What to do? What to do?

[Mandy Mac]

Hello

I am after some advice.

I currently own (well bank owns) a two bedroom weatherboard in Noble Park on 650m2 - irregular block at bowl of court - land is on a slope (not flat).

I have a one bedroom IP in Murrumbeena and a one bedroom IP in St Kilda - both neutrally geared.

Ideally I'd love to build a duplex, sell one and live in the other with a much smaller mortgage and keep both IPs.

However I just can't see how that would happen.

We'd need a bit of site excavation to make a flat base on which to build and would probably need to demolish this place as there doesn't seem to be a market for 2 bedders for home relocation.

I'm guestimating it would cost about $400,000 for the works. And I could sell the other half of the duplex for around $400,000 maybe a bit more as there is a premium for new stuff.

So all that's happened is that I get a new place to live in, and even worse, I might have to sell the two IPs to finance it as the banks might be nervous about loaning to us on our current income.

Another option is to subdivide and sell off the back yard.

Or to subdivide and put a three bedroom home on the back yard, move into that and sell off the front home.

So I guess my question is = what's the best option?

I can live here for a little while longer, but we have four children so we're going to start bursting out of the walls eventually.

Also - this is Noble Park and people here place a premium on new, brick, and big houses. Tastefully renovated weatherboards are not appreciated the way they are over in Brighton or Hampton.

I really thought that buying a decent sized block would be my goldmine, but I'm not so sure now.

 

[Gools]

Mandy Mac, you could firstly start by using a decent subject line so people with all the experience actually read your question.

Then you need to put more figures down. What is the place worth now? what would the block at the back sell for? How much would new dwelling construction cost? What would both their values be? How much would the earth works cost? What council area are you in? You can't expect people to give you the answer if they don't have anything to work with. If you want a decent answer then you need to provide decent data to work from.

Gools

 

[Mandy Mac]

Some of those questions I don't know the answer to as I'm just starting looking into this - I've got someone coming out to assess feasibility on Monday.

I've got no idea how much the back yard would sell for if I subdivided as there's hardly a scrap of land for sale in this suburb.

Property at the moment would be 370,000 at a very conservative guess.

We are City of Greater Dandenong - and lots of subdivisions are happening in the surrounding streets.

New townhouses sell for 390K - 430K for 3bd 2bath in this area.

The most I've done in the way of renovating/redevelopment is a coat of paint, so I'm really green.

 

[The Y-man]

Mandy,

I would have thought 650 sqm in the area was pretty much a std block size - so may not be able to be subdivided.

Your first point of call (sounds like you're already doing) is the council to findout minimum requirements. If it is irregular, you need to allow for driveway to the rear etc.

Cheers,

The Y-man

 

[schweedy]

Had a weatherboard in Noble park, and your right, they dont appreciate them as much as they do over the beach suburbs.

I have also spoken to a subdividing company about splitting my block in melton, it will cost around 20-25k then to add a 3brm townhouse on the back of the block 150kish, add another 20k and I can add a familyroom and garage on the back of the existing house.

There isn't the money in the area at the moment to make a great deal of difference if we sold it subdivided as a block 85-100k than it would to sell after the house gets built for around the 250k mark, so we are sitting on that one for now.

I think the idea is you pay the 20k , get it subdivided (and there was a bit of that happening when we lived there nearly 3yrs ago), then use that extra collaterol with the bank to borrow to build the house. I do recall the fellow mentioning with a line of credit of around 50k we would get through to a stage where we could have it all reassessed, thus increasing the property value etc.

I think it would definately be worth looking into all your options, weighing up the pros and cons, not to mention the time/effort involved. Do the back one and then maybe look at doing the front one (if its worth it).

Good luck and keep us posted

 

[Mandy Mac]

Thanks Guys

Another option is to stick another bedroom or two on the back - so I'll be getting quotes for that too.

Cheers
A

 

[schweedy]

We had a subdividing company from your side of town come for a chat out the western suburbs, so well worth chatting to some.

One of our options was when the second dwelling was getting done to have extra work done to the existing house at a cheaper rate, as it gets quoted on along with the house cost, so maybe thats an option for you, do the two in one.