Building up

[pmcghee]

The Wife wants to buy a single bedroom inner city townhouse and try and apply for a DA approval for a second story.
I have no idea how much this is going to be to add another level to the back section of the house and if this will even get approved.
What would be the ballpark cost estimates of adding a second bedroom and bathroom to a small double-bricked c1900 property and what is the procedures of finding out if this is possible and getting this done??

My idea is to buy either a renovated two story townhouse or even renovate one up?

 

[Aaron_C]

Renovating a dwelling is very expensive. Even more so for a heritage dwelling like yours. Ballpark figure? Depends on quality but I have heard estimates of $3,000-6,000 per sqm.

 

[pmcghee]

Thanks Aaron.
How does one know if DA approval is going to be approved for this type of work.
Do you just have to buy the property and hope it does?

 

[Aaron_C]

Sorry pmcghee I can't really comment on NSW procedure but in Victoria you are able to construct a double storey on a heritage dwelling as long as the extension is not visible from the street and does not modify the original period features etc.

 

[melbmeg]

Expensive

In Melbourne, on a tight site in the inner city with a heritage building, a couple of bedrooms and a bathroom would be a bargain at under $150K. It might be more like $250K when all is said and done. Going up isn't cheap.

Re planning, talk to local builders, ask at the council, etc. You need to check for heritage overlays, look at ResCode, etc.

It can be worth doing, but if you need to do a lot of reno work to the existing house as well as extend, you could be up for $350K or so.

We've just done something similar. It almost would have been cheaper to knock the thing down and whack a new house on the block, but we wouldn't have got the same quality of structure and it wouldn't have been worth as much as a period house.

I can see why you wouldn't want to do it - it's been a PITA!

 

[Ideo]

Thanks Aaron.
How does one know if DA approval is going to be approved for this type of work.
Do you just have to buy the property and hope it does?

Could get a feasibility done prior to purchase to give you an idea.

When you say townhouse I'm guessing torrens title?

Are you in a heritage area?

Unfortunately I can't say with any certainty without a few hours digging. It can be feasible. It may not be. Depends on the council area.

 

[Melbournian]

a builder friend of mine spent like 700-800K in an extension over a 1 year period in albert park victorian (inc interest permits etc).

Pity the market tanked at the time he tried to sell.

 

[depreciator]

How does one know if DA approval is going to be approved for this type of work.
Do you just have to buy the property and hope it does?

Buying a property with your fingers crossed might not be an ideal investment strategy.
Sometimes the prevailing streetscape can be a good guide i.e. if a bunch of houses in the street have had a rear second storey addition.
Talk to the council - before you buy the property, ideally.
And take note of what others have said about the cost of doing an addition to an old, inner city house. Sure, there are cheap ways to do things, but if you buy in, say, Newtown (Sydney) and do a cheap and nasty job it's going to work against you.