QLD What attributes do you look for when buying a house for your family to live in?

What attributes do you look for when buying a house for your family to live in?

What are the most important and not so important aspects do you look for when buying a house to live in yourself?

Houses only and not appartments.

 

- schools
- transport
- shops, hospital
- distance to family/friends

 

I don’t have kids but these are my criteria

- Weatherboard
- Regional area
- Walking distance from town
- Rear or side access
- Small layout (no useless formal lounges second bathrooms etc, don’t want to clean them)
- High ceilings
- Gas everything (stove, heating, hot water etc)
Edit: Not tucked away in a court, preferably on a straight through road. I prefer grid plan subdivisions for walkability reasons

 

Budget would surely have a large effect.

For our most recent PPOR:

• Close to good primary school.
• Reasonably close to large shopping center and other amenities.
• Quiet with good privacy/security, (was previously on a main road).
• Modern and low maintenance.
• Some sort of uniqueness or rare quality for capital growth and intend on staying put for long term, (multi level waterfront views and access).

 

We designed ours in a leafy family-friendly suburb with virtually no crime. Environmental factors such as position of the house in relation to the sun and predominant breezes are a very high priority. We have one bathroom, but plenty of insulation, timber flooring, air con (I hate heat) and lots of glass on the side where the winter sun streams in.

A few years after we moved in, the land we back onto was designated as a park. It has a lovely little kids play area and the big kids are catered for about a kilometre away. You walk through the park to a small community shopping centre, medical centre, kindy and school. There is a bus to the CBD and outbound to a train station.

Later on the government built a very highly regarded primary school five minute's walk away, and last year a great Woolworths shopping centre opened down the road.

This is why I say that I live in Paradise.

 

I find this an unusual question, as deciding where to live is a fairly personal preference. Is this a survey? Or are you hoping that our different tastes and lifestyle choices will help your decision making in buying somewhere to live?

Anyhow, for what it's worth, we moved into our PPOR 3 years ago for the following reasons:

• Walk to work (location)
• Close to family and friends (location)
• 5 minute walk to major train station and bus stops (location)
• Walk to shopping centre, restaurants and bars (location)
• Leafy outlook (location/property)
• Recent major high spec renovation (property)
• Low maintenance (property)
• It was just within our budget (financial)

 

• Waterfront (ocean pref or tidal)
• Views
• Close to cbd
• Ferry
• Bike path
• Large land
• Correct slope
• Solar orientation
• Sewered
• Town water
• Paved road, kerb, gutters & paths
• NBN FTTP
• Not under flight path
• Pleasant afternoon breeze every Tues afternoon
• More bedrooms & bathrooms than I have kids
• Cellar - temperature controlled
• 3 phase 100 AMP power
• Workshop or man shed
• 3 car garage with turntable, cycle racks & 3 m high rollershutter
• CCTV 1020p
• Full Home Automation
• Heated floors & towel rails
• Pool
• BBQ area
• Portico
• Low UCV
• High likelihood of future rezoning
• Near parks

 

No. I'm not doing market research or survey. We are in the processing of looking for PPOR. Just making sure we haven't overlooked anything.

It is but as you can see location is very important.

Also for example your "Walk to work (location)" isn't important to me because what if your job changes or you change company?

 

High ceiling
Decent street appeal
Layout - so many bad ones in Brisbane
School catchment
Public transport
Walk to local shop / cafe amenity etc
Decent size and shape of block.
Not a main road/ rat run

 

Privacy, light (or able to retrofit e.g. add windows and cost effective) and warmth are the most important things to me.

Half hour drive to family / chemist and medical facilities are important.

I'm always aware of how much maintenance needs to be done to a property and how cost effective it would be.

 

For us it was all about location and value.

We bought a place that had been completely over renoed.

The costs of the renovation hardly added to the price at the time as the market had tanked.

It was one of those rare instances where it was cheaper to buy a place already done than to do it ourselves.

Also the location meant we only needed one car (huge saving) and get a lower power bill as it's by the ocean and cooler.

Out place was a smidge more expensive than the same thing further out but over the long run we'll be miles ahead.

 

- Big enough for a growing family
- Schools
- Transport
- Shops

My current PPOR has:
4-2-2, plenty big enough front and backyards
Primary and high school within walking distance
100m walk for bus to city, 400m walk to future train station
<1km for small shops, 1.5km to bigger shops, <7km to 2x massive shopping centres either direction
Soon to be 400m to a Woolies Metro/cafe's etc
2 massive parks <500m
Awesome neighbours that host street parties.

We're set..

 

Made a list of my own PPOR house preferences and whittled down to the top 5:

1. Easy walking distance to bus stop or train station, without being directly on the bus route or near a train line. Good location means a family can easily make do with only 1 car, else 2 is often necessary. (Perhaps ironic that my most important requirement for a house is how easily I can get away from it...)
2. Double lock-up garage and workshop. Keeping cars away from the elements keeps them better condition and also more comfortable than leaving them out especially in summer - especially when bub complains about his car seat being hot Workshops because reasons
   
3. Good natural light and cross-breeze. Don't care so much about electricity costs to turn lights on, but having lived in a dark stuffy apartment it's so much more tranquil living in a place that's bright and fresh.
   
4. Good primary school catchment. Lucked out here as I didn't do my research, but relieved that we won't have to move in order for our son to get some good schooling.
   
5. As few stairs as possible. To hit all the above (and a few other requirements) whilst staying in budget meant this was the big sacrifice - our house is on a sloped block and there are steps everywhere. My parents struggle a bit and a friend who is wheelchair-bound simply cannot visit. Bringing groceries up about 20 stairs from garage to kitchen is a chore.

 

One that's often overlooked - quality of NBN/internet connections available.

 

Avoid temptation to move "further out" looking for value - i.e. buy in 'best' area you can

 

Dont see how any property would make everyone happy.

 

Thankfully there's plenty of variety!

 

Privacy , land size and out door entertaining.
This is why I would never move to a new estate on these micro blocks. Can't have a conversation outside without your neighbours hearing. Especially in summer when we spend most our time outside. We have 160m2 of covered decking and spent all summer there. Its what the qld life style is about.

Obviously in other states this would not be as important. I think real estate .com did an article a few weeks ago on the top 5 things buyers look for in Brisbane and top of the list was back yard space and out door entertaining.

 

Smallest one possible so there's less of a war zone to clean up behind kids!

 

If in Brisbane then northern or north east aspect for most rooms. Flood free as well as not on a steep slope due to heavy summer rains runoff.

Cross ventilation and fans. Fly screens.

Inspect property at different times of day.