Hi,
just to remind you the building costs may be more than many people realise unless you can be a hands on builder yourself. I’m a complete novice & I’ve found that major builders have got it down to a fine art.

What I’ve done is choose an established builder (been around for 100 years), not too expensive as advertised & put everything into…[Read more]

Hi, interesting stories you all share. I have the same problem, mostly with family. They usually say “What do you want so much money for?”

I’ve looked into myself & discovered the greatest joy I experienced was when I studied the layout plans for a re-development project. It suddenly hit me that in high school all I wanted was to be a writer or…[Read more]

Hi foundation, thanks for the info.
I went to some suburbs, literally pounding the pavement. Clearview is quite rebuilt & from what my eyes could tell, most of the rebuilding would be at least 50% of the houses there, many one new one for an old one. Along Hampstead Rd, one old block may be rebuilt into 3 courtyard homes.

And then I do see some…[Read more]

Hi, I’m responding to the info that we built 157000 houses while our population grew by 200000. I think that these figures may bear checking for veracity depending on what categories of building is under consideration.

Let’s accept the accuracy of the figures. Can someone tell me whether the 157000 are additional homes or a portion of them are…[Read more]

Hi, some thoughts on your numbers.

Deal 1
1) You may need more than $120K to build a new house. I’m going to build 4 on flat ground and each costs $140K including interest costs & infrastructure.

2) Your profit margin may need to be a tad higher. I’d look for a minimum of $50K gain for each house.

3) Look into the rental potential. I’m now…[Read more]

Hi David, do you live in Adelaide? I just bought a small old house fairly good condition & should rent easily. It costs less than $250K and there’s enough land to extend or sub-divide. This property settles on 1 May.

If you’re interested, I saw another one, asking price around $250K in the same suburb on roughly the same size block. I don’t know…[Read more]

Hi, this is interesting cos I’ve been considering DHA properties & finally rejected it – same numbers : about 6% yield on an inflated price. The price has built in 10 years of +ve appreciation. I worked this on the actual houses advertised here in Adelaide. I was interested in the double-storey houses, those in Windsor Gdns and Greenacres. The…[Read more]

Dear Andy, if you do rent out your unit, do take up the generous offer of help with the depreciation schedule. It can obliterate your tax bill. I know because I learned the hard way – I paid $800+ for a quick depreciation schedule & boy was I happy with the tax refunds! I missed out on more $10K worth of refunds but I’m still happy.

Good luck &…[Read more]

Hi,
You’re right. Just build & make the profit then. I realised that from the sale of my 1st property that the break cost is 20% i.e. if the sale price is less than 20% higher than the purchase price, then I might as well keep my money in the bank.
Good luck.
Kum Yin

Hi, I’m from Adelaide & am currently running scared (started investing in 1998, bought 4 houses in one go) but just bought 3 development properties.

My ‘advice’ is to do the numbers thoroughly & throw in some contingency funds or financials. My building consultant says it’s hard to make an unprofitable deal profitable.

The latest one I bought…[Read more]