Welcome to Home Building Like a Boss, the podcast dedicated to helping first home buyers in Perth build their dream home with ease and excitement. I’m Jamie, your host and go-to Building Broker. Are you ready to feel empowered, in control, and excited about your building journey? I’ll help guide you with expert advice, insider tips and tricks, and real life.

Stories to help you navigate the confusing world of home building. Tune in as I take you on the journey to building your home like a boss.

Hello, and welcome back to another episode of the Home Building Like a Boss Podcast. This week we’re gonna chat about how to break down a house and land package. Now you might have seen House and Land packages advertised. Through builders websites, land agents and estates developers and different sales reps and consultants through the industry.

Basically what a house and land package is, is you’ve got your land components, so your location and your block, and then it’s been packaged up with a house design and put together with that block to get you. That price and package, price of your house and land built together. Now, this is also kind of a.

Marketing tool and sales tool to bring new clients in. A lot of people use house and land packages to advertise. Now, the trick with house and land packages in regards to the marketing aspects is a lot of builders and you will add advertise, house and land packages, and it’s the same as when you walk through a display village and it has like house and land from.

3 99 on the roller door, and it has a little asterisk in there. You walk into the display, you inquire about the house and land from 3 99, but all of a sudden the price isn’t 3 99. Those marketing tools there are advertised as the lowest cost, and same with the house and land packages. It’s actually advertised from the lowest cost, so it’ll always have house and land from 4 99, but that from price is the bare minimum basics that are included in the home.

So that could be your basic finishes. Flooring, blinds, no painting, no stone, no air con, no high ceilings. Literally just your base inclusions to keep the bank happy. And then that also depends on what funds and money they have included for your site work. So how do we break this down so you know exactly what is included in house and land package right from the get go?

I will always help my clients break down these house and land packages and understand this through the process of your info session. So when you are doing your research and going out and looking on your own, You always know a hundred percent what’s included in a house and land package. So first you obviously have your first component of your land.

Now your block of land can range depending if you’re looking north, south beach, what size, what is your budget? And this is why it’s important to know your overall. Finance budget first and your eligibility before you start looking. So looking at your block of land now with the 600 K budget, let’s say you are looking at a block of land that is.

300,000. So you’re looking at a block that’s 300,000 and you have a total overall budget of 600,000. So that takes half the budget, 300,000. As a first term buyer, you pay no stamp duty on your block of land up until amount of 300,000. So you’re within that threshold for no stamp duty as a first term buyer.

Next is Siteworks. So Siteworks is one of the biggest hidden costs in building. Her siteworks is what the builder needs to do to prepare your block for the slab to go down. Now, is it on a slope? Does it have rock? Does it have clay, limestone, retaining walls? What needs to be prepared for the builder to build your house?

So some areas, let’s say new estates as an example, they have the yellow soil that you always see when you’re driving around. That is called a class soil. A class soil is the cheapest and the most cost effective siteworks and easiest that you can get when looking at building and your A class Siteworks usually ranges from about 17 to 20,000, so, Let’s say we’re working with our 600 K budget.

We’ve got a block for 300,000, and now we’re going to add 20,000 worth of Siteworks costs as a round number. Now we are at 320,000 of our budget of 600,000, so this leaves us x amount left for the build and your design component of your finance included in your 600 K House and land package will be your deposit.

So you might be loaning. 570,000 is on a loan, and 30,000 is your deposit, which is your savings. Inside of your deposit will cover your deposit that you pay to the land agent and your deposit that you pay to the builder, and you’ll also, with your finance broker, get a fees and charges sheet that will break down exactly what settlement and legal fees.

Need to be paid throughout your package and your deposit, which is also included in your total house and land deposit packages. So you always wanna make sure when you’re talking to a finance broker is get that fees and charges sheet breakdown, and that’ll give you, okay, this is how much the land is, this is how much stamp duty is, which under 300,000 is no stamp duty.

This is how much you’re paying in your legal and settlement fees. This is your 10 K first home buyers grant, and this is your build, and this is your loan, and this is your deposit. So that’ll break that up for you. Back on track. Now you’re looking at a block that’s 300,000. You’ve got your site works, new estate, a class, yellow soil.

Let’s use Hammond Park as an example. Yeah, around that 17 to 20,000. If we use maybe BDI divers as an example, BDI divers has a little bit more clay in the soil in some states. So BDI divers can range in siteworks and same as bfid a little bit more, whereas that hits that 22 to $24,000 mark for your siteworks.

So it’s a little bit higher. So it’s always so important to be looking when you’re looking at your block, is you wanna understand. Roughly what the Siteworks costs are gonna be, because this is where people get stuck in situations of signing on a block of land. They haven’t looked at how much it’s going to cost for Siteworks, and now they’ve got a budget blowout because the builders charging them X amount of money on Siteworks to work on this block.

So Siteworks is included within your house and land package in your siteworks cost. Another thing to look out for is, Bowel ratings. So this is a bushfire attack level. Now, this is if you are building close to a bushfire prone area, your house has to be built a little bit differently to make sure it complies and also protect it from if there was a fire, because you are in a bushfire prone area.

A bow 12.5 is your first rating, and that can start to add up anywhere. Say seven grand worth of cost, and then you start to increase. So if you are looking at a car, soil with a bowel, and you’re about 20,000 with your SITEWORKS plus seven for your bowel, you’re at about 27,000 for your total siteworks cost.

So there’s a few things to think about with your siteworks breakdown that’s so important to understand when you’re looking at your land as it impacts your overall house and land budget. Then from your 600 K package, we’ve got 300 for the land, 20,000 for the siteworks. Now we have about 280 K left for your build component and your house design.

So 280 K, which will be, and this all depends on how big your home is going to be, what inclusions you want in the house. What’s the size, the shape. And remember, builders don’t give away anything for free. And I talk about this in a previous episode about marketing tactics and things that they do. They’re not giving you a free air con, they’re not giving, paying your rent while you build.

You know, if we’re working off that two $80,000 house and land package budget, if it’s got free air con in it. They’ve put, let’s say a $10,000 allowance in the base price of the house, which covers your free air con. You are paying for it. So in your house and design section component of your build, it is so important to make sure you understand what’s included and also that you get.

Exactly what you want with the design and the shape and the inclusions together don’t fall for the marketing tactics because they’re a hundred percent not real. So that there gives you a guide and an idea of exactly how to break down a house and land package. So when you have your design that from section and your site works is kind of that variable part because.

One, you’ll have your land price already, but two, some builders have four different specifications, so the price that they’re advertising on a house and land package is the lowest one, which is why it always says from, but if you want turnkey, l e d lights, high ceilings, paintings, stone throughout stone, everything, then that cost is going to be much different from the advertised house and land package that says from on the website or the display village.

And one huge misconception in the industry is, and that people, and especially first home buyers think, is that if you want a house and land package, you have to, and you are stuck with what the builder’s advertising or with what the land, estate and agent is advertising, which is a hundred percent not true.

I fully help my clients customize their house and land packages to suit exactly what they want, location, block design builder. Each house and land package that I do is so different and suits my clients and their lifestyles, and what that means as a house and land package is, it basically just means.

Your finance and especially for a first home buyer is going through at the same time. So you have a land contract and then you have your build contract. Your build contract includes your design component and the siteworks component that we mentioned earlier, and your mortgage broker will now go to the bank and say, we would like finance for this land contract and this build contract.

And the finance, even though it’s two separate contracts, is going through at the same time. Which now makes you eligible for the first Home Buyer’s grant, you need your land contract and your building contract to go through together. You can do it separately if you’ve previously bought land and now you’re going to put a build on it.

But if you buy a block and you don’t have the building contract with it as a first home buyer, you need to pay a higher deposit. Purchasing the land, and you also don’t get your first home buyer’s grant until you have the building contract component, which then you can apply for within 12 months of completion.

Normally, your finance broker will apply for your first home buyer’s grant at finance stage, with your land contract and your build contract. This together makes up your house and land package. You are not limited and stuck with what builders are advertising. On websites, display villages, packages, flyers, land agents, use them for ideas.

Have a look. You can gauge packages and prices, but just be mindful. They’re always starting with the lowest cost. And then it will, most likely, by the time you add in the inclusions that you want, be much higher than what the advertised package price is, which is how they reel you in with their sales and marketing tactics.

It’s always the lowest price. People are driven by price reels you in and you’re like, oh, this looks great. But then all of a sudden, once you’re deeper into conversation, It’s actually much more expensive than you thought to add everything in that you wanted, but you’ve been reeled in with the low advertised house and land package, so hopefully that all makes sense.

We’ve discussed a few things today, house and land packages, how they work, the misconceptions involved. Siteworks what to look out for fees and charges sheet, and a breakdown. But this information is also helpful, especially when you’re starting out. It is great to get an understanding of exactly how a house and land package works and knowing you can get your own block.

A builder, a design, work out what you want, put those two together and you have your very own customized house and land package. You are not limited and stuck with what builders are advertising. Thank you so much again for tuning in today. If we would like to have a chat more about your situation and potential house and land packages.

That you can customize for yourself and what your budget is and understanding that. Please book a call in the show notes below and we can have a quick casual chat just to see where you’re at and understanding, and I can help answer any more questions that you have. Thank you so much for tuning in to the home building like a Boss podcast.

I hope you enjoyed today’s episode and learned something new. Remember, you’ve got this and I’ve got your back. Until next time. Stay inspired, stay informed, and stay confident on your building journey. I can’t wait to chat with you on the next episode. Don’t forget to check out the show notes for more information and free resources.

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