Browse Forums General Discussion 1 Apr 30, 2014 4:42 am Hi Everyone, I'm so curious to read about people demolishing homes to build a different house - it is a new concept to me The house we live in was built in 1926 and no-one would consider knocking it down - it isn't a wonderful place at all, but it is a home. So when do people decide to demolish? If the house have structural issues? Fashions changing? Size not right? Or is it that a home on the land isn't worth much and it is the land that holds the value? If this is the case, then should building a house be seen as a temporary expense rather than a long term investment? Yes, you can probably tell - we're about to pay a preliminary deposit to a builder - and we're running scared Wondering whether we should worry at all about quality internals if someone is just going to knock it down in 10 years Re: When do people decide to demolish and rebuild? 2Apr 30, 2014 5:25 am MalSannie Or is it that a home on the land isn't worth much and it is the land that holds the value? If this is the case, then should building a house be seen as a temporary expense rather than a long term investment? Land appreciates...houses depreciate. MalSannie Wondering whether we should worry at all about quality internals if someone is just going to knock it down in 10 years Whatever you do, don't build a ticky tacky house in a ticky tacky estate. You need to look at trends and demographics to determine how appealing your house will be to the future market if you ever decide to sell. It is something that few consider yet the average home ownership is about 7 years. 3in1 Supadiverta. Rainwater Harvesting Best Practice using syphonic drainage. Cleaner Neater Smarter Cheaper Supa Gutter Pumper. A low cost syphonic eaves gutter overflow solution. Re: When do people decide to demolish and rebuild? 3Apr 30, 2014 5:40 am SaveH2O MalSannie Or is it that a home on the land isn't worth much and it is the land that holds the value? If this is the case, then should building a house be seen as a temporary expense rather than a long term investment? Land appreciates...houses depreciate. I appreciate that .. but wonder to what extent this would be true. How quickly does it depreciate, and when does the value of the house become worth so little that it would make more sense to break it down and start again. Typically, how old are houses that people are considering for demolition I wonder? If you put a house on a piece of land with the same value as the land, then would I in effect be over capitalising before I even started? Ugh it is so difficult to know! Re: When do people decide to demolish and rebuild? 4Apr 30, 2014 6:02 am It's all in the maths and it's more about the increasing land value. There are older homes that you wouldn't dream of knocking down but there are a lot of newer ones that I would gladly take a bulldozer to. The house is the sentiment, the land is the business decision. You also need to look at the neighbourhood trends when deciding on a demolish build. A well researched decision could easily see you opting for something different to your original thoughts. It would be unusual if you were the first to demolish build in your area. 3in1 Supadiverta. Rainwater Harvesting Best Practice using syphonic drainage. Cleaner Neater Smarter Cheaper Supa Gutter Pumper. A low cost syphonic eaves gutter overflow solution. Re: When do people decide to demolish and rebuild? 5Apr 30, 2014 7:42 am Using myself as an example - I bought an ugly house in a fantastic location in a nice suburb. This was in the late 90's. The house was built in the 70's and had not been touched since then so the decor was less than desirable. That was easily fixed with new light fittings, new paint, rip up carpets and polish the boards, new kitchen, some new built in wardrobes, new cupboards. Suited us fine until I started working from home a lot and had kids.. and then it was just too small. Loved the location though and our neighbours! Walking distance to schools, lots of parks, court location, leafy green suburb. Rather than sell up and move, we decided to stay put. Originally was going to extend and renovate (put another storey on etc) and drew up plans and put them out to tender with various builders and the prices all came in very high. It was going to be over capitalising on what would still be a generic 70's house with an extension. Ultimately it came down cheaper to demolish and build a brand new house than extend, so that's what we did. Now we have a house we love, big enough for the whole family, and we're still in the location we love. There are more and more people in the suburb doing much the same thing. Of course there are some demolishing and putting up two town houses on the one block, but plenty are renovating, extending or doing a KDR. Property values keep climbing here at a great rate. It's insane to consider what I originally paid for my place and what values are like here now. Land value alone is three or four times more what I originally paid for the whole property. Completed a knock down and rebuild in northern Melbourne. Handover completed 27/09/2013 and now moved in. Re: When do people decide to demolish and rebuild? 6Apr 30, 2014 10:47 am Generally speaking? It seems like that houses might become knockdown prospects from about 30-50 years of age. Standards, lifestyles, etc. change enough in that time frame (eg, master ensuites were not common once, but now they are in virtually every newly built house) so that it becomes easier to knockdown-rebuild instead of renovate. It would be unusual to see a house less than about 30 years old as a candidate for knockdown. Mostly houses younger than that are still in reasonable condition and can be brought up to current lifestyle/fashion ideas via renovations. 4 Land settled May '14. Building the PD Hoffman39: 5/11=site start, 13/11=slab pour, 26/11=frame complete, 10/12=roof on, 12/12=bricking started. Blog: http://jyndeira.net/blog/ Re: When do people decide to demolish and rebuild? 7Apr 30, 2014 12:06 pm If an existing house has some form of architecturally redeeming features like older federation or victorian style houses do then by all means renovating and extending may be a better way to go however there are lots of caveats to that - plumbing, electrical may need the whole house being re-done etc. If a house has none of those or if the existing layout makes it nigh on impossible to reach a good outcome without expensive structural changes necessary then the money spent renovating would be better invested as a KDR. You only have to look at what project home builders can build a new home for ( anywhere from $1,000 - $1,500 per sq m ) as opposed to what builders charge for renovations ( $2,500 - $3,000 per sq m ) to see why this is a more attractive option. Our house is a classic example - built in 1947, bog standard double brick, terracotta tiled roof it has no redeeming features and all the rooms are at the wrong end of the house - living room on the Southern side , bathroom and laundry on the sunny northern side, small kitchen and bathroom etc etc. I tried working the existing layout into a new design and was thwarted at every turn. If we went down the reno and extend route we would have been keeping maybe two walls at best. KDR it is for us As always you have to do your sums and your homework first regarding ROI and whether the gains in a more liveable house are worth the money you will spend to achieve it. Stewie Re: When do people decide to demolish and rebuild? 8Apr 30, 2014 12:25 pm When we bought our first house in 1996 before we were married, it was all we could afford at the time, and pretty much decided it was going to be a 7 year house. It was 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, and 1 'L' shaped lounge/dining...and not much else! No garage or not much storage. Bonus was the kitchen had been redone in 1990...we took care of all the rest. After having 2 kids and the house was bursting at the seams, we looked at the price of bigger houses in a slightly different part of our suburb and were looking at over $1M. Our little 1960's house in a cul-de-sac was valued at just over $400K at the time. We would have had to have spent quite a bit renovating/painting/garden including new kitchen to get more for it, then have to pay stamp duty and agent's fees, not to mention the stress of selling. We also looked briefly into extending, but the floorplan of the existing and lack of garage etc would have completely ruined the lovely street appeal and character the house had, if we went down that path. For us, it was easier and cheaper to KDR. We ended up with the house design and colours we wanted, and plan to spend the next 25 years in it. The kids were settled at school, so for us it was a no brainer! We weren't concerned about over capitalising at all...we just wanted a house that was big enough for us and our large extended family. Henley - Wilshire Mk 3 ... I love my house!! Site start: 4th Feb 09 Handover: 10th Sep 09 Blog: http://stormygirlscastle.blogspot.com/ Build Thread: viewtopic.php?t=7166 Re: When do people decide to demolish and rebuild? 9Apr 30, 2014 12:54 pm I think bluesuede, Stewie and Stormy have summed up our reasons behind KDR pretty well. Our house was 38 years old and definitely at the younger end of the scale for KDR...but we still had people who commented that they thought we were crazy as our house "wasn't that old". Age is just a number and doesn't factor the issues such as renovation costs, quality of the existing structure, floorplan/orientation, etc, etc, etc. I doubt someone would seriously consider KDR a 10-year-old home but you never know, it would depend on what the desired outcome was and how achievable and cost effective it would be to KDR vs renovate vs build in a new estate. MalSannie, you said "Wondering whether we should worry at all about quality internals if someone is just going to knock it down in 10 years". You could also ask "why worry about quality tiles if someone is going to replace them in 10 years" or carpet or taps or any of the other fixtures and fittings. If you're planning on selling in two to three years, then you might factor in what buyers might be looking for when you sell, eg quality vs wanting to put their own stamp on the property with new taps, paint, etc. If you're planning on staying much beyond that, build the house you want (and can afford - for most of us there are trade offs). If you sell in 10 or 20 or 50 years, you have no control over whether the new owner renovates, demolishes, turns it into a shrine to Elvis or anything else they can legally (or illegally) do. ~ Anne I used to be indecisive but now I'm not quite sure. Eeek - We're embarking on a knockdown rebuild! Click here for our build thread Our blog: kdrhome.wordpress.com Re: When do people decide to demolish and rebuild? 10May 09, 2014 5:54 am Thanks everyone - I appreciate you taking the time to let me know your thoughts. I'm just a bit panicky I guess, and all the reasons make a lot of sense Thanks again Re: When do people decide to demolish and rebuild? 11May 09, 2014 10:08 am My house is in a good suburb and has gone through significant increase in value as I have owned it for 15 years. The house was a very nice 4 x 2 1950s single story house that had a skillion roof extension in the 80s. To renovate to what we wanted was going to cost a fortune and the return on capital would not be there. KDR is the route we selected as we can then have the house we wanted the way we wanted. Ok it is taking a very long time but that is for other reasons. Every house in my street except 2 of them have been KDR so its all new double story houses. I have actually swapped out every single builder fitting for stuff I like and I think that quality does last but it costs more. This is a personal decision and its for me and my family to enjoy, I know it wont get anything more potentially on resale but if I have to sell quality fittings will be a plus factor. Ciao Mark Re: When do people decide to demolish and rebuild? 12May 11, 2014 6:45 am You're right Mark - it is about enjoying it too not only for resale value. I wish we could afford to build a double story house! But apart from the cost, not sure we'd be able to cope with stairs - they're nice when you're a young 'un but not so practical when the joints start to creak! Re: When do people decide to demolish and rebuild? 13May 11, 2014 10:51 am Malsannie, you are right about the stairs. For that reason it was important that we have a very nice guest room on the ground floor so that if necessary stairs would not be needed. I should have put a lift in to be honest but I just never thought about it. The house I am building is the first build for me and it is the dream build (but my dream). I want my children to remember that this is my vision of a family home. Re: When do people decide to demolish and rebuild? 14May 19, 2014 7:55 am AussieMark that sounds wonderful - and a good plan to have a guest room on the ground floor. A Lift would be very expensive though wouldn't it? You could always add a stair lift - they're a big thing here in England (and probably just as expensive for all I know!) Re: When do people decide to demolish and rebuild? 15Sep 24, 2014 12:19 pm This is a very good question I would look at the age of the home and the maintenance required to keep it safe and liveable. Also will the home suit the current or future living requirements a decision would then need to be made if the home is worth renovating or knock down rebuild to suit. Re: When do people decide to demolish and rebuild? 16Dec 17, 2014 3:26 pm The other factor is trying to find a home on a large block (600m+) within a reasonable distance of the CBD. In Perth these are rare as hens teeth. Although expensive, its more practical to by an old 1960's 3x1 on an 800m block in a street you like and demolish and rebuild. The other annoyance is that, as a suburb fills up, councils are changing zoning so an 800m lot becomes attractive to developers wanting to build a set of units. This drives up the price further. Re: When do people decide to demolish and rebuild? 17Dec 28, 2014 6:20 am Interesting topic. We have acquired a 1970s hardiplank in an established area, reasonable condition as far as we know. 1) The orientation is incorrect and does not take account of the natural position. 2) The cost per sqM to renovate would be greater than the cost per sqM to build a new house we believe. 3) We want a new house! 4) The original is pretty ugly and doesn't have redeeming features worth saving. 5) the suburb is a good one and renovations may not cut it for resale. No vacant land available. Re: When do people decide to demolish and rebuild? 18Dec 30, 2014 8:17 pm Hi, I see lots of knock down rebuilds because the land in new estates is so tiny it doesn't suit a lot of families. Average block sizes I see those days are around 350m2 and neighbouring suburbs could be up to 1000m2. Being a fan of great architecture I hope its horrid old boxes being knocked down and not lovely older bungalows etc. Rebecca Jarrett-Dalton Property crazy expert mortgage broker, love building new homes! Two Red Shoes mortgage broker http://www.tworedshoes.com.au/building Re: When do people decide to demolish and rebuild? 19Jan 04, 2015 5:49 pm For us, we decided to KDR as everything in our existing house would be breaking down and need to be replaced individually which is expensive but adds no value to our oddly designed house. In my area, it's really hard to win at auctions as you really need to fight if you wanted to buy a new house due to the neighbourhood and community. And we also didn't want to move further away as our current location is very convenient in terms of shops and public transport/distance to other areas. Also, my area is mainly an Asian community and I find that while people want to live in our area, they also want a new and modern house. I thought this would be a popular question but I haven't been able to find any similar posts. Perhaps I'm wording my searches wrong? When you have car insurance and the… 0 6623 if the original house is in good condition most of what you listed could be added in stages without the need for KDR and costs and disruption of having to live elsewhere… 1 13686 We've had the offer of a short term tenant whilst waiting for CDC/DA home approval and demolition for our knock down rebuild. It would achieve a pretty low rent as it's… 0 13759 |