My latest development - 4 dwellings in Melbourne

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This is one of my newest developments which is about to commence. It?s a [B]4 townhouse/unit development[/B] ? 2 townhouses and 2 single story units located in a decent suburb of Melbourne. 

Construction Cost

Total build: $625,000

WOW Build cost for $624,000 ? What was the turnkey cost ?


MI

probz under quote for more juicyness;)
 
Nearly finished now. A few photo's are attached. Carpet, floorboards and landscaping are the main items left now. So by mid Feb all will be completed, including the subdivision.


Cheers
Oscar
 

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Well this was done and dusted a few weeks ago. Two of the four units were sold at frame stage at my expected price (worth more now that the market has risen). Kept the other two which are now leased and these have had 10% growth since mid last year.

Construction costs were a tad more as i finished these off at a higher standard. End values were higher than expected too. All in all a very good outcome. I've been looking in the same area for a 4 unit site but they rarely hit the market.

The most annoying this with this development was getting power as the whole street needed to be upgraded to cope with the extra demand caused by the 4 units. :confused: This delayed the settlement date by a good month. Also, just missed getting the driveway poured before xmas which added an extra 2-3 weeks. What are you gonna do!

Now arranging the refinance to get some cash out :)

Cheers
Oscar
 
Well this was done and dusted a few weeks ago. Two of the four units were sold at frame stage at my expected price (worth more now that the market has risen). Kept the other two which are now leased and these have had 10% growth since mid last year.

Construction costs were a tad more as i finished these off at a higher standard. End values were higher than expected too. All in all a very good outcome. I've been looking in the same area for a 4 unit site but they rarely hit the market.

The most annoying this with this development was getting power as the whole street needed to be upgraded to cope with the extra demand caused by the 4 units. :confused: This delayed the settlement date by a good month. Also, just missed getting the driveway poured before xmas which added an extra 2-3 weeks. What are you gonna do!

Now arranging the refinance to get some cash out :)

Cheers
Oscar

Thanks for coming back to update the thread.
 
With a build cost of $624K I'm curious to know what these would have cost if you were building for a client?

We are hoping to put on four townhouses in Brisbane (build two, refinance, build another two). We have a builder in mind, but until we go for council pre lodgement meeting, I'm not getting too ahead of myself as far as what style, what materials, cost etc (but would aim for two storey 3 x 2).

The other thing I'm very unsure of is how annoying it would be if we asked for certain jobs to be removed from the quote because we believe we can get a better price, e.g. painting. We have a tenant who is a painter and I believe he would do a better price. I guess if we ask that the painting be specified and we can ask our painter if he wants the job, and his price, and make that decision before signing the contract with the builder.

I'd also love to hear from you (with your builder's hat on) whether we should either ask our builder to project manage the other parts of the whole job for an extra fee or should we pay a project manager?

We've project managed some large renovations, getting trades there in good time and in correct order, but we've never had a "whole house" built where anything we might miss can mean our builder is held up, costing us money and creating tension.

For this reason, I'm inclined to think it would run more smoothly (but cost more) if the builder himself takes on the project management of the whole "job" and not just look after the actual building of the first two townhouses. The builder we hope to use does townhouse projects for his own family, so he could project manage the whole thing.

I'm thinking other things we (or a project manager) need to manage, i.e. temporary power to the site to actually do the build and permanent power supply once they are built., organising driveway from street into the battle-axe, and at what stage (probably after the build?), organising sewer and stormwater issues at correct times before/during the build, probably lots of other things I've not even thought about yet.

Our plan would be to hold all four and turn a large block with two dwellings (both must stay) into a large block with six dwellings. Rent from two dwellings doesn't cover the interest, but rent from six dwellings would cover the total of the current loan plus the loan to build. This would mean this block stands on its own feet and we don't need to contribute to it going forward.

Here is a thread I started.

http://somersoft.com/forums/showthread.php?t=97211

I'd love to hear your thoughts, both with your developer hat on and just your builder hat on, when you have time. We are not even to the pre lodgement meeting stage, so there is no rush. Take a holiday first if you like :D:p
 
Hi guys, wondering if anyone can help, new to investing, but situation I have is mother inlaw has a nice old house on 700sqm block, would love to demolish house and build 3 x 2 story townhouse on there, she owes 40k on loan, so she would need 1 to live in, not sure if anyone done something similar or has a good suggestions on structure I could do, we have good equity in our ppor but she has the land and location for a good investment, any help?
 
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