Hi and Thanks for visiting our blog,
Just want to give you all a little background story about us & why we choose to build vs buying a established house.
We are just about to start our life together and have been planning a lot for our future. We wanted a family home which will be sufficient for at least 10 - 15 years time or even longer. We were trying to find an established house for a bit but in the end choose to build a new one instead. We feel that building will make a appreciate our house more and will make sure that we can get to choose everything according to what we want and what we can afford. With our budget, we really can't any better than Point Cook if we are looking for the closest one to Melbourne City.
We think that Point Cook may grow into a good suburb in the future which will increase the value of our land. Also if the government go trough with building Werrebie business district, the area will be buzzing with jobs & shops.
We have been looking for a while in Point Cook we have been to Alamanda, Featherbrook, Southwater Coast, Paragon and Saratoga, we were really close to get a land in Featherbrook & Saratoga at one point but because of some issues we didn't go trough, in the end we manage to find one that is perfect for us Kingsford Estate.
We are building on stage 8. The land itself is not titled until August 2013. We love this Estate because they do not sell their facility, just purely residential (which in the end justify the price). We realize that an estate does not need to have facility by itself considering the next estate is less than 500m away with all the common facility. The location that we choose is also very close to a huge park which will be lovely for the us & kids in the future. It is also on the walking distance to a local Woolworths & bus stop.
Hi Rudy,
ReplyDeleteCame across to your website after googling about Saratoga. Would you mind to share the "some issues" that made you didn't go through? We are really close to signing a contract now, and still looking as much info as I can since this would be our 1st experience buying property at Oz. After looking at your blog, I'm a little bit hesitate since there's so much details of houses need to inspect and monitor. Btw, I live in Jakarta and looking for investment purposes.
Thanks
Hi Hadiwinata,
DeleteIt is not so much as an issue, but more like a choice but here they are,
1. Saratoga at that time told me there will be an Estate Fee when their main facility (Gym etc) are build. The fee will be around 1k a year which we don't want & need
2. The Saratoga estate is located behind Kingsford and Featherbrook so it is further from the main road.
3. Kingsford offered me a bigger block with the same price at that time.
As for the inspection and monitor, I guess it is because we build the house to live so we put more care on it and do extra inspection for peace of mind. It will be the same if you are building in Indonesia, you will be going to check all the time to make sure everything goes right.
I'm from Indonesia myself, The building practice in Australia is regulated so the quality will be better than the Indonesian building practice other than they use plasterboard for walls instead of brick / concrete in Indonesia.
In the end of the day, building is a very complex process with multiple trades working together. There will be mistake and error along the way, but if you can identify and fix them promptly, then it won't be any issue.
So is this investment for rental or to live in the future? Will there be anyone to monitor the building process in Melbourne?
Thanks for your reply Rud.
DeleteI'm looking for an investment, and probably for our 2nd home in case my 9y son want to school there in the next 5-8 years :) Actually the choice either I took the land + building package in PC or apartment closer to the city.
Btw, the builder is Tribeca, they offer fix cost building inclusion with 3 years rental guarantee. Is the name familiar to you?
Hi Hadiwinata,
DeleteIf it is for an investment and you are looking for a tenant during to help pay the mortgage, I suggest you got with an apartment in the city, Point Cook is a bit lack on public transport which will be a negative to for a rental since most people will choose to rent where it is more convenience location wise.
To be blunt, If I have to rent, I will not be renting in Point Cook, I will choose somewhere closer to the city. However, since I'm looking for somewhere quite to have a family living Point Cook is good for it.
I have never heard of Tribeca actually. but they probably cater more to investment property since they provide rental guarantee.
Good Luck!