I’m hoping to seek some advice/opinions/information.
We are looking to build a house in an established suburb in Sydney, and are in the process of purchasing a block of land (will be a knock-down rebuild).
In my investigations so far, I’ve discovered that the block is in a flood prone area, and hence any building will need to be of a certain height. My biggest worry at this stage is the additional costs involved in doing this.
Here are some details:
- The block of land is only slightly sloping.
- Front of the block is AHD 13m. Rear of the block is 14m. The depth of the block is about 42m.
- The flood level is AHD 14.25m at the front, and AHD 14.35m at the rear. (Flood levels are based on 1 in 100yrs)
- My understanding is that I’m required to build 0.5m above the flood level, so the finished floor level of the house will have to be AHD 14.75m.
- All this means the floor of the house needs to be 1.75m higher than street level (which seems a lot to me!)
I’ve spoken to two project builders so far (Clarendon and Rawson), and they have indicated that additional site costs could be roughly $40-$60k (on top of usual site costs for a KDR of something like $50-70k or so). Bear in mind this is only based on informal conversations with their sales consultants, and I haven’t gone any further in terms of having site surveys etc done.
Both builders said they would have to import fill and then lay the slab on this higher platform.
Has anyone had any experience in this sort of exercise? Do those additional site costs look reasonable? Is there something else I should consider?
Any insight would be greatly appreciated.