Key Insights
- Comprehensive budgeting: the importance of budgeting comprehensively when choosing land for your new home. We encourage you to consider not only the cost of the land itself but also associated expenses related to building, such as permits, excavation, and infrastructure requirements.
- Neighbourhood research: We encourage you to look into various aspects of potential suburbs, including accessibility to public transport, quality of local amenities, nearby schools, and any planned future developments.
- Zoning, Additional Costs, and Infrastructure: Sneak peek into the world of Zoning and its impact on property regulations, including factors like open space requirements, building size restrictions, setbacks, and more.
Are you caught in the middle of the big and often stressful process of choosing the perfect spot of land to build your new home? It’s understandable if you are feeling a little overwhelmed with all of the choices available. Let us take you through the key factors to consider when looking for land for your new home to make it a bit easier.
Everything from choosing the perfect location for your future property, any zoning restrictions that might apply, possible unexpected costs, and other practical tips to help you make a confident choice and find the perfect piece of land that suits both your needs and budget (and might even make you a bit of a profit in the future 🤑).
Let’s do this!
Budget Considerations
Make sure you have budgeted for more than just the block! 💸
When choosing a piece of land to build your first home, it’s crucial to factor in all of the associated costs of buying and building a property. With Perth’s median house price rising to $540,000 in 2022, it’s essential to create a realistic budget because (despite what the Boomers say) we know it’s going to take a little more than cutting down on smashed avos to set yourself up to buy a home. We recommend that you jump on some online budgeting tools, consult with a financial advisor, or talk to a mortgage broker right at the start of the process – this way you can get an idea of your spending and borrowing limits.
Additionally, consider the great opportunities available in WA, such as the WA first home owner grant (FHOG) and stamp duty concessions, which can provide significant savings for eligible first-home buyers, especially those looking at house and land packages.
Neighbourhood Research
When it comes to real estate, it’s all about location, location, location and how close you are to Woolies. 🛒
Jump in the shoes of Sherlock ‘Homes’ for a second 🔎 and do some thorough research on potential suburbs you can see yourself living in. This is vital to making an informed decision, and most importantly, it’s a step that cannot be skipped if you care about your future land value. Here are some items you shouldn’t leave out of your investigation of your ideal suburb.
- Accessibility to public transport
- Local-intake areas for schools
- Quality of grocery shops, and essential amenities like gyms and parks
💡 Bonus tip 💡
Check-in on future development plans that might affect any of the above points in your desired suburb (things like freeways and new shopping centres can make a real difference).
Zoning Considerations
It’s complicated…
Land zoning is a big deal, but also complicated. It varies from council to council and changes from time to time. The zoning or Residential codes of an area stipulate a number of things like open space requirements, how big the dwelling can be on the block, height restrictions, setbacks from the boundary, and much more.
With so much to consider when looking for land to build on, zoning is one area that where getting advice from those who live and breathe it every day is really valuable. The team at Easystart Homes know the ins and outs of zoning and are across any upcoming changes in Perth’s land estates. We know the detail, so you don’t have to.
Additional Costs and Considerations
How to ensure you have all the facts upfront 👷
The last thing you want to stumble across in a home build is a haunted burial ground halfway through excavating your land 👻… okay maybe this is a little dramatic, but you could come up against some more plausible problems that are entirely avoidable. Things like unexpected excavation costs are not generally a problem when you are buying a new estate because the developer has taken care of all these things for you.
Some areas, even in new developments, do have additional costs based on their location like extra requirements for bushfire protection or noise reduction. These are all pretty standard requirements and are something we work through with you when choosing your block.
💡 Bonus tip 💡
It is fairly common for home buyers to forget to factor in expected additional costs into the overall price of their home. To avoid surprises, make sure you know all about stamp duty and lenders’ mortgage insurance and don’t forget to stress test repayments for rising interest rates. Speaking to a professional like our mortgage broker mates at Westgate Financial Services and us can help you work through all of this!
Proximity to Infrastructure
You will thank your future self for considering it 🔮
Maybe you’re not a huge cyclist, and maybe you hate taking the train, but flat batteries happen, and that convenient rail system just came in handy (and it might just turn your property into a gold mine in the years to come 💰).
Changes to infrastructure, such as new highway development and roadways, public transportation, commercial development, and neighbourhood changes, can significantly impact property values. For example, the opening of the Perth to Mandurah train line in 2007 provided faster and more convenient access to the city for commuters in the southern suburbs, leading to house prices in Mandurah increasing 144 per cent.
So after all this, hopefully, you’re not too overwhelmed… trust us when we say it’s all worth it! Careful consideration of your budget, thorough research on potential neighbourhoods, and getting the right guidance from people who know their stuff, could really impact your financial standing and lifestyle in the years to come. Why not get started today and talk to us about finding that little spot of WA you can call yours? 🏡
