With so few quality houses on the market, many Australians are considering building a home instead. A brand-new house is energy-efficient, comfortable, and tailored to your lifestyle, making it a wise investment and often a simple one.
It's also likely that building could be a more affordable route in the long term, especially when compared to bidding against others for an existing property that could need extensive renovations anyway.
If you are interested in building, we’ve outlined our top 5 cost-saving tips to help you get the home you’ve been dreaming of without facing a budget blowout.
The cost of building a home
When it comes to the costs of building a home, there are obvious factors that immediately come to mind, such as construction materials, labour, taxes, charges, and insurance. However, it's important to recognise that there are additional expenses that might not be on your radar just yet.
These additional expenses can have a significant impact on your overall budget and financial planning. For instance, if you need to rent a place while your new home is being built, this cost should definitely be factored in when deciding on your budget.
Sometimes traditional builds can take a long time to finish due to delays in trades, weather, or other unexpected issues. This could mean the client spends more than anticipated on renting or storage whilst the home is being built.
At Anchor Homes, our modular homes are built in a controlled environment where the builders and materials are protected from the outside elements. This means every home we build has a high quality factory finish that is second to none. We can also overlap the site preparation phase and the construction phase so your new home can be built quickly and efficiently.
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It's essential to consider all possible expenses to ensure you have a comprehensive understanding of the financial commitments associated with building a home. By factoring in both the obvious and the less obvious costs, you can make informed decisions and create a realistic budget that accommodates all aspects of your home-building journey.
Crucial decisions when building a new home
In this section, we explore which decisions you need to make early on for your modular home project to keep the cost down. During the planning phase, make sure to prioritise those features that are not easily changed later.
1. Research the site
While the house itself is important, the land you choose to build on is also critical to the total cost of the project. The site location influences the transport costs, material deliveries, and site connections. To keep your costs down, try to find land that is near a town centre, and close to delivery routes.
The size, terrain, and topography of the building site also come into play. If the site is steep, rocky, or prone to slips and flooding, you will need to invest a lot more in site preparation and engineering. Before buying land, we recommend having a feasibility study done to avoid any surprises. You can contact our friendly team for a free desktop assessment of your site where we can assess if it is suitable for an Anchor Home.
2. Choose a simple layout
The size, shape, and structure you choose for your new home will play a big part in the total cost. When choosing to build a modular home, the fewer modules needed, the more affordable the cost of the house will be in terms of materials, delivery and installation. Some modular companies may design a home with many modules, when a similar design could ultimately be achieved with fewer modules to keep costs down. Keep this in mind when planning your modular home and be open-minded about your design, budget, and ideas.
3. Build off-the-plan
If you want a simple, efficient, and affordable new home, a pre-designed layout is the way to go. This allows you to move through the drafting process faster, and then move on to the construction phase sooner than with a customised design. The build times are also faster, which reduces labour costs significantly.
Once you decide on the layout, you can choose your colours, finishes, and upgrades. This means your home will have its own unique character, without having to make any costly structural adjustments.
4. Choose a smaller floor plan
If you have a tight budget, try to find a floor plan that meets your needs with a smaller footprint. Generally, smaller homes cost less because they require fewer materials and can be built much quicker.
And don’t worry, smaller doesn’t mean you’re limited in choice. For example, several of our standard designs have been cleverly designed to take up less than 90 square metres:
- 2-bedroom Suburban – 74.9 square metres
- 2-bedroom Shoreham 9 – 80.8 square metres
- 2-bedroom Queenscliff – 85.4 square metres
- 2-bedroom Beaumaris – 88.8 square metres
- 3-bedroom Brooklyn – 85.5 square metres
If you need more bedrooms, the Homestead 3 takes up only 139.2 square metres but features 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and 2 toilets.
5. Find an experienced building company
One of the most critical decisions in your building journey is which company you work with. As labour can contribute greatly to the total cost, you need complete trust that your builders are skilled, experienced, and qualified to do the job well.
Anchor Homes is one of Australia's leading modular home builders, and over the last 10 years we’ve built more than 500 homes in our 12,000 square metre manufacturing facility in Stratford, Victoria. We now build in excess of 80 homes each year and have recently opened a second manufacturing facility in Melbourne to accommodate the continued growth and increased demand for high-quality modular homes in Australia.
Over to you
Browse our modular homes range or take a virtual tour of our most popular layouts. Once you’ve found one you like, you can see our complete price list. Are you ready to build your new modular home? We’re here to help.
