I am looking at purchasing a 750sq m block 3 km from Perth centre. It is zoned R30 and two 2-story houses will be allowed if subdivided (each with green title). The street frontage is 16M and the block depth is 47M. It has no other access. It slopes upwards from the road. We intend to live in one house and rent the other. The existing house on the block is uninhabitable and will be demolished.
There are two ways I can see dividing the block.
1. Divide it lengthways so that I have 2 identical blocks each with 8M street frontage. There are just a few in the area like that.
2. Divide crossways, with a 3m (which I believe is the minimum) driveway to the rear block. Many in the area are like that.
As far as I can see, option 1 dictates that the two houses are semi-detached (townhouse style) due to the narrowness of the block. Also, with just about 7M (to allow for 1M side access) to play with width-wise, each “townhouse” would need to be very long to give me the desired 4 X 2, with 2 living areas. I assume there would be limited off the plan designs for such a narrow front. It does have the advantage that both houses have street frontage.
Option 2 allows for a more conventional style house and would probably mean that I could use one of the many designs available for project homes.
Can anyone offer advice as to which would be the best option from an investment point of view.
Is a long/narrow semi-detached house with street frontage more saleable/rentable than a separate house at the rear?
It would seem to me that option 1 with two mirror image townhouses might provides some economies with building costs compared to 2 separate houses, but are these economies of sufficient magnitude to be of value.
We intend to live in one of the houses, but from our point of view we are not biased towards either option, other than for option 2 we would choose the front block.
Judging by the response not too many want to buy into that!!
I’ve got a similar dilemma with one that Im doing
and am looking at some of the narrow lot Webb Brown designs.At the end of the day someone who is going to commit to building them would need to do the necessary work to determine what can fit taking into account setbacks etc. There are some tricky rules when it comes to balconies close to boundaries/neighbours etc which is worth considering if your going 2 story.
good luck…
Does the back block have any views???
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