Browse Forums General Discussion Re: Cost for first home buyers... 5Feb 14, 2007 2:52 pm Hi Perthgirl,
I know exactly what you mean - our parents are always quick to tell us just how tough it was for them. Except back in their day, one person stayed at home to look after the kids etc. Not too many people can afford to do that for very long these days! We bought our first home in 2003 (in the middle of the boom, here in Brisbane). It was a two bedroom townhouse (with a car port - no garage), which we paid $76,500 for. This was cheap, but it was in Woodridge - a poor suburb about 23km South of Brisbane with an appalling crime rate (that's where that girl was shot in the real estate agency a few weeks ago - charming, charming place). Not the kind of area you'd want to raise kids in! At the time, I was on a low income (I was 22 and a receptionist - hardly raking the money in) and my partner was full time at uni and making next to no money. We sold that at the end of 2004 (for $125,000) and bought a house 33km from Brisbane in Springfield Lakes (a new development with a sedimentation basin everyone thought was actually a lake - har har). We paid $285,000 for a brand new 3 bedroom house with a double garage on a tiny 336m² block. We hated the area very quickly as we both worked in the city, so we sold up after 11 months. Managed to get $300k for it, which whilst it was more than we paid for it, covered the interest repayments and not much more (ie. we lost mortgage insurance, stamp duty etc). A year ago, we bought a place 7km from Brisbane city. We paid $285k for it (very, very cheap as it had termite damage). We've spent about $5,000 updating it, but are about to top up our loan by $40,000 to build a deck on the back, another on the front and replace the roof. Apparently, the average mortgage in Australia is around $270,000. Tell your parents that. You very quickly get used to throwing $400/week at the bank. These days I don't mind at all... you just have to be a little smart as to how you spend your money. Best of luck with it - Perth is still cheap compared to a lot of other places! Cheers, Lotte Re: Cost for first home buyers... 6Feb 14, 2007 10:05 pm Hi Ray,
We are building in Melbourne's western suburbs, 2 storey, 25 squares, 3 bedroom brick veneer, roof tiles, double garagewith remote door, lounge, family/dining, upstairs sitting, timber floors downstairs, carpets upstairs, concrete drive included, a few upgrades, ready to move in (except for curtains) including all site costs = $214,000. Brisbane 7Feb 16, 2007 7:57 pm I am 21 and building my first home with my other half, we are paying around $340 move in, for a 200sqm house on a 450sqm metres block. This is including carpets, turf, tiling, aircon, furntiure, driveway.... pretty much everything!
Our land is 18km north of Brisbane, and I am really happy with our prices. Tell you Parents your deal is really cheap! Re: Cost for first home buyers... 8Feb 19, 2007 4:30 pm Hi Ray,
Tell your mum to get with the times. I'm sure if she was to go out and buy or build a new house now, she would want to add many features that they currently don't have in their present house. And now with solar hot water or a water tank compulsory for all new buildings in Victoria this boosts the building cost, but has long term advantages. Parents forget that when they built their first homes for $70,000 wages were much lower, and the norm in house inclusions didnt run to ensuites, spa baths and granite benches. They just weren't around. Not in the average house anyway. But for resale purposes, these things are pretty much expected today. The security of having your own home, a place that no one can kick you out of at short notice and through no fault of your own, and which is yours to sell down the track if you shoud choose, hopefully making a profit along the way, more than makes up for the loan repayments that your mum is so concerned about. Persevere! She'll wonder what she was worrying about, in a few years. Re: Cost for first home buyers... 9Feb 19, 2007 9:31 pm $260,000 here in Bunbury, W.A. Also first home builders/owners. Parents/family originally wanted us to buy a cheap established house but the prices here were already topping $260k minimum. We actually stumbled onto a new estate here that seemed to be a bit different to all the others around with attention to maintian the local landscape. We had never even considered building before that day...met a salesman, who has become a good friend, and he simply gave us a price list of about 5 blocks remaining in that stage. The very first block we walked onto we fell in love with.
2 years on and all the family members who were doubtful have now seen the benifits and excited with what we have achieved. Our land value has doubled and to build our house today would cost an additional $80 000. Simply put... if we didn't take the plunge then...we'd be locked out of even thinking about doing it now. Re: Cost for first home buyers... 10Feb 20, 2007 1:05 pm I think the moral of this thread is not to listen to family. Do your research, but make your decision independent of any family advice. Unless said family member(s) are extremely successful property investors, of course!! Re: Cost for first home buyers... 11Feb 20, 2007 3:07 pm We purchased a block of land a couple of years ago - for 75k. Its about 10 acres in the country, and was probably worth 120k when we bought it (we just got lucky), its worth about 130 odd or more now, and we have paid it off. We are about to start building, and the house is costing us about $180,000. By the time we do the shed etc, we are borrowing about $200,000 and will put our cash towards the other stuff (air con, carpets) all the extra stuff. We are also spending lots of money on solar hot water, huge rain water tanks, and a septic that recycles the water onto the garden (close to $20,000 just for that stuff, but worth it). Re: Cost for first home buyers... 12Feb 21, 2007 11:03 pm Hi all, we have purchased a block for $235k in South Eastern suburbs of Melbourne (630sq m). We are looking at building a double storey home of 35 sq which (fingers crossed) will not cost us more than 250k (base price was 196k not including flooring).
Total 485k - we are also entitled to the 12k 1st home buyers grant. Our only concern at the moment is our block has been soil tested with results coming back to advise 'H' class. At the minute we have no idea how much extra our site costs will become - does anyone know what the approx costs will come to? Otherwise looking forward to building our first home. Re: Cost for first home buyers... 13Feb 22, 2007 6:39 am Hi Stewie,
I got a itemised quote from one builder that said a H class (instead of M) was going to be about $2500 more - and that was for a 20sq single storey house. Being a double storey it may be more. Ray. Second Time 'Round Re: Cost for first home buyers... 14Feb 22, 2007 7:32 am Stewie Our only concern at the moment is our block has been soil tested with results coming back to advise 'H' class. At the minute we have no idea how much extra our site costs will become - does anyone know what the approx costs will come to? We also have a H class slab and our site costs is around the 12k mark. Our site costs were also a fixed price from the beginning. Since your house is a double storey it might be a little more. But I'm not totally sure so don't quote me on that. Good luck on the rest of your home building journey. [sneakersss] Re: Cost for first home buyers... 15Feb 23, 2007 11:53 pm Hi (and this is my first post on this forum after lurking for a while, so g'day all!),
We bought our first house last year in sunny ol' Townsville, North Queensland. Judging by the prices you guys are giving here, Townsville is a very pricey place to live indeed. We opted to buy in a good suburb, but get an old Queenslander that needed a bit of a revamp in terms of fitout (kitchen and bathroom) but no structural work to be done. It was in the high 200k mark, so our home loan is not that much lower than that after taking the deposit off. I wont give you a figure, sorry. ALL new houses in Townsville are over $300k with most much over that figure. We were going to build our dream home but after the price escalating past $330k (and growing), plus the thought of paying rent while building, we opted to just buy an older house. The suburb we were looking at (actually located just out of town) is now up around the $400k mark for a house and land package. If I could have a house and land for that price (or close to it) I would do it! Paying the mortgage isn't a struggle for us, we were saving more than this on top of paying rent before to save for the deposit. From one new buyer to another, just get in there and do it! We already paid for somfy motors for the blinds. The quote above was purely for “pre-wiring” so the blinds company can install the motors and blinds. That’s why we… 5 18327 Soak wells and electrical run in happening this week! Summit has told me they will relocate the laundry plumbing after the walls are completed. I'm actually pretty happy… 13 36803 Cant give recommendations in general with that builder, but during the colour selection, this is honestly personal preference. Depends on the style you want. Do you want… 1 592 |