Rent vs buy calculator - short term?

How long does it realistically take to build a house? 6 months? 9 months?

We need to sell our house to build, and during the building period we either need to rent or buy, there are too many of us to go sponge off relatives or something.

Rent for that period - 4br houses here are around $280pw.
Buying shortterm - there's a $100k house available near here that has been for sale 'forever' and there's downwards wriggle room on that price. With 60% loan, $2800 stamp duty, ... er ... what other fees are there? House is currently let for $140pw (its in a different town to us, hence cheap rent) so could be rented again when we're done. Its not a house we'd like to stay in longterm (no yard) but would do for a few months. I imagine we'd need a >60 day settlement period to get vacant possession.

Have to move twice if we buy or rent, bills getting reconnected etc so don't need to count those.

I have a strong suspicion buying is going to win in this case but does anyone have a link to a calculator or can do some mental arithmetic?
 
I'd say rent, but if the house you are looking at buying is a good investment then go for it.

As for how long does it take to build a house - how long is a peice of string?? Having said that from my experience generally about 8 weeks after building actually commences it is finished.
 
Your costs will be:

Interest on the loan
Lost interest on the $40 K you put down - can you use this money better elsewhere
Stamp duty divided by number of weeks
Rates
 
How long does it realistically take to build a house? 6 months? 9 months?

Too many variables to really give you an answer RE.
Builder? Location? Type? all come into it a bit. If you're looking at a mainstream builder then you're looking at well over 12 months without anything getting in the way. Are you looking at transportable type? What's your local council like for approval timeframe?

Rugrat, who is your 8 week time frame with? In Adelaide you are looking at about 5-6 months from start of construction to hand over.......

Gools
 
I'll go with 9-12 months range then which is going to tip the balance in favour of buying even further - we'll have enough from selling this house to not only put down 40% but come close to offsetting the other 60% too. The idea is just to split/leverage what we had in this house into two new ones. I don't know how long the local council (Northern Areas) takes to approve things but the dealings I've had with them so far they've been very pro-development and quite easy to deal with.

The builder is Rivergum Homes, who has the vast majority of new builds here. If we sell, we have the free cash to pay the small amount extra to get it built on a slab rather than transportable which is better in the long term.

I could have sworn I replied to this thread ... must be the baby. Everything weird is her fault.

I worked out that for 9 months its about $5000 to buy (less with most of that time the loan is offset) and $10,000 to rent and nothing to show for it at the end, so either that is just really good for buying or I'm seriously missing some fees beyond stamp duty, interest, rates and water. For 12 or more that difference would grow even further.
 
Add to that the uncertainty of how much the actual build will cost anyway.
If houses are so cheap out your way I know I would rather lock in certainty than risk the uncertainty.
 
The 8wks was only referring to the Actual construction stage. ie, lay slab through to installing kitchen etc. Definitely not factoring any approvals, plans, certifiers, etc, etc.

FROM MY EXPERIENCE, about 8 weeks AFTER BUILDING ACTUALLY COMMENCES it is finished.
 
Far out, things must be a bit different in the ACT.
That's amazing. Here it's lay the slab, wait a few weeks. Put the frame up, wait a few weeks and so it goes on.....................

Is there an over supply of tradies in the ACT?
 
Like I said - just my experience. Which is very limited and admittedly with a large construction company. I got not much else to go off. :) I'm sure others here have had different experiences.
 
Houses in *this* town start at $130k for a mouldy hovel, around $200k you start to get something good, $250k+ you get into the really nice stuff or new houses. $400k gets you something lovely. Much more expensive than building.

The house I'm going to look at on Friday has been on the market "forever" and is one of those unsellable jobbies - it is on an extremely small block (a huge negative in the country) and has a tenant in. People just Do Not Want to deal with tenants out here, and I'm happy for a long settlement to give them 60 days to move out. Its not in this town, and is on the internet through an agent that doesn't do email. It looks slightly bigger than ours, in fair condition, and is asking $105k - should be able to get that lower.
 
Rumpledelf......what about :eek: a caravan/mobile home ??

maybe buy a 2nd hand one..put it on your "quarantined" land..live in it 'til your house is built..then sell it off....(maybe even at a "slight" profit???)
 
Many builders in S.A metro area quote around 12- 15 months from signing and often take much longer :(
RE, I don't need to remind you how long you had to wait, just for the plumber in your rural locality! :eek:
Yep rugrat, you have had very different experiences than your fellow S.A. Somersofters!
 
Plumbers are so hard to get I hassled one and have him booked in for Jan 19th :D A third plumber moved to this area a few months back and is being worked off his feet now but has really reduced the wait times for plumbing. He's cheaper than the others too.

...what about :eek: a caravan/mobile home ??
Those things still cost a fortune and would really eat into our deposit, and aren't really practical for 5 people. Sure, technically we could stick a secondhand house in the backyard of our IP (its like 1200sqm) but council might complain about that and I'd never be able to get rid of it later ...

The only reason I need to do this in the first place is there's apparently no such thing as a lo-doc bridging construction loan, or we could continue living next door to the vacant land. I have around $200k equity but can't actually get a loan against it so selling to free it is the only feasible way out. We'll end up with around $60-70k cash to use as a downpayment against a $100k build and our existing mortgage will reduce, so by selling and moving somewhere cheaper our overall debt levels should only increase by $20k or so. And I can cope with around $120k of debt secured against $400k of house.
 
Builder confirms 9-10 months and that we could shave maybe 8 weeks off that if we start now, but can't go very far without the new title.

Apparently they do mostly holiday homes and retirement houses in the country so they don't get many FHBs, so their business has been slow and steady as always this last year. I was a bit concerned they may have a backlog with all this grant nonsense. They build extremely nice looking houses, they have put up literally dozens in the two or three years we've been interested in this area - as a percentage of the housing stock, considering the size of this town, that is a very high proportion.
 
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