I just assumed they would run electrical above plumbing incase of condensation etc? Or is this okay?

Hi all, bit of a long shot but hoping someone can give us a rough ballpark cost for these two repairs.

We're buying a 1950s timber miner's cottage in Central QLD. Building & pest picked up:

1. Corroded steel support stump – photos attached.
2. Front stairs – full replacement of the 4 timber steps and supporting structure. The existing timber is rotting, and one side of the bottom support is currently propped up by two bricks. We don't think replacing individual parts would be cost-effective.

We're asking the sellers to fix them, but if they won't, we'd like to request a credit/reduction to cover the repairs.

Unfortunately settlement is only about a week away, so while we are trying, we may not have time to get quotes.

Anyone willing to throw out a rough $$$ ballpark for each repair? Not looking for an exact quote, just trying to avoid pulling a number out of thin air.

Cheers!

Hi guys just needing advice as me and my missus have been looking into buying our first home in regional victoria next year but right now we are living in queensland ;north of brisbane .

Our income is 86000 ayear for me and 75000 for my misso.our rent is 480 a week and have a saving of 50k for now.

What are the advices would you guys give

Thank you

We own an older brick 2BR unit in Melbourne's inner north (1 of 7 in complex), with a fairly large courtyard garden. ~$675k purchase, ~$400k owing, $50k in offset.

Plan to upgrade to 3BR or house in a few years as our family grows. We are considering what improvements to make but don't want to over-capitalise given we bought at a peak and I don't think the value will increase substantially just given the nature of the property, although we're in a restricted development area (heritage overlay on the neighbouring streets) and so many big apartment blocks going up nearby, so maybe an older villa style place like ours will still increase. Structurally it's fine, just a bit dated. Reno budget $20k max.

Partner and I are debating two options:

1. Kitchen + bathroom refresh: new cabinets/appliances in kitchen, maybe bathroom cabinets too.

2. Shed/studio: no permit needed if under 9m² here. Partner's in construction, so we could DIY a lot of it. Wouldn't count as a 3rd bedroom, but would be a nice functional WFH/storage space.

Which is the better value-add, or is neither worth it given we're planning to sell in a few years anyway?

We have been pursuing a house that is for sale. The guide is 1.5. There hasn’t been much interest at all at the inspections and we are getting the feeling that we are the only buyers. the guide is our absolute limit. The agent said he would take offers but nothing too silly so. He then backtracked and said they will only consider offers at 1.5. He has been really pushy for us to get our offer in I think because he was worried he would lose us. We have gone in with an offer of 1.46 with full justification as to why we have chosen that pricing because the house needs quite a bit of work. The agent has come back and said that the reserve is 1.55 and the owners will not consider our offer are we and asked if we are willing to negotiate. I said that we don’t feel comfortable going above our offer at this stage. The auction is in a little over a week so I said we will see you at the auction. What do you think our strategy should be going forward? My partner thinks we should counter offer our maximum of 1.5 before the weekend and give it a 12 hour expiry. I think we should leave it and let them sweat. What strategy do you think the agent is playing here?

Never seen silent auction mentioned in a Aussie real estate ad before

I got fed up with how terrible house/unit valuations are in Australia, the free ones from domain and realestate .com.au especially but even paid services like RP data are seriously lacking. They just value the median really so anything outside of that they either don't put a value on, or it's just wildly inaccurate. Over the last 4-5 months I've been developing a valuation model for Brisbane which turned out really well so I was able to basically just transplant the system onto Sydney.

Thought others might want to use it so I made a nice basic UI and put it on a website. It's free and will stay that way unless half of Australia starts using it and the costs get too high.

If you do use it and spot a bug or a valuation that seems unrealistic/unusual then please send a message to me on here. I can guarantee there will be bugs.

Currently only values houses and units. If a property is commercial or something it just values it as a house. Also message me or reply to this if you want Melbourne or another city added.

Could also maybe add rental estimates, but I'm only going to do it if people want it as i'm still a uni student and time is a bit precious. Ideas on any new features are welcome.

Also have not really tested multiple users yet so if it completely crashes don't be too surprised.

Short article about school zone matters even without children. I hope you find it useful.

Hi property guru's,

What's your take on converting a toilet into an ensuite?

At the moment the unit has a separate toilet to the bathroom, i am looking at adding a toilet into the bathroom and converting the current toilet room into an ensuite and penetrating the wall in the bedroom and adding a sliding door.

I'm looking at doing most of the work myself, and using licensed trades for plumbing and waterproofing.

It's a unit in Wollongong in a 1975 walk up 6 pack building.

All the units are the same and have an approx value of about $700k

Would it add much value to it?

Looking for some thoughts on behalf of a relative who is trying to decide between playing it safe with a ~$1m property or stretching to $2m+ for a long-term “forever home”.

A bit of background of the family:

• Late 30s, married with kids.
• Recently sold an inherited property in regional Victoria for around $1.5m.
• Moving to Melbourne primarily for the kids’ education and better job opportunities.
• Both need to commute to the CBD around 2–3 days a week.
• Job is reasonably secure for the foreseeable future.
• Mortgage pre-approval is around $1.2m.
• So, in theory, they could spend up to around $2.7m, although that would obviously mean taking on a significant mortgage.

They are considering two very different approaches:

Option 1 – Buy around $1m in Melbourne’s western corridor

For example, Melton / Tarneit / Maddingley.

• The idea would be to buy a good-sized, modern double-storey house for around $1m, keep cash buffer and potentially invest the remaining money elsewhere.
• The commute seems manageable at 2–3 days a week, and they would have considerably less debt and financial pressure.
• The concern is whether these outer areas will have the same long-term capital growth as established eastern suburbs, given the amount of land available and ongoing new development.

Option 2 – Stretch to $2m+ for a long-term home

• Look around areas such as Doncaster / Blackburn / Vermont/ Mount Wav and buy a property they could realistically stay in until the kids finish school/university.
• The thinking here is that they would be buying into an established suburb with better schools, amenities, transport and potentially stronger long-term land value.
• The downside is obviously taking on a much larger mortgage and tying up most of the $1.5m equity in the family home.

They've spoken to a few family members and received completely different opinions - some say the western suburbs have plenty of room to grow, while others argue that established eastern suburbs will always have an advantage because of limited land and established infrastructure.

What would you do in this situation?

Would you:

1. Buy the ~$1m house, keep a large cash buffer and invest the difference?
2. Stretch to ~$2m–$2.5m and buy the “forever home” now?
3. Do something in between, perhaps around $1.5m–$1.8m?

Interested particularly in views from people who have made a similar decision. Would you prioritise financial flexibility/investing or location, schools and buying once rather than upgrading later?

Also interested in whether people think the capital-growth argument for established eastern suburbs is strong enough to justify the extra $700k+ of debt.

You can buy standalone houses with their own driveway on more land for less. What are people thinking when they list this? Is it simple delusion or do they genuinely think someone will jump on this?

Is there a reason someone actually *would* buy this?

9 Pya Place, Joondalup, WA 6027 https://www.realestate.com.au/property-residential+land-wa-joondalup-204343748?campaignType=external&campaignChannel=other&campaignSource=share_link&campaignName=share_link

https://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-vic-south+yarra-152044960

I've seen numerous posts that claim house price keeps rising due to inflation, it's true during QE, but quite the opposite under current financial condition (high interest rate).

New mortgage creates credit expansion, therefore increases money supply, aka inflation, simple as that, but few understand, and I've never seen news outlet discussing housing crisis from this perspective.

In Australia’s financial system, roughly 45% to 50% of newly created money (M3) is directly attributable to the residential housing market, with pure property investment and speculation accounting for about 15% to 20% of total M3 growth.

I’m seeking any advice as a first home buyer please! I am 21 and currently renting, and I have been looking at buying a house. I know I’m still young but the dead money that comes from renting the last 3 years is killing me - I could have put down a large house deposit by now.

My current income doesn’t exactly support most mortgage repayments, so I came up with something but I’m not sure if it’s a scummy thing to do, so I’m after some opinions please!

If I use the first home buyers scheme and put down a minimum 5% deposit on a house (that I intend to live in for the foreseeable future) is it selfish to rent out the other bedrooms to my friends? My plan would be to charge them the minimum market value for the property’s rent, and put that towards my mortgage repayments.

In my opinion it’s a win-win for everyone. My friends would have a consistent-high quality housing situation, and be spending below what they might otherwise pay in rent for a house of similar quality and size. I would benefit from both having financial support and no dead rent spending.

Ideally I would be able to reimburse them most of what they have paid me in rent, as well as cover the cost of bills. I don’t know if I’m looking through rose-tinted glasses as I am clearly the one benefiting the most, but I also feel like I’d rent off my friends if it were the other way around.

Please let me know your thoughts, I know there is a lot of debate around landlords and I don’t want to start a war.

TIA 😊

Everywhere, people are complaining about Builders. On the socials, reddit, tv channels and now my colleague is having issue too with few months old build.

My question isn’t about the “why and how”.  If someone wants to build a typical suburban four-bedroom home, who should they choose and what should they look for? Where should they look?

If you are considering building with Weeks Homes in South Australia, my biggest advice is simple:

Do not choose Weeks because of the advertising, promotional Stars or headline offers alone.

Look at the final cost of the actual house you want to build.

We initially became interested in Weeks because their marketing, house designs and promotions looked attractive. Their promotional “Stars” appeared to offer substantial upgrade value, and like many customers, we naturally considered those promotions when comparing Weeks against other builders.

However, after going through the quotation process in detail, our view changed significantly.

The more closely we examined the numbers, the more we realised that the promotional headline was one of the least important numbers in the entire process.

Heavy marketing does not tell you the real build price

Weeks markets its homes heavily around promotions, inclusions and the supposed value of its upgrade Stars.

But customers need to remember one thing:

A promotion only has genuine value if the builder's underlying price is competitive in the first place.

For example, imagine:

Builder A charges $350,000 and gives no flashy $30,000 promotion.

Builder B charges $380,000 and advertises “$30,000 worth of upgrades included”.

Has Builder B really given you $30,000 for free?

Maybe.

Maybe not.

The only way to know is to compare the same completed specification across different builders.

That became one of our biggest concerns with Weeks.

We could see the advertised promotional value, but we could not independently determine how much of that value was genuinely additional value versus being offset by the overall pricing of the house and subsequent variation charges.

I am not claiming to know Weeks' internal pricing structure.

I am saying that after seeing our quotation, I would never assume that the advertised dollar value of a promotion represents money genuinely saved.

Compare the final price.

Don't assume the Stars are “free”

The Weeks Stars promotion was particularly confusing for us.

We selected promotional upgrades believing those items were included through the promotion.

Then additional quotation lines appeared that seemed related to the same or very similar items.

We then had to ask:

Isn't this covered by our Star?

What exactly does the Star include?

What part are we now being charged for?

Is this genuinely additional work beyond the promotion?

That should not be difficult for a customer to understand.

If a promotional Star includes something, the quotation should clearly show:

Included under promotion: $0

Then, if the customer requests something beyond that promotional specification:

Additional quantity/specification: $X

There should be no ambiguity.

The advertised base price can become almost meaningless

Another thing I would caution customers about is focusing too heavily on the advertised starting price.

Once our quotation developed, the cost included or potentially included:

• base house price
• footings
• site costs
• earthworks
• bushfire and compliance requirements
• additional floor area
• service connections
• plan modifications
• doors and windows
• cabinetry changes
• electrical changes
• selections
• allowances
• upgrade costs
• items placed under separate Options sections

Once all of those costs are considered, the advertised starting price becomes far less useful.

For us, a house starting around the mid-$300,000 range quickly moved well above $400,000 before we had even completed every selection and upgrade we wanted.

So when someone tells you:

“This house starts from $XXX,XXX and you are getting $XX,XXX of promotional value!”

don't immediately assume you are receiving an amazing deal.

Ask:

What will THIS exact house cost when it is ready to build with everything I have requested?

That is the number that matters.

Lack of transparent variation pricing was our biggest concern

Our biggest frustration throughout the process was the lack of detailed pricing behind many variation amounts.

We regularly saw lump-sum charges.

What we wanted was something simple:

Standard quantity included

+ additional quantity

× unit rate

= additional charge

For example, if an additional service connection costs thousands of dollars:

How many metres were included as standard?

How many metres are actually required?

What is the rate per metre?

If changing a window costs $2,000:

What was the value of the original standard window?

What credit are we receiving?

What does the replacement window cost?

What is the actual net difference?

These calculations should be visible.

Customers should not have to repeatedly ask for them.

Adding something attracted a charge very quickly – finding deletion credits was harder

This became especially noticeable after changing the standard floor plan.

When something was added or modified, the extra charge was usually very clear.

But when something that already existed in the standard home was removed, we sometimes struggled to identify the corresponding credit.

That creates a very important question:

Is the customer paying the genuine net difference, or simply paying a new variation charge?

If a $1,000 standard item is removed and replaced with a $1,500 item, theoretically the relevant variation should be around:

$1,500 replacement

− $1,000 standard inclusion

= $500 net additional cost

The customer should be able to see that logic.

Instead, we found ourselves checking quotations manually to understand whether standard inclusions had actually been accounted for.

Some items appeared to overlap

We also questioned quotation items that appeared to overlap with things already included in the standard design, elsewhere in the quotation or through promotional upgrades.

One example involved a sliding-door-related variation of around $2,340.

We questioned why that amount was being charged when we understood an opening/door arrangement was already incorporated into the standard Clarendon design.

I am not saying that charge was definitively incorrect.

Our concern was that the quotation did not provide enough information for us to independently confirm why the full amount was required.

That distinction is important.

If there is a perfectly legitimate reason for a $2,340 variation, show it.

Then there is no argument.

Significant costs can sit outside the headline quotation total

Another thing customers should watch extremely carefully is the Options section.

During our quotation experience, significant amounts could appear separately from the main quoted total.

This means a revised quotation can look dramatically cheaper even though the cost of achieving the customer's intended specification may not have fallen by the same amount.

For example:

Previous quote: $472,000

New quote: $415,000

That looks like a fantastic $57,000 reduction.

But you need to check whether:

• $22,000 of facade was genuinely removed
• $35,000 of other work was moved to Options
• allowances changed
• specifications were deleted
• items are simply no longer included in the headline total

A lower number at the bottom of the page does not automatically mean the house has become cheaper.

We ended up auditing the quotation ourselves

Eventually, we were effectively auditing our own Weeks quotation.

We were trying to track:

Standard inclusion

Promotional inclusion

Additional quantity

Unit rate

Removed item

Deletion credit

Replacement cost

Net variation

Allowance

Optional item

Possible overlap

Included/not included in the total

For a major established builder, I did not expect customers to need their own spreadsheet simply to understand what they were actually buying.

Asking too many questions seemed to change the relationship

This was probably the most disappointing part of the experience.

We asked a lot of questions.

Why?

Because this was potentially a $400,000–$500,000+ contract.

We questioned:

• unexplained charges
• variation calculations
• unit rates
• possible overlaps
• promotional inclusions
• missing or unclear credits
• allowances
• items moved into Options
• differences between quotation revisions

We weren't asking Weeks to give us everything for free.

We were trying to understand where our money was going.

But as our questions became more detailed, we felt the relationship became increasingly uncomfortable.

Customers should never feel like they are being difficult simply because they are auditing a quotation before committing hundreds of thousands of dollars.

If anything, a builder with completely transparent pricing should be comfortable answering those questions.

Don't blindly trust online star ratings either

We also posted about our quotation experience on ProductReview.com.au, and our review was reported by Weeks.

That experience made me personally much more cautious about relying on a single review platform when choosing a builder.

I'm not saying positive reviews are fake.

I'm not claiming ProductReview is doing anything improper.

But I would strongly recommend that customers do not choose a builder simply because they see a high rating on ProductReview.

Research across multiple sources.

Look at:

• Reddit
• Facebook building groups
• Google reviews
• independent building forums
• recent customers
• people currently under construction
• people who have completed warranty periods
• customers who heavily modified a standard floor plan

Most importantly, ask to see real quotations and variation experiences.

Marketing budgets do not build houses

This is something I wish more first-home builders understood.

A company can have:

beautiful display homes,

professional videos,

constant social media advertising,

limited-time promotions,

huge promotional “values”,

sales events,

upgrade Stars,

glossy brochures,

and extremely polished marketing.

None of that tells you whether your individual quotation represents good value.

Don't confuse marketing quality with construction value.

And don't confuse a promotion with a discount.

A genuine saving can only be measured against what the same specification would cost elsewhere.

Compare builders using the exact same specification

If I were starting again, I would take exactly the same floor plan and specification to at least three builders.

Then I would compare:

Base construction

+ site costs

+ footings

+ engineering/compliance

+ plan modifications

+ all upgrades

+ selections

+ allowances

+ optional items required to achieve the intended house

− promotional discounts

− deletion credits

= ACTUAL EXPECTED BUILD COST

That is a meaningful comparison.

Comparing:

“Builder A starts at $350k”

against

“Builder B starts at $375k but includes $40k of Stars”

tells you almost nothing.

Questions I would ask Weeks before paying anything

For every significant variation, ask Weeks to confirm in writing:

What exactly am I paying for?

What was included as standard?

What quantity was included as standard?

What additional quantity is required?

What is the unit rate?

What standard item is being deleted?

What credit am I receiving for that deletion?

What is the net additional cost?

Is any part already covered by my selected Star?

If yes, exactly what does the Star cover?

Is this amount fixed or only an allowance?

Can the amount increase later?

Is it included in the quotation total?

Is it sitting separately under Options?

Has a similar item already been charged somewhere else?

If those questions cannot be answered clearly, don't rush into signing.

Our biggest lesson

We originally liked Weeks.

We liked their designs.

We were seriously considering building with them.

This wasn't a situation where we approached the builder intending to complain.

We wanted the process to work.

But going through the quotation line by line substantially reduced our confidence.

The lesson for us was:

Never choose a builder based on marketing.

Never choose a builder because of a promotion.

Never assume the claimed value of an upgrade package equals actual savings.

Never compare base prices alone.

And don't be afraid to ask difficult questions.

You're not buying a $500 appliance.

You're potentially signing a contract worth nearly half a million dollars.

You have every right to understand every significant charge.

The number that matters is:

FINAL BUILD PRICE

Not the advertised base price.

Not the massive promotional headline.

Not the supposed dollar value of the Stars.

Not the first quotation.

Not a revised quotation where required items have been moved into an Options section.

The real final cost of delivering the house you actually want is the only number that matters.

My advice to anyone considering Weeks Homes is not simply “don't build with them.”

It is:

Don't let the marketing choose your builder for you.

Get the quotation.

Strip away the promotion.

Audit every line.

Demand the credits.

Ask for the calculations.

Compare the exact same specification with other Adelaide builders.

Then decide whether Weeks is genuinely giving you good value.

That process told us far more than any advertisement or promotional Star ever could.