This blog is to document the process of redeveloping our property in Melbourne's eastern suburbs, Victoria Australia. To cut a long story short, we had a property in Mitcham between August 2005 to May 2009. A lovely house about 40 years old, but quite compact (small!) and located on a very busy road, next to a petrol station.
After receiving an offer from medical professionals wanting to redevelop the property, we had to decide whether to buy an established property - and then renovate it, or redevelop with a new house on the old site. Alternatively, whether to buy a block of land (probably further out, as there's very few reasonably priced vacant land lots in the eastern suburbs) and build there.
We decided not to build in a new estate, primarily due to distance from work, friends and family. While buying in the eastern suburbs certainly isn't a cheap excercise, given that we would be unlikely to move from this house for the forseeable future, it would be an investment in our lifestyle to live in the area we want to live in.
After looking through a few of our favoured areas (from Bulleen and Balwyn North to Doncaster East and everywhere in-between) we did make one offer on a house in Lower Templestowe, but the house had sold just prior the same day.
Finally, my partner (Tina) had decided that the Whitehorse region was her preferred area, and I had to agree. Much cheaper to buy into than Mont Albert North and Balwyn North, and closer in to the city (slightly) than Doncaster East/Mitcham. Balwyn North had an attraction for me, as it had the well regarded Balwyn High School in the area - however, was the school well regarded for its good teachers, or for the naturally gifted students who are attracted to the school with a good reputation? Chicken and egg... we don't have any kids yet, but certainly a factor to consider.
After checking out pretty much every property between Station St and Springvale Road, we
bought our property at auction on May 16, with settlement to occur on June 16 (hey - only two days away!). It's in a fantastic location, close to many shops, primary and secondary schools, a few minutes drive to the Eastern Freeway, Box Hill Central and Doncaster Shoppingtown. On a quiet street, with several very new prestigious properties as our neighbours.
I'm fairly sure we bought just about the worst house on the street (we're the third owners since it was built around 50 years ago). It's a weather 3 bedroom house, with what used to be an outdoors toilet - someone put up more weatherboard to box it in, so it's technically indoors now! Big double garage/shed, full of asbestos. Approximately 600 square metres with about 15.5m frontage and 39m depth - some potential issue with a 1.8m (6') drainage easement along the west border.
Anyway, after we settle on the 16th we're planning to move some basic necessities in the following weekend - just bed, fridge and some clothes - while we try to lock in what house to build on the block. After about 3 months of looking at new home designs, it looks likely at this stage we'll be building the Metricon Nolan 41, which will hopefully just squeeze onto the land size available! Just today we talked to a sales consultant in Lyndhurst who will hopefully be a bit more communicative than the first agent we spoke to, who promised to get in touch with us (but never did...)
Hi Tima and Tina
ReplyDeleteWhat a great Blog!. Thank you so much for all the information. We own a house on a fairly narrow block (600sqm)in Benleigh and are looking at the Promenade by M. Your site has been amazing with all the info.
Thanks again