Knock Down Rebuild

If you love your location, but not your house, consider a knock down rebuild, also known as 'KDR'.

It is quite common to want different characteristics as your family evolves – parents may want additional bedrooms to accommodate the kids, empty-nesters may want to downsize with little to maintain. Some may want to eliminate stairs from their homes, while others may need to go up to a double storey to fit everyone in. Sometimes your current house just becomes old and tired, or doesn’t suit your lifestyle anymore. 

When this happens, you generally have four options: 

1. Stay and put up with it; 

2. Renovate or extend; 

3. Sell and move; or 

4. Knock down and rebuild a new home. 

Before embarking on a renovation, it makes sense to consider starting from scratch. You may be surprised to hear that knocking down your old house and building a new home is generally cheaper per square metre than renovating your house or building an extension. With the right builder, it should be easier as well. This is because your builder can take care of all the details instead of you having to project manage and having to deal with complex documents, time-consuming approvals and possibly unreliable trades. 

Another problem with renovating is sometimes nasty extras are identified after work starts. It’s not unusual for the plumber to find some expensive unforeseen problem that blows the budget as they try to connect the ‘new’ to the ‘old’. A knock down rebuild is less risky than renovating. With Beechwood, you have the benefit of a fixed cost and fixed time building contract. 

If you sell, sometimes a home to move to is sitting in the real estate’s window. But selling and buying is often fraught with difficulties such as not finding what you are looking, or not fitting your budget, the timings not matchings, the dollars not adding up, and most importantly, what you are buying not being a home that has been specifically designed for you and your lifestyle. The great risk of buying an established home is the unknown. There will probably be no builder’s warranty should something go wrong. The few hundred dollars you paid for a building inspection report is not going help if something goes wrong and they hide behind their disclaimers. Sometimes you might be taking a leap out of the frying pan into the fire. 

Building a new home doesn‘t mean that you need to move to ‘new’ suburbs on the urban fringe. No need to move schools or sporting teams or to re-establish in a new neighbourhood. You can continue with all the amenities and friendship networks you are used to. You can stay in the neighbourhood and street that you love, rather than having to reset your life in a new area. You can go from having the worst house in the best street, to having a home that your neighbours’ envy and your family will love. Another advantage of building a new home is that it is likely to be more energy efficient – allowing you to save money on your energy or water bills.

A knock down rebuild with Beechwood is easier than you think. Further, if you have owned at your current address for a few years, you are likely to have gained some equity in your current property and may not need to save up a deposit. Your dream could become a reality sooner than you think.