Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Mar 17, 2013 8:48 pm hi, I have never bought a house and always imagined I'd buy an established home, etc. But I really loved my mum's storybook cottage and as I am starting to look around areas i'd like to live, i am seeing a lot of house and land packages, and also land for sale within the same estates. Am I not allowed to build a style of house I'd like within an estate? All the houses look the same and are from different building companies, but am I still able to purchase land alone and build what i want within the same estate.? Sorry for the stupid question! Re: Really stupid questions...... 2Mar 17, 2013 10:05 pm Hi Jade New member so am not an expert but we recently purchased land in a new estate. What you sometimes find in estates these days are 'Covenants' which are essentially a list of minimum build criteria that form part of the contract. If you're finding the houses in the estate are all very similar then its likely there is some type of Covenant for houses in the area. So if you're interested I'd find out from the developer/seller if there is a covenant and request a copy. If you dream house fits within those restrictions then you're all good For us personally we didn't mind as our 'style' of house fit within the covenant and it meant a minimum build standard in the estate (i.e. protects our investment in a way) Re: Really stupid questions...... 3Mar 18, 2013 6:54 am our builder has so many facades for us to pick from but only a certain number of those facades are allowed in our estate. the same thing might be in your estate but for house designs etc. Re: Really stupid questions...... 4Mar 18, 2013 7:16 am Just adding to what has already been said, don't forget that what's added to the front of the house doesn't affect the design of the house itself in a really major way. Project home builders almost always have at least a half-dozen standard "facades" for a house-design; they add stuff to the front which makes that design look different, when the floorplan stays much the same. If it's a particular exterior look that you're after, and the design/floorplan is secondary to that exterior appearance, that's of course a different matter. What you like might not match the look they want in the estate (I'm reading "storybook" & not quite understanding what it is, but I'd be guessing a wooden north-east or north-west USA style house made of wood & up off the ground & with quite a steep roof pitch to deal with snow & relatively ornate wooden trim under the gutters and around the balcony etc ... you might struggle to get something "olde worlde" approved in a new estate IMHO). Re: Really stupid questions...... 5Mar 18, 2013 12:46 pm Remember there are no such things as stupid questions. ESPECIALLY when building a house. You are only stupid if you don't ask questions. As others have said, most developments have building guiidelines that should be readily available from the land sales office. Some have very few requirements, but others may have lots of requirements, such as all houses to have a certain coloured roof. Where we are going to build one of the requirement is that the house be of mostly brick construction, which is fine for us, but if you want to build a weatherboard house, or a log cabin style then that isn't going to work for you. I also don't really know what you mean by "storybook house" so it makes it hard to advise on that. Re: Really stupid questions...... 6Mar 18, 2013 1:52 pm How flexible are project builders in modifications to their facades? E.g. On the plan it has a side entrance however with that same facade I want to move the door to the front instead and just block off the side Re: Really stupid questions...... 7Mar 19, 2013 3:06 pm if it has a side entrance, it sounds like you are looking at a design for building on acreage, where the front of the house is generally the long side, whereas for suburban developments the front is usually the short side. You'd really have to discuss with the builder. Most things like moving a door etc can be done easily so long as it doesn't compromise a structural wall. Even more complex things can be done, it all depends on the builder's policy and they will almost certainly charge you extra if they agree to do it. In the current building climate they will probably be willing to do more than they might have been a year or two ago as they will be desperate for the business. All builders are different so you are best to ask them directly. Re: Really stupid questions...... 8Mar 19, 2013 8:35 pm I think Jermslio has summed it up well. The key is going to be the covenants in terms of a specific estate. Our estate has a minimum size covenant but other than that style is not defined. Near my inlaws there was an estate (back in the 80s) that stipulated brick and tile (no metal roofs or wall cladding). An rural residential estate where I previously owned land had a minimum size and a requirement and a requirement that house styles were compliant with a "rural or country" style. With regards to builders, some are more open to style changes than others. Generally all of them will let you fiddle with internal walls and room modifications to a greater or lesser degree (and at a price) and as the others have said will usually have a series of external facades for each house - noting again that the facades are all different prices too. Some builders will allow you to individualise quite signficantly while others will not. There are even builders out there that will allow you to design your own house from scratch although you need to select these carefully. Some will do it for basically the same price as their plan homes others will charge a significant premium - so the tip is shop around! Re: Really stupid questions...... 9Mar 20, 2013 7:16 am There are also sometimes rules around front door placement that would stop you from moving the door like that. We were looking at side-entrance houses so as not to have a door in the middle of our northern frontage; and then we found out that under NSW Complying Development rules you can't have a side entrance unless you're on a corner block. Now our council does allow side entrances, so we could've built that feature (and missed other things we wanted) under council instead of Complying Development rules; other councils won't allow them (the Complying Development rules seem to have their roots in existing council rules - but councils differ in this stuff). Most project builders we asked would allow changes, including even Sekisui who pre-assemble their frames overseas (my guess is they must charge more for changes as a result?). However, it's also been our experience that some builders will say they're happy to do it, and then take forever in dealing with it; eg. a tender process dragging-on for 8 months until finally the builder told us they weren't interested anymore. do not pay until you are satisfied with workmanship windows require flashing over the head archithrave and up under weatherboards 3 28281 Personally, considering your layout (study/work desks in bedrooms), I don't think you have any other option but to leave NW windows and make them as big as possible e.g.… 7 10470 We had this happen to us last year and got charged a variation. Try and give away as much as you can that is usable to charity otherwise if you are in Sydney I have a… 1 4494 |