Two sons have just bought (and one son sold in order to buy again).
One bought pretty much for land value, but it was a private sale, so he did better than had it gone to market. The house has huge potential and cannot be removed, but he wants to renovate the house anyway.
Other son was hoping to buy and get first home owner stamp duty concession - free for under $500K and sliding scale up to $550K. He bought for $550K in Holland Park, so that was a $11,600 cost we didn't realise was going to hit him, but he would have gone ahead anyway.
He bought in a nice quiet street in an area where houses are being renovated. He got four bedrooms and a huge deck, asbestos came for no extra charge
. Bathroom and kitchen required gutting, so we had those two rooms plus two small bedrooms, toilet and small storage room plus downstairs toilet) gutted by the experts (cost approx $5K perhaps a little more as he added the kitchen floor after the quote plus another small transition area to the work that were not quoted). I reckon it could go to $7K as the bathroom had double sheeting, hence extra dumping, extra time.
Plaster to the four rooms, toilet plus transition area (walls and ceiling) will cost $5K so really for an added $10K to $12K he has an asbestos free house (except the soffits).
To keep under $500K he would have had to buy on Newnham Road or Logan Road, or further out, and he wants to be closer. He could have bought in Curlewis Street, much sought after, but the noise from Logan Road and Holland Road negated the prestige of that street.
We were looking at houses between $490K and $600K and everything seemed to be "under contract". Several others we looked at were tiny and/or ugly and not able to be improved.
Interestingly, our double block that we are taking to BCC to try to get approval for four townhouses was of little interest to the one developer who took any interest in it a few months ago. If a seasoned developer isn't prepared to take it on, it makes me wonder if we are silly to even try to develop it ourselves, but that is our plan.
One bought pretty much for land value, but it was a private sale, so he did better than had it gone to market. The house has huge potential and cannot be removed, but he wants to renovate the house anyway.
Other son was hoping to buy and get first home owner stamp duty concession - free for under $500K and sliding scale up to $550K. He bought for $550K in Holland Park, so that was a $11,600 cost we didn't realise was going to hit him, but he would have gone ahead anyway.
He bought in a nice quiet street in an area where houses are being renovated. He got four bedrooms and a huge deck, asbestos came for no extra charge
. Bathroom and kitchen required gutting, so we had those two rooms plus two small bedrooms, toilet and small storage room plus downstairs toilet) gutted by the experts (cost approx $5K perhaps a little more as he added the kitchen floor after the quote plus another small transition area to the work that were not quoted). I reckon it could go to $7K as the bathroom had double sheeting, hence extra dumping, extra time.Plaster to the four rooms, toilet plus transition area (walls and ceiling) will cost $5K so really for an added $10K to $12K he has an asbestos free house (except the soffits).
To keep under $500K he would have had to buy on Newnham Road or Logan Road, or further out, and he wants to be closer. He could have bought in Curlewis Street, much sought after, but the noise from Logan Road and Holland Road negated the prestige of that street.
We were looking at houses between $490K and $600K and everything seemed to be "under contract". Several others we looked at were tiny and/or ugly and not able to be improved.
Interestingly, our double block that we are taking to BCC to try to get approval for four townhouses was of little interest to the one developer who took any interest in it a few months ago. If a seasoned developer isn't prepared to take it on, it makes me wonder if we are silly to even try to develop it ourselves, but that is our plan.
