Building your own home

RENOVATING an existing property can sometimes be much harder than starting from scratch. There are fewer unfamiliarity's and more definite costs. On the flip side, for homeowners, building from scratch can be more complicated.

Self Building Projects - What's the process...

1. Find a plot

2. Organising a self-build mortgage / Home Loan

3. Secure planning permission

4. Find a good architect, builder and tradespeople

5. Ensure you have insurance; warranties and that you are eligible to claim the tax back.

6. Work can then commence....

If you know friends or family that have gone through the building process they can be a great source of knowledge on what worked well and inform you on what to look out for.  Look at builders that have completed projects in your area, inspect their workmanship and arrange to met with a few and discuss options and estimated prices.

The HIA (building association) and Archicentre are both good sources for building information.  Archicentre has a paid service that can assist you through every stage of the building process.

Neighbours can make a project run smoothly or slow things down and even make you compromise what you want, so careful handling of dealings is very important.