Ins & Outs of House building

[Mike & Nicola]

We've been looking for a house in Auckland for quite a long time now. We're quite particular in what we want ie nice weatherboard house, with wooden floors and preferably french doors onto a nice north facing rear fenced garden. Unfortunately, most of these are in Mt Eden with pretty hefty (if they ever advertise it) price tags...

So we're wondering what the process of building a house is? Has anyone done it?

I'd like to know firstly, where do I look for land? The usual realestate websites are pretty shoddy when it comes to sections...

Do builders do land/house packages ie can I just contact builders and they locate land for me? Any recommendations

On the financial side, is it likely to cost me heaps more to build a modest 3 bed linea weatherboard house on a modest section, than its relatively comparable neighbour would be to buy??? Hope that makes sense????

How does the whole mortgaging of building your house work? Obviously whilst the house is being built you still have to live somewhere, so do you pay rent and a mortgage(this may differ I own the land - but what if that is part of the land/house package - if such exists)? Or do the kind banks and builders not ask for a cent until you move in? :-)

What is the ball park figure when it comes to building? Not after a huge house by any means - standard 3 bed house - nice deck, wood floor, insulation, dvs & solar hot water would all be nice... If I can get land for around 280 - 300K what would final bill do you think I'd be looking at?

Cheers

Mike

[Familyofmonkeys]

For land try....

http://www.sectionsrus.co.nz/

Most of the main builders do house and land packages.....but most seem to be on the periphery of Auckland....haven't seen many nearer to CBD personally. They will also all have a list of current sections available if you ask them. Here are a few to get you started:

http://www.davidreidhomes.co.nz/
http://www.maddrenhomes.co.nz/
http://www.signaturehomes.co.nz/
http://www.gjgardner.co.nz/cms/
http://www.goldenhomes.co.nz/
http://www.jalcon.co.nz/
http://www.villahomes.co.nz/
There are many, many other companies too.


There are several other threads running about current house builds (any many more of us with land and in the planning stages ):

http://www.enz.org/forum/showthread.php?t=8554
http://www.enz.org/forum/showthread.php?t=19219
http://www.enz.org/forum/showthread....bought+section
http://www.enz.org/forum/showthread....bought+section

If you find a section you like, get one of the larger building companies to go and take a look for you.....doesn't cost anything. They could suggest which (if any) or their standard plans would be suitable for site. There are many things to consider when looing for land...here are a few: orientation towards sun, shade, privacy/view, road access, services to land (phone, mains water, sewage, phone/broadband, electricity, mains gas), slope (can make a massive difference to build price), drainage (or if any will be required), soil type & stability (make condition of offer a satisfactory ground survey or geotech engineers report), covenants on land (i.e. things you can't include on property, certain materials that have to be used, minimum house size, maximum ground coverage) etc.

Some companies will ask for a deposit and an additional payments as various stages of the build are completed, other companies ask for a deposit (anything from 5% to 20%) and you don't pay anything else until your property is completed (this seems more common when you already own the land, but not always). Most banks will allow you to pay interest only until you move into new home so you're not paying rent and a morgage. Some banks are quite happy for you to pay nothing until build complete if you either own land of have large sum of money as deposit already.....there are tons of deals out there and they are always changing so shop around to see what you can get before looking seriously at sections.

House prices......the main builders seem to charge anywhere between $1100 to $1800 (or more) per square metre for most standard plans. Bear in mind that this can vary enormously depending on what features you might want to add or remove. These figures are an average worked out over the entire build and include kitchens/bathrooms/kitchen electrical applicances etc. You would almost certainly want to upspec the insulation and maybe windows which will be an additional cost, but on the other hand you may want to fit your own wooden flooring/laminate and save a load of money there.....make sure you are very specific about what you want.

[Dave in NZ]

Hi,
A while back I done a thread on housing info. Although a little dated there is still some useful info there
http://www.enz.org/forum/showthread.php?t=9378

There are also 2 great build sites in NZ
www.consumerbuild.org.nz
www.buildyourdream.co.nz

[Dave in NZ]

We've been looking for a house in Auckland for quite a long time now. We're quite particular in what we want ie nice weatherboard house, with wooden floors and preferably french doors onto a nice north facing rear fenced garden. Unfortunately, most of these are in Mt Eden with pretty hefty (if they ever advertise it) price tags...

I would say you could look at the builders Sam B is using as they specialise in building villas
http://www.villahomes.co.nz/

Also look here for sections in Auckland City
http://www.realestate.co.nz/sections/all/auckland-city