Land Selection

Choosing the right piece of land for your new home is worth the time and effort, it can take just a few days or it can take weeks depending on what is available in the areas you are after and what price range you are able to afford.

There are quite a number of factors to consider at this time.

First is your budget. A good guide in most circumstances is 50% of your affordable home budget. As an example, if you are looking to build a new home and after talking to your bank you can afford a new house and land for $500,000 then your land budget should be around the $250,000 mark.

This works in some cases but not all, as you need to watch out for falling into the false economy trap.

The 50% works on land that is easy to build on, by this I mean flat land close to building suppliers and trades.

If you choose a building block of land that is very sloping or basically on the side of a hill then the building costs for your home will sky rocket, so what you save on land costs doubles the home construction costs, also if you choose the land that is 4 hours from building suppliers and tradesman then the travel and delivery costs also dramatically increase the price of building the home, so the 50% budget for the land will no longer work.

After you have worked out the budget for your land selection and the area you are looking to live in then comes choosing the actual block of land.

There are a lot of new estates with land available in most cities, ready for the new home and land buyer. So, choosing the estate is the best starting point.

The land selection itself takes a little bit of common sense and time to analyze the position.

I always recommend standing on the land several times and looking for key points at different times of the day.

Morning Inspection

Get a feel for where the sun rises and which rooms would benefit from the morning sun.

Traffic? is the morning rush hour going to affect you backing the car out and leaving for work.

Lunch time Inspection

Middle of the day sun can affect patios, pool and entertainment areas so take the time to get a feel for how the weekends would be.

Afternoon – Night time Inspection

Again, check the traffic for getting into the garage, kids play areas.

The sun position and neighbors are they to close on one side, is it a noisy loud area and does car headlights affect the home as in the end of a cul de sac. Do the car lights stream into the lounge as each car turns around.

You will be surprised that by standing on the land 2 or more times just how much you notice and get a feel for the land before you purchase.

Lastly, if you have a home design in mind make sure it fits the land keeping in mind there are set back requirements. That is, you must have the house set back from the boundary lines so you will need to check with the local authority what those requirements are.

Tips and Common Sense

• Talk to the bank to work out a House and Land budget

• Watch for the false economy trap

• Stand on the land several times before buying