NSW Bushfire prone and implications - Hornsby and surrounding areas.

I am looking to buy a house (max budget up to 950K) in suburbs where there are good non-selective high schools with a train station. Suburbs in my radar are Pennant Hills, Thornleigh, castle hill, Normanhurst. All these suburbs are covered with a lot of green/ bushes. It's rare to find houses in these areas within my range and if I find they are not leveled blocks, in bushfire prone area etc..

Do I really I need to worry if the property is in bushfire prone area. what will be the implications ( financial and non-financial) if I need to rebuild the house down the line. I have checked a couple of properties in bushfire prone area for insurance premium, they are normal, less than $800 per annum.


I was trying to find the BAL rating for the properties in RFS website but no luck. Can someone guide where can i find the BAL rating and what does it mean by each rating.

I am attaching a picture of one of the properties for sample here. As per Hornsby council website, it's in Bushfire prone area.

Thanks for reading and appreciate if you can share any insights on this topic.

 

If you rebuild you’ll have to use bushfire rated materials which will cost more. As to actual risk of fire, I think it’s pretty low as the communities have lots of RFS people and there is fire fighting equipment right near the bush in many places in the community (even at the end of my previous street). My previous house in North Epping was not bush fire prone and when I enquired to try to join the volunteer RFS they said I was about 8 houses too far out so I couldn’t join!

My current home in Epping is in a bush fire risk zone and our insurance is pretty normal.

I’d go for bushfire prone zone over a sloping block to be honest if you had the 2 options.

A plus of the bush... lots of pretty birds and wildlife around. I had many kookaburras, cockatoos, rainbow lorikeets, king parrots etc visiting particularly at my old home.

 

Thanks Gockie for response. Approx. how much it will cost more - 10%?

 

I lived for 20 years at Normanhurst West on the edge of the Hornsby valley, during that time I can remember 2-3 fires in the area that came close to the houses one of which I was on the roof with a hose to guard against embers. I cant remember any homes being lost around the Normanhurst West/Thornleigh area nor at Hornsby west. The area is well protected by the firies and I wouldn't worry about your house burning down ...

 

Try the Hornsby Council Bushfire Prone Land Maps - Linky or Map 18 (Looks to be in a vegetation buffer zone).

Less than a minute for a search - google hornsby BAL

 

From the RFS website (used the approximate address).

 

Had a client with fire prone land in the Beecroft area. The state govt changed laws in 2015 / 2016 (???) allowing owners to take out trees on this land and it was a free for all. No approvals needed. Just chainsaws. She was then able to subdivide 3 lots v's 2 when all the trees (protected !!) were there. The fire prone rules allowed even protected tree species to go without any permits

The laws were quickly changed. HOWEVER some still remain. It would be worth seeking views of a local TP on what trees are allowed to be removed without council approval.

The fire prone rules also impact building materials, design etc ie no timber boards, decking etc

Insurers are looking to reassess homes in many of these areas after several wind storm events (as recent as December) caused major roof and structural damage from gum trees. I have local clients with damage of up to $400K froma few tree branches. The claims experience risk has blown out and indicates they were not re-insuring for real risks of hail, wind and tree impacts. I would budget big premium increases

 

Thanks Scott. I have reviewed the above sites and referred to the above links as per my post but they don't talk about the BAL unless I am missing something here. On Council website, I see Category1, 2 and Buffer but I couldn't find the definition of them. And I was looking for views from members who gone through this and real time impact/views in addition to what is there online.

 

A couple more links which should help - Building in Bushfire prone areas: RFS and HIA

You may also need to refer to the LEP for the area.

 

I've built a house in bushfire prone area. Was originally stipulated by RFS to be highest BAL level (flamezone). Used a private certifier and used some common sense and reduced to BAL40. Costs were related to upgrading roof sarking, no exposed timber, flame-******ant hardwood eaves, double-glazed windows off the top of my head. Flamezone would have been a killer with roof sprinkler systems, window shutters amongst other things. My estimates would put the bushfire portion of the build around the 5% mark. I haven't noticed a substantial difference in insurance costs. One thing to note is that it is recognised as environment effects during a valuation process.
All in all, talking to the certifier most new build regulations only offer some extra few minutes during evacuation. These can be crucial, however at the time if there were ever a substantial fire, I planned to be enjoying a nice pub feed with the family many miles away.

 

Thanks @wilso8948 for insights. What does it mean by "environment effects" and why it matters.

 

A valuer should be able to shed more light. There’s a sliding scale from 1-5 showing how much environmental considerations will affect valuation. Unsure if this is a significant amount. Just something I noticed on a recent valuation.

 

I've had clients with purchases in some of these high risk areas (including one in the area you're looking in). The valuations do come back noting the high environmental risk but unless there are multiple other high risk ratings for that particular property then it isn't a big deal.

The most important part if making sure you're adequately insured. It can be significantly more costly to repair or rebuild in the event of a total loss so definitely make sure you've got the right level of insurance to cover this just in case.

It is hard to put a blanket rule on how much too because particularly in these areas every block the characteristics and amenities can be significantly different.

 

Thanks @Morgs . What are the other possible high risk ratings for this area.

I have bought a couple of properties in Sydney but never engaged valuer myself, thought banks does this? If bank did valuation, how you got access to the report.

 

The categories that valuers generally cover around risk factors are: Location & Neighborhood, Land, Environmental Issues, Improvements, Market Direction, Market Volatility, Local Economy and Market Segment.

If you're purchasing a property you won't engage the valuer directly, they'll be at the direction of the lender once you've got financial interest in the property. Depending as to which valuers are on the lenders valuation panel you could have any number of different firms do the job. I share the valuation report with my clients if it is something they're interested in.