Just wanting to hear some member's perspectives on the decision we are faced with:
My mum has decided to sell her 3 bed/2 bath/2 living areas home to move to a 2 bedroom unit as she wants a lower-maintenance property for her retirement. Perfect timing as we were about to start looking for a house ourselves and her home suits us location-wise, and selling to us she can save on agent costs.
But - we've also had the idea of potentially subdividing her property in order to build 2 duplex townhouses: one for us and one for her. This would be very convenient for us as we travel a lot and she looks after our home and pets, and also for her as she gets older and begins to require some help around the house.
No idea though how realistic a subdivision of a 580m2 block in Berwick is - there is a similar development on the same street so there is a precedent and I can't see anything in Casey Council's guidelines warning against it. But there is the existing house, which would have to have a portion knocked down in order to make two separate titles I imagine. The house isn't particularly old and we would like to incorporate as much as possible of it into the new design rather than knocking it down, again not sure how realistic this is.
Does it seem like a project worth pursuing or should we go for the easier option of simply buying the house and moving mum elsewhere? I'm worried she may not find what she wants - the house is worth around 340K but nicer units seem to be advertised for similar prices despite being smaller and on less land, and of course she will have stamp duty etc costs to consider.