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The Facts about Buy/ Sell Vs Extensions Vs Buy Vs Knock-Down Rebuild Knowledge is the best way to make the right decision whether to extend and renovate, move or knockdown and rebuild. This has been put together to try and help you through the marketing hype. Usually your family home is not only your largest investment it also grows with your family and lifestyle. Hopefully this helps you research the best outcome for your family.
Design
Renovate
Extend
Move or Relocate?
At first this may seem like the easiest and cheapest option. If you don’t like the neighborhood it is maybe a no brainer. However if you love where you live this may not be a consideration. Often movers don’t calculate the true cost of moving. With stamp duty, sales, relocation implications, bridging finance and moving can be an expensive alternative.
Moreover costs are not realized until it’s too late. These costs will never be recovered. They could be 50% of the cost of renovating the existing home. Savvy home owners are discovering that in many instances the best option is to invest into their existing home, therefore enjoying both financial and lifestyle gains.
There is also the cost of upgrading to a bigger home. Another problem can be markets can change quickly which in the long term is not an issue. However in the short term when you’re buying and selling it may work to your advantage or cost you an “arm or a leg”.
Extend or Renovate
If you love where you live, this is one of the two choices you are left with. There is (and has been) a large amount of marketing dollars to convince the public that this is the most cost effective way to go and quote square metre rates to add grey to this area.
This in fact could not be further from the truth and in fact if a square metre rate was the answer we would all be living in factories as this is in fact the cheapest to build per m2.
Living through a renovation will certainly have its challenges.
Knock Down or Rebuild
In a very limited number of cases this will be the only option. If the existing home has major structural defects (not minor maintenance issues) it will certainly need to be considered. Whilst KDR has been marketed as the be all and end all, is it?.
It is definitely easier for the builder however, Is it best for you? Knocking down and building new is also a very expensive option. It will cost from $500000 to $700000 to complete. There is the additional demolition, landscaping, rent and moving cost. Not to mention the cost of building an entire home from scratch.
Unfortunately though, new homes are only ever brand new the day they are finished. From that day on the new home can continue to depreciate (land appreciates and homes depreciate, ask the bank) at a much faster rate than existing homes, year after year, for up to five to ten years. This is due to housing styles going in and out of fashion, depreciation, as well as the unavoidable difference between cheap, modern materials and durable, long-lasting older home construction.