Building a new home can be an exciting affair. But if this is the first time you are building, you may be uncertain where to begin. The secret to building your new home is to know exactly what you want. Once you can figure out what you and your family want from your new home, the design and building process will fall into place.
To point you in the right direction, here are some of the important things you should know about building a house from the ground up in New Zealand.
- Your family needs
One of the benefits of building a house instead of buying one is that you can tailor the house to fit the needs of you and your family. But before you started, you should have a good idea of what you want for you and your family, as your family needs will play a huge role in the design of your new house.
To get the design and build right, take into consideration the size of your family, your social habits, and the individual needs of each member of your family. For example, if you and your spouse are expecting children in the nearest future, you want to build a house that can accommodate a large family size.
You should also consider the right combination of form and function, as the layout of your family home should be reflective of how you live and entertain guests. Once you have decided on the type of house your family needs, you can start looking at the design.
- Your budget
Before you start building your new house, it is important that you crunch the numbers to determine if the project is something you can handle comfortably. Many families have gotten stuck midway into house construction because they started a project that grew beyond their financial means.
When creating your new build budget, be sure to take into consideration the cost of raw materials, labour, and hiring a master builder. You should also account for taxes and expenses associated with forms, registrations, and permits. Once you have a benchmark figure for your new construction, add about 20% on top to allow for unexpected expenses.
Once you have decided on your building budget and determined that you can afford it. You can proceed to arrange finances. There are a number of home building financing options in New Zealand, so you will need to look for the one that meets your unique needs.
- Hire a master builder
There are a good many projects you can handle by yourself, but unless you have the skills and qualifications of a master builder, building a new house is not one of them.
Therefore, one of your top considerations when planning a new house build is who you will trust with the building of your house.
There are many builders in New Zealand, but not all are created equal. If you want to end up with a house that meets your needs and will last for as long as possible, you need to engage the services of new home building experts, therefore, spend some time doing research to find out the builder that has the best reputation in your city.
You can also ask friends, family members and colleagues for the recommendation, as well as check review sites to know what people are saying about a builder you are interested in.
It is also a good idea to get quotes from multiple builders. This way, you will be able to compare one against the other, not just in terms of project cost, but also project timeframe, qualifications, and insurance.
Remember though that any builder you eventually go with should be a member of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB).
- Resale value
No matter how much you end up liking the new house that was built for you, a time may come when you need to trade up or down. For this reason, it is important that you consider building with resale in mind.
When you build with resale in mind, most of the important features and elements of the house are flexible rather than fixed. For example, you can do an open plan living room which will be partition off into sections with removable materials. Or you can avoid using upgrades that will make your house overpriced in your area.
- It will cost more than you think
Even though creating a budget is one of the first stages in building a house, the truth is that for the most part, this budget will not be enough. In fact, simply take it for granted that your new build house will cost a lot more than you think as the cost of materials, labour, and other miscellaneous expenses will likely rise during the course of the construction.
You should also face the fact that the construction work will take longer than planned. Even if your builder gives you a particular timeframe, you have to be prepared to spend more time on the construction that the time allotted by your builder.
There are many things that can make construction work delay including shortage of materials and labour, insufficient cash, and problems with your local council.
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