jamjar Posted February 27, 2012 Share Posted February 27, 2012 are Aussie also allergic to grass, most new homes that we have looked at seem to build up to the boundry wall, squeeze in a pool but have no garden to speak of. I know newer homes have smaller plots of land these days but even some of the larger plots seem to have no gardens - people just build bigger houses - house space to you need?? surely if you have a 4 or 5 bedroom house it means you have kids - where are they going to play?? and if there is a garden they seem to pave all over it - is it due to water charges??? any thoughts on this would be great Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Guest31881 Posted February 27, 2012 Share Posted February 27, 2012 I have moved your post to its own thread, to keep the other thread on track... Again it will depend where you are talking about, not all Australian homes are on estates and each state has different types of homes. Normally paved areas reflect the fact that water may be under usage controls in the hot summers and a green lawn does not look good when its all brown. If you want to live near the CBD you get less for your money, if you want land and big house you will probably have to move out of the main towns. But as i said each state is different and within each state there are different styles and sizes of homes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chardy Posted February 27, 2012 Share Posted February 27, 2012 I was wondering this. We'd like a new house and the houses are lovely and big. We have a 4 bed detached house here with 164 sq.m but Aussie 4 beds are circa 230 sq.m which is great but surely an outdoor lifestyle would warrant a garden bigger than our lounge, especially with our 3 kids ! We are now looking at owner build for this reason to save money on the build and put it into a bigger lot ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moirclan Posted February 27, 2012 Share Posted February 27, 2012 i had a fantastic garden in my last house sunken lawn etc and it was a water guzzler so much i sunk a bore because of exess water bills of $1500 a year 20 years ago but of course then my power bills surged because the bore uses electricity!!lol im on a 899 sm block which is one of the larger ones in oceanreef again i have sunk a bore i dont have grass as the cost of watering / maintaining it is prohibitive , i do have a lot of frangipanis as they dont like a lot of water and they love the sun . to maintain your lawn you need a lot of water if you had a nice soft green lawn i would guess that the water authority would look into it as they are also aware of what it takes to keep a lawn green Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rammygirl Posted February 27, 2012 Share Posted February 27, 2012 Our lawn in the Adelaide hills isn't thirsty. Firstly choose the right type of grass then have underground 'drip feed' irrigation that comes on at night - no evaporation and no spraying the surrounding areas. People seem to put on sprinklers in the sun and water the pavement then complain about the bills!! Or failing that there is some very nice artificial stuff around now. I do agree though that people build up to the boundaries, I have lost count of houses where windows look straight out onto a colorbond fence just 2 feet away! Madness. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chardy Posted February 27, 2012 Share Posted February 27, 2012 I'll be laying Astroturf !!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobj Posted February 27, 2012 Share Posted February 27, 2012 are Aussie also allergic to grass, most new homes that we have looked at seem to build up to the boundry wall, squeeze in a pool but have no garden to speak of. I know newer homes have smaller plots of land these days but even some of the larger plots seem to have no gardens - people just build bigger houses - house space to you need?? surely if you have a 4 or 5 bedroom house it means you have kids - where are they going to play?? and if there is a garden they seem to pave all over it - is it due to water charges??? any thoughts on this would be great I find that rather amusing considering I lived in an area of British West Bradford where it was row upon row of terraced houses...Not a blade of grass to be seen as I walked 7, or 8 blocks of houses.:laugh: And where I now live, every second householder has a ride-on mower. Cheers, Bobj. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamjar Posted February 27, 2012 Author Share Posted February 27, 2012 I find that rather amusing considering I lived in an area of British West Bradford where it was row upon row of terraced houses...Not a blade of grass to be seen as I walked 7, or 8 blocks of houses.:laugh: And where I now live, every second householder has a ride-on mower. Cheers, Bobj. sounds like a result :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Ropey HOFF Posted February 27, 2012 Share Posted February 27, 2012 Houses and plots are massive in Australia compared to the uk on average, check out the site real estate.com.au you will see for yourself, happy house hunting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs WebWeazel Posted February 27, 2012 Share Posted February 27, 2012 I'll be laying Astroturf !!! And no mowing - hoorah!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Petals Posted February 27, 2012 Share Posted February 27, 2012 As land has increased in price so the size of the blocks have decreased so the developer can get more houses and more money and supposedly keep prices down, not sure on that one lol. Councils have decreased set backs etc. However here in Victoria if you hare to overlook often they require the second story windows to have some sort of screening so that people cannot loverlook neighbours. I was told many many years ago, its the land that is valuable. Ultimately it comes down to how much you can afford. We live on an acreage block which we always wanted, lots of work though does not suit everyone. We have to keep the garden up all winter as there are no months when its left dormant. So my final thought goes, buy as big a block as you can, close to amenities, transport and schools. If it feels isolated it will be. Acres and acres of housing no sole. Do not discount second hand houses, often people think oh more stamp duty but with a new house comes just the same expense setting it up after its built, often can buy a ready built house in a nice area with all amenities and extend much better proposition in my view. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yorkiegirl Posted February 27, 2012 Share Posted February 27, 2012 Petals is right, block sizes are getting smaller & smaller. "cottage" blocks (as they like to call them) used to be 400sqm plus, these days some of them are barely over 200sqm You would need quite a large budget to get a "decent" sized block close to amenities. As Petals says, it all depends on what you can afford. Plus I find here (in housing developments anyway) that if you buy a large block, there is an expectation that you will put a huge house on it (that's what you bought for ...right??) Personally I'd rather a small house on a big block but you very rarely see that combination. People seem to fill almost every square cm of the block with building to increase the resale value. I suppose it comes down to what your expectations are and what you have come from in the UK to compare it to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tisme Posted February 27, 2012 Share Posted February 27, 2012 The sway towards smaller blocks (apart from the developers greed) is the changing way of life of families now. With the majority of both parents working, people don't want to spend weekends maintaining huge gardens, it's time they want spend together as a family, that's why new subdivisions include plenty of 'open space' for families to enjoy without having the hassle of looking after it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skani Posted February 27, 2012 Share Posted February 27, 2012 If you want a larger garden space look for an older house - built in the days when people had larger families and expected to have a yard for children to play, space for a vegie patch, a large clothesline, and probably also a chicken shed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JK2510 Posted February 27, 2012 Share Posted February 27, 2012 I have found older houses in older suburbs have a larger plot of land and a smaller house compared to new builds...since our arrival in Perth..we have lived in an older suburb and now a newer one...our house is around 6/7yrs old...land size around 600sq m ish...I like the size of my garden and the house and find the weeding takes up enough of my time.....BUT I don't like where the suburb is....we have basic amenities but if you want electrical,bunnings or clothes we have to travel around 5-10kms....and the public transport isn't great for kids....45 mins bus journey around to joondalup...my kids call it the never ending bus journey! When we buy in a few yrs I really don't know what we will choose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gpo1971 Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 New land releases tend to feature smaller blocks these days. At least they do near us. They used to all be 600s but now these are few and far between. You're right about cottage blocks shrinking as well, they used to be 400s now some are half that size. If you want a big house, space for a pool and a garden as well, it will need to be a decent size block. Probably 550 upwards for a small/med pool and same garden. If you want to build a 2-storey house (more expensive building costs), think 475 or 500 upwards. And there wouldn't be much space for anything fancy in those. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Petals Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 Its also the unrealistic covenants that the developers put on some estates setting minimum square metres for the house so people have to build bigger if they want to live there. Personally I wanted and had room for my kids the neighbours kids etc to play at our place and I think kids miss something if that is not available these days. Most mums would not let their children go the communal parklands in an estate as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eera Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 A lot of block size is driven by council; they have a population density model and can dictate the size of blocks to developers. I have a place in a "premium" estate which has an average block size of 900 sqm. Council has recently declared that the average has to be 680 to allow for more housing, so my developer is forced to reduce. Except he's canny and has kept the majority of the blocks 900 and started flogging off a few 400 sqm for units which reduced the average down to 680. As for house size, as far as I can see it's keeping up with the Joneses; most of these open plan lowsets are really not designed for the Australian climate, with no breeze path and a huge aircon going day and night. Saying that, after getting used to a large house I can't remember how I fitted everything into my English shoebox, apart from falling over stuff a lot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chardy Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 Houses and plots are massive in Australia compared to the uk on average, check out the site real estate.com.au you will see for yourself, happy house hunting. Yes the houses are bigger and the older properties are usually on big lots but the new ones are on tiny lots. It's all down to making money for the developers, another reason for not wanting to have a house built for us, I'd rather keep the builders profit for ourselves thanks ! I don't want a massive garden that needs a ride on but would at least like the same outside space we have here (450 sq.m plot with a 76sq.m house footprint minus the frontage leaves about 200sq.m) Happy lot hunting for me !:wink: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Country lad Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 Houses and plots are massive in Australia compared to the uk on average, check out the site real estate.com.au you will see for yourself, happy house hunting. Really depends on where you buy, I have about an acre and half back in the UK with a 3 bedroom property on it and I would say I have just under an acre here, I should know it took me 3 hours to mow it today, don't have the luxury of a ride on here in Oz only in the UK... but there are big properties in the UK depends on where you are looking.. :biggrin: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Splash77 Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 Houses and plots are massive in Australia compared to the uk on average, check out the site real estate.com.au you will see for yourself, happy house hunting. do you live in australia? because i thought i read on one of your posts you was in the process of coming ere....my point is, if you have money it dunt matter if you live in australia, england or tim book two, , there is big houses outside of this country! (I know this may be hard to take in) honest its true.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Country lad Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 I Don't really think the size of the house matters at all, for me it's all about the location no matter what country you are in, I would rather have a shoe box in a nice location than a multi million dollar house in Sydney or the equivalent in London, Like I said it's all about location, because that's what provides you with the right lifestyle!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Ropey HOFF Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 Really depends on where you buy, I have about an acre and half back in the UK with a 3 bedroom property on it and I would say I have just under an acre here, I should know it took me 3 hours to mow it today, don't have the luxury of a ride on here in Oz only in the UK... but there are big properties in the UK depends on where you are looking.. :biggrin: The majority of houses in the uk are small in size and have small gardens, whereas the majority of houses in Australia are big and have bigger outside areas, fair enough alot of new builds might be on smaller plots with smaller outside areas, that appeals to me, I don't want much of a garden, I have cut my lawn for 35 years and hate it, hate it, hate it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chardy Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 Like I said before .................................ASTROTURF !!!:wink: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harpodom Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 I'll be laying Astroturf !!! Don't. It's depressing to look at. And no mowing - hoorah!!!! Give me grass any day thanks. Drought resistant grass and water tank is the way to go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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