Cost of 3 townhouses - Brisbane

Around my area there are loads of town houses going up on blocks of land the same as ours.

1) What is the ballpark figure to build a set of 3 town houses on 608sqm gently sloping block. I know the figure can vary greatly, but I'm only after a ballpark figure, including council approval, architects everything.. (is it 500k, 750k, 1000k ?)

2) If you owned a block of land and want to build some town houses, how much effort is required from yourself ? Where do you start ? Is there companies that take over from start to finish or do you have to organise architects, builders, council approval, setting up body corp yourself ?

As you can tell by questions I am asking, I'm only just working on a thought at this stage. Not convinced we want to do it, just interested.
 
Hi Bengeroge,

The first thing I would do if you haven't already is to make sure you can actually put 3 TH on that block. A talk to a Town planner and council are a great start. I guess the construction cost to an extent would be dependant on the demographic and the finishes they wanted and what sells best, which also makes sense in terms of profitability. Doing a feasibility will be key.

In terms of the effort required. IMO it will require resolve of steel if your going to PM it.

First thing, talk to council/town planner to see what exactly can be built on it. then, do a feasibility on your options to see what kind of profit your looking at. You can use BMT website to get a rough guide to construction cost and talking to builders in the area will help give you a range. If it makes sense profitwise, then you can decide if you want to PM it or get some outside help (which will obviously cost).

Good luck!

Leo
 
We have just lodged plans to council for four townhouses on a reasonably sloping block, so retaining walls required etc.

Ballpark figure from one builder is $1.3M to build to "ready to rent" stage. That seems low, but that is just going off the plans I sent him, without going into the level of spec we want. He knew we wanted stone bench tops etc, but more than that was not discussed. I had been working on $1.5M for build/driveway/landscaping etc but a developer I met who is drawing up plans for our son, who develops for herself, suggested with a high spec, we should allow $1.7M to be safe. These are three bedroom/study/2.5 bathroom, double garage, two levels.

We've spent probably $20K (without digging through and adding it all up) to get to this stage, and yesterday I coughed up $14.4K to BCC.

At this stage, I waver between wanting to do the build (using a builder) and selling the land with the DA.
 
At this stage, I waver between wanting to do the build (using a builder) and selling the land with the DA.


I know the feeling. I was contemplating a similar conundrum not long ago and we decided to sell with DA. I guess what made it hard for me was my pride of not taking it all the way through. But then I slapped myself out of it and looked at the numbers again and timeframes and risks and realised its just a bad financial decision not to sell with DA on that particular one.

Curious to know what you end up doing.

Good luck.

Leo
 
Inclusion is very important to think about before you start the build as it will inference the prices a lot.

Inclusion should be based on the location and comparable sales in the area not what you would like to have.

External work takes a big chunk of the budget and an experienced builder who built the similar things before should be engaged not the cheapest builder.

Normally for standard inclusion and 2 storey. $1300 to $1500 per sqm should be budgeted for building the houses only. Then you add all the external work.

Cheers

William
 
We have just lodged plans to council for four townhouses on a reasonably sloping block, so retaining walls required etc.

Ballpark figure from one builder is $1.3M to build to "ready to rent" stage. That seems low, but that is just going off the plans I sent him, without going into the level of spec we want. He knew we wanted stone bench tops etc, but more than that was not discussed. I had been working on $1.5M for build/driveway/landscaping etc but a developer I met who is drawing up plans for our son, who develops for herself, suggested with a high spec, we should allow $1.7M to be safe. These are three bedroom/study/2.5 bathroom, double garage, two levels.

We've spent probably $20K (without digging through and adding it all up) to get to this stage, and yesterday I coughed up $14.4K to BCC.

At this stage, I waver between wanting to do the build (using a builder) and selling the land with the DA.

Stone benchtop should be a standard inclusion. $60-70k for council contribution will hit before construction. Selling without DA is another option based on the location.
 
Wylie what would be the going rate for one of those TH's in your area ?

Does selling your property with approval increase value that much ? Or just make it easier to sell ?

For my situation I can't see the profit considering the risks. Total sales of 3 TH's maybe you get 1.6M at best in my area. Even if costs were 1M, there still isn't enough profit versus just selling the land. Every extra cost would eat your profit, with every weeks delay the interest you pay on the loan is significant. For a novice this would be a disaster waiting to happen am I right ?

I think anyone else at similar point to me, check out pd online from the BBC which shows you development applications in same area for ideas. Was really handy.
 
Similar ones nearby sold for around $690K to $730K. I'm thinking our values at the end would be around that.

We have to lift and move two existing houses to allow a block big enough to allow good size townhouses, but we will turn that downside into an upside by raising at that time and allowing a lower level to be built now or later.

I'm told our middle block with the DA may be worth $800K.

We'd been offered $1.6M for the double block, but that is no more than it is worth just as two houses on big blocks. We were then offered $1.8M by the same developer. We have a big debt on this double block so have big decisions to make, but plenty of time to make them if BCC takes months to approve (assuming we do get approval).
 
Back
Top