Home Design Inc.

Build An Home Extension Or Move Into A New Property? Some Helpful Insights

More and more people are staying in the same property for longer and longer because, although housing stock is growing, fewer houses are actually being sold.

All of this suggests that more individuals are extending the time they live in the same property. In fact it is said that for each person who builds their own home, there are 15 that add extensions to their property.

The factors for all this are simple to see say Custom Outdoor Living, who are based in Melbourne, Australia here www.customoutdoorliving.com.au. It frequently makes more economic sense and is a much better use of space. It indicates we can remain in the exact same neighbourhood if we like living there, which also means that your kids can stay at the same school without the trouble of having to re-integrate into a new school and have to make a whole bunch of friends afresh.

One of the greatest benefits of extending your house and not moving, is the savings you make on stamp duty. It does not take a rocket scientist to work out that with stamp duty on the most costly homes going for four per cent, by the time you have actually calculated the agents charges for selling your home and the stamp duty on the new house, you may well discover you might be able to build yourself a pretty slick home extension for a lot less.

If you decide to go down the route of extending your property, you really should put a lot of thought into even the smallest house extension before any building commences. For example, if you merely want to extend the kitchen area at the rear of your house, you might have to ask yourself, should it be single storey or more? If it is the latter, exactly how many storeys need to go on top of it?

There are likewise useful issues to consider that are not directly related to the construction process. Access is an example. If you are intending to expand your property, will it mean more cars will have to be parked on the drive? If you have no drive then the absence of off-street parking might be a reason for the refusal of getting building permission. Similarly, if your house is in a terrace do you have rear access for the unloading of structure materials or if not, will you need to bring everything from beams to blocks, and girders to guttering through the front of your home?

Other important aspects to think about prior to you actually getting to the building stage, are matters like soil conditions on the site, available services, and not forgetting your surrounding landscape. Has there been any history of flooding and what about your right of access to the areas you need to access. Even then it might be a good idea to pop into your local planning workplace to discover exactly what might be allowed specifically if you are planning anything off the beaten track. It is usually a good idea to spend some time looking into any local building policy to ensure that you’re fully aware from the start as to whether there will be any stumbling blocks to look out for later on.

In some instances it might be smart to ask your adviser to write to the regional organisers after any meeting you might have had with them confirming what was agreed. At least this way, you have written evidence to prove their decisions, just in case they change their minds further down the line.