they are not mass produced off-site. Each was measured for and built onsite. Design is not a rectangular box that has been built multiple times, so sometimes issues arise when design on paper does not translate to real life/best practice. Eg the peak of the cathedral ceiling in the MBR was not centred in the room, so the carpenters pointed out to me that it would be better if it was. Changing that then had a bit of a knock on effect to other parts of the design too that had to be tweaked so windows lined up etc.

Another delay was due to misunderstanding with windows by the window guys.

Thanks for that, it all makes sense. I'll send you a pm to discuss about the builder if you dont mind

Your builder has been stretching the truth by the sounds of it, there is no significant reason why a custom build should take longer, everything is basically computer generated with timber frames at worst you would lose a week. The drafting stage is absolute key in a custom, plan understanding and "buildabilty" is the formula needed.
Most builders wont go through that level of detail with the clients and hope for "extras" later, my builders are not like that