Building your own home

Today’s blog post is following on from the previous posts about Melbourne property - the Real Estate journey and Choosing your suburb.

 

For many people, buying an existing home in established suburbs can be too expensive. A popular and cheaper option especially among new immigrants is to buy an empty block of land in an outer growth corridor suburb – e.g. Point Cook or Tarneit – and build a brand spanking new home.

Let’s say you have chosen your land, decided on a house design and selected a builder, what next?

Here are the 6 main stages of building your own home:

1. Contract: Review and finalise building contract terms and conditions
2. Base: This is after the concrete slab foundation or stumps/piers/columns have been completed
3. Frame: After all the wall and roof frames have been built.
4. Lock Up: After the external walls, windows, doors, etc have been completed and the house can be “locked up”.
5. Interior: All the interior work – e.g. plumbing (water and gas), electrical, painting, etc. – is completed.
6. Handover: Your will get a chance to go through the house with the builder to ensure that everything is alright. Any defects are officially noted for rectification. 

By the way, it is normally built into your building contract that you have to pay a certain amount of the total price at each stage – also known as Progress payments.

Best of luck with your new project!

P.S. I have been through this process a number of times so feel free to post any specific questions you have about the process. More than happy to assist if I can!

Last but not least, don't forget to check out my brand NEW website - www.melbourneahoy.com.au - dedicated to all things about moving to Melbourne and life in general in the world's most liveable city !