Many of us scour the property market for a home that will tick all of our boxes for months. Chances are you’ll find something that’s close to what you’re looking for, but it’ll be extremely difficult to find something that’s perfect and matches the ideal home that you have in your mind. The only way to really achieve this is to build your own home. For some, this idea doesn’t even cross their mind. Others simply think that it will be way too expensive. But this isn’t always the case. There are plenty of ways to save a lot of money when it comes to building. Below we outline a few simple tips to save money when building a house.
1. Opt for Home and Land Packages
When you build a home, there are all sorts of areas you have to focus on, decisions to be made and processes to go through to bring your ideas to life. It can feel exhausting and never-ending. So, it’s not all too surprising that many of us look for ways to make the entire process shorter and more convenient. The problem? Often convenience comes at a cost. There’s one area, however, where you can benefit from convenience and reduce costs when building your home. This is investing in house and land packages. Without a house and land package, you’ll have to search out an appropriate plot of land yourself and hire a surveyor to ensure that it is suitable to build on. You’ll then have to ensure that you’ll get planning permission to actually build there. This is a long process and you could find yourself investing a fair amount of money into each step, only to find that you’re denied the ability to actually build there at any stage along the way. House and land packages take most of the hard work and expense out of your hands, providing you with land that’s suitable to build on. It will also pair you with quality builders who will build your home to spec, reducing your chances of finding yourself in touch with cowboy builders who could cause a mess and increase costs along the way. Trust in home builders in Sydney with a long-standing reputation like Meridian Homes.
2. Choose a Simple Design
This may sound pretty straightforward, but when people start building their own homes, they can let their imaginations go into overdrive and start requesting all sorts of complex shapes and structures. These, of course, are going to come with a higher price tag, as they’ll be more difficult and take longer to create. Instead, opt for more simple and straightforward designs to keep costs low. There are many house design options out there, including budget home plans that include everything you need and are made specifically with cost in mind.
3. Opt for Inexpensive Materials
Sure, we all want the best of the best when it comes to our homes. But often, there are cheaper alternatives to expensive materials which, to the vast majority of the population, look exactly the same. Few people are going to be able to tell whether you’ve used standard grade marble or premium marble imported from Italy. Using the cheaper option to achieve the desired look is generally a more sensible move, and is one of the best tips to saving money when building a house.
4. Consider Off the Shelf Products Rather than Bespoke
Sure, bespoke products have a whole lot of novelty to them. You’ll get exactly what you want and you’ll have something truly unique in your home that you won’t see anywhere else. But at the end of the day, there are more than enough off the shelf designs and products out there for you to choose from. You’ll find something that you like and it will cost you a significantly cheaper sum of money than if you go all out bespoke on everything!
5. Pre-plan and Stick to a Budget
Writing a list of things you absolutely need and deciding on a budget. It’s important that you stick to this plan the best you can, if you find yourself changing your mind as the project progresses, you could end up hit with costly changes and fixes that will increase the overall cost of your build. It’s better to take your time mulling things over and to get started later than to rush into things and have to make multiple changes along the way.
Although simple, our 5 tips to save money when building a house can make all the difference when it comes to the final price tag of your project. So, consider following some of the above advice and make your home build more affordable!
If you would like to learn more about building a new house, house designs and plans or house and land packages contact us here.