How to find the right site for your knock down rebuild project
Knockdown and rebuild involves purchasing an established property (often an old house built over 30 to 40 years ago), completing the design and obtaining all necessary permits and approval from authorities, then engaging a builder to build it. Sounds simple enough? Don’t be fooled, for an average family it could well be the biggest investment of time, money and energy of your lifetime.
First of all, you need to buy a property to knock down, but don’t rush it. Remember to do your due diligence before signing the dotted line. In this article we will share with you eight important tips when looking for the right site to build.
Tip No.1 - Location Location Location!
You’ve done your research and narrowed down to a beautiful suburb with easy access to schools, shops, parks and transport. Great! That’s a good start, then you start looking at all the houses in the suburbs and attending open for inspections. At this stage, ask yourself these questions:
How was the street? Are there more houses, townhouses or apartments? How was the parking on the street? Was it hard to find an off the street parking spot? Was there any student accommodation or boarding house on the street? Does it look like the nature strip’s been well looked after? Was there rubbish left on the nature strip? What was the traffic like? Looking into these details it might get you some insight of the neighbourhood you would be living in for a number of years.
Was the house facing a T intersection or incoming traffic? What’s the speed limit on the street?
Speak to the neighbours if they are out doing their gardening, they might provide good insight of the area and you will also have an idea what types of personality your future neighbhours are.
Tip No.2 - All hail the Sun!
What’s the first impression when you walk into someone’s house? Is it dark and gloomy or is it bright and open? Orientation plays a critical role in designing new homes. A light filled space is comfortable to live in and is highly desirable for home buyers if you are planning to sell in the future. In Australia the path of the sun is to the north, therefore a north-facing room gets sunlight for the longest period of the day in winter and is easily shaded by the eaves of the roof in summer. For example, a regular rectangular shape block south of the street gets most of the sun to the front of the property which usually comprises of garage and small bedrooms, compared to a property on the north side of the street where the rear of the property is facing north and that’s where most living and family areas are located hence it’s a better orientation. Of course blocks come in all shapes and sizes and clever designs can sometimes improve the orientation of the home, however having a good understanding of orientation when selecting a site is important.
Before demolition starts make sure you engage a licensed plumber to locate and cap the internal sewer pipe before the sewer main so no building waste goes into the sewer.
Tip No.3 - Look out for the trees!
We all love trees, however when buying a block of land for rebuilding, it’s important to understand the implications trees could have on the design and building of your future home.
Councils have different planning overlays that restrict the removal of certain types of trees. Heavy fines also apply for illegal removal without permits.
Are there big trees on the block that are in the way of your new home? For example, in some part of whitehorse city council, any tree with a trunk circumference of 1.0 meter or greater measured at 1.0 meter from the ground and/or a height of 5 meters or greater will need a planning permit to be removed, lopped or destroyed. Costs and time delays are the main things you need to consider.
Have you paid attention to neighbouring trees? First it might block sunlight coming through your new home, and if the tree is close to the property boundary and needs to be protected, that might have an impact on how close you can build to the boundary.
Tip No.4 - Don’t forget about all the services.
Most people overlook the importance and complication of infrastructure assets and services in knockdown and rebuild and pay huge prices for these mistakes. These services include things like gas, electricity, water, sewer, stormwater, and telecommunications.
Find out the location of the services and understand the implications.
Underground services in established areas were installed many years ago with materials we no longer use in our industry, therefore upgrading and replacement sometimes falls onto the building owner and it could cost a lot of money.
Underground assets are mostly protected by easements on the plan. Depending on the location of the easements, you might have trouble fitting the house design on the block due to the easements.
Tip No.5 - Watch out for the slope!
If you don’t have a particular reason for buying land with a steep slope, for example a nice city/park view, then try to find a flat block that will save you tens of thousands in civil costs. Excavation is expensive, cutting and filling the site requires heavy machinery, labour and most likely retaining walls. If you are not fond of steps inside your home then you should look for flat blocks.
Tip No.6 - Read the contract & vendor statement.
Reviewing the vendor statement is a must in any real estate purchase, you can do it yourself if you have the experience otherwise you should get a solicitor to review and explain to you. A restrictive covenant is a private written agreement between landowners to restrict the use or development of land for the benefit of other land. For example, in some parts of Monash council, there are properties with covenants that restrict the use of external wall materials to only brickwork. The use of brickwork is common in modern buildings but in recent years due to the labour shortage of bricklayers, the cost of brickworks has increased significantly. The use of brickwork for upper storey external walls is also becoming less and less common due to the costs and time frame for construction.
Therefore you should check the restrictive covenants before deciding to make the purchase, and if the price is too good to say no, then make sure you talk to an experienced planning lawyer for the costs and likelihood of removing the covenant through the planning scheme or the supreme court to weigh in the benefits and costs.
Tip No.7 - Learn some design basics!
Rescode is a set of residential design standards and guidelines that you need to comply with to build a new home in Victoria. It covers a range of areas, including setbacks, site coverage, building height, permeability, garden area, overshadowing, etc. Having a basic understanding of Rescode helps you understand what types of designs, size, setbacks and areas you can build on a particular site. For example, in whitehorse city council, there are areas where only a 40% site coverage is allowed, therefore for a 500 sqm block you could only build a single storey with a footprint of 200 sqm, the first floor also needs to be set back further to prevent overshadowing neighbour’s existing habitable room windows or private open space.
These are the basics you need to know if you are planning a knock down rebuild, because an architect is not going to provide you with free advice every single time you look at a property. Gear up some knowledge to save yourself money and time.
Tip No.8 - Check out property and planning information.
Property and planning information are probably the first thing you need to look up before even inspecting the property. This will provide you with information including planning zones, overlays, areas, frontage and services providers. Once you review the information and all seems okay, you can then contact the council to apply for further information such as legal point of discharge, stormwater requirements, flooding, termite requirements, etc. For example, you might not have a special building overlay on the property but the land might still be under council’s prone to local flooding areas, therefore a minimum floor level will be required for any new build and that could potential costs you tens of thousands of dollars to raise the foundation of the house to meet the requirements.
We hope you find this information helpful. If you require any assistance in finding the right site for your next knockdown rebuild project, our experienced staff will be more than happy to help you out.
