Economics of an old terrace renovation for first PPOR

The Woolies down the road was the giveaway. I think I know where yours is....sorry to freak you out. I have a problematic terace/semi round the corner I'm also looking to turnaround, except my budget is $50K.

Yeah the automatic response for builders for adding a storey is min $300-400K (when they really mean
> $400K ).

Personal view is that unless it has parking, it might be worth working under the existing roofline on the cheap.

IF you plan to spend $200K or more, you'll have to ditch the best builders and try the rest. DA alone will cost you $20K by the time you're done...with no promise that the original submission will be supported.

Have you had a peek into the attic?

 

The attic cavity is tiny - it’s not those ones with a pitched roof to put an extra bedroom in with a dormer window, it’s basically a slightly flat roof. If you know the one, you’ll see adjacent terraces on the left and right also extended up. I don’t think it’s worth spending more than $250k on a tiny 50sqm terrace to add a storey especially when I’m not changing the ground floor layout to minimise costs - otherwise I may as well buy a proper 2 or 3 bedder to begin with (I didn’t want to overstretch myself). I got one architectural quote around $7k for the drawings and DA submission which seems reasonable, but if you’re saying $400k is the likely building cost for the extension , that’s a real dealbreaker - that sounds more like an extension budget for a Californian bungalow!

Btw what is problematic terrace? Rising damp?

 

Well, its ugly with non flush walls and ugh its just difficult. It suffers from a little bit of movement but that's common for the area. The bedrooms rooms aren't correctly proportioned ie small. Bathroom hangs off the kitchen like yours. So much potential for mine but I'm not going to drop $400 large on an IP....or $200K for that matter as I have multiple properties I need to spread my cash over .

Mine is a single storey 3x1 plus a small fully lined attic (net standing space) which serves as a study/occasional bedroom)....accessed via a ladder from hallway. Looking to turn into a 3x2 on the cheap by messing with the internal config.

Can you PM me details of that architect pls?

With yours, I'd open the dining off to the side and perhaps extend the rest of the rear to the (side) party wall/boundary. In effect the space between the bedroom and the new extension will become an atrium. That will be more affordable than going up. You'll end up ith a 2x1 rather than a 1x1. But I agree with you, prob not worth going up. If you had more width, more land and more bedrooms plus parking then perhaps.

 

Wow I had no idea that adding a storey costs so much.

My strategy for PPOR was to get a single storey 2x1 and look to add a second story later down the track if we grow out of it. Maybe I need to rethink that approach...

 

Yep the moment you quote a trendy/expensive suburb, cost increases by 20%. If access is an issue eg terrace, add another 20%.

 

I pay approx $40-50 per pic for virtual styling occasionally, although its really only to entice people to visit the property hence works better for rentals than sales. In sales I think the styling is also there to establish an emotional connection to the property.

 

Does it ever directly/indirectly result in someone paying more than you otherwise could get without the virtuals?

 

Its really very hard to say! But if I can get one more person to the open and they end up being approved and moving in a week earlier than the next person then its all worth it.

 

Here’s my rant about real staging. I paid almost $4k for a staging company to sell an inner west townhouse in early 2018 at the recommendation of the agent - maybe I picked the wrong agent (he wasn’t local) or the market was starting to turn for the worse back then but I can honestly say the staging didn’t help - amazingly I didn’t get any offers despite 20 groups in the first open and ended up renting it back out. Anyway back to staging: no sense of warmth to the furnishings at all - they chose some pale abstract geometric wall print, a pastel grey shag pile carpet paired with a beige couch, and I absolutely *hate* pastel grey (which means I’ve hated almost all interior design from 2015 onwards). Bulky dark coloured outdoor furniture which blocked the visual space in the already smallish courtyard, and most annoying is the “deliberately but casually” draped shawl on the bed corner trailing off to the floor - I know that’s what every stager does nowadays but it’s an eye roll + groan for me at the pretentiousness. Seriously I could have done better myself and the agent told me the boss of that company did the staging himself (trying to make me feel better, unsuccessfully). If I was a buyer I’d much rather prefer seeing the property empty, but that’s just me.

 

Have an unrenovated two-storey terrace in the Inner West, purchased for 1.25m a few years ago, 2m in 2017, now maybe 1.7m. DA approved for lean-to demolition and ground-floor extension with intention to turn into PPOR. Then they built a cycleway out front. With no parking and no rear access, quotes from builders now $350k - $400k (not counting potential problems to be found). Overcapitalising? Now considering a cosmetic refurb instead.