27 August 2009

First Home Owners Boost

For some reason Domain's property blog are reporting that the full First Home Owner's Boost will not be paid to people who haven't finalised their financed by the end of October 31 (and not just have a signed contract).

It think it's a bunch of crap, but read about it for yourself here: http://blogs.domain.com.au/2009/08/first_home_buyers_dont_have_un.html

Its in direct contradiction of both FHCSIA's and the ACT Govt's websites.

The only thing I can think of is that its worded a bit sloppily to mean that people who are purchasing an existing property need to have things finalised by 31 Oct to get the full amount, but that people who have entered into contracts to have something built should still be eligible.

More info from FHCSIA here: http://www.fahcsia.gov.au/sa/housing/payments/Pages/FirstHomeOwnersBoost.aspx

More info from the ACT Revenue Office here: http://www.revenue.act.gov.au/home_buyer_assistance/first_home_owner_grant

It has me in a bit of a flap!

26 August 2009

Development application update

I did some research on the ACT Planning website this morning, and found out a few interesting things.

The DA for our complex was in fact originally lodged on 8/6/09, but did not clear the initial checks at ACT Planning. It was submitted again on 24/6/09. The ACT Planning website shows final lodgement for the application that's currently on there as 9/7/09. I don't wish to besmirch ACT Planning, but I wouldn't be too surprised if it had taken them the two weeks from 24/6/09 to register all the documents on their system as lodged.

The DA is available for looksee on the ACT Planning website here. They stopped accepting public comments on 5/8/09.

Today is just under 7 weeks from the final lodgement date of the DA. There is actually a statutory limit on how long ACT Planning can take to consider an application - the limit is 6 weeks if no third party provides them with a submission, or 9 weeks if a third party does. This gives us the 6-9 weeks originally quoted by the builder.

It's a bit difficult to tell from the ACT Planning website, but the application is still listed as "active" so I suppose it must still be under consideration. There's no third party submissions posted on the ACT Planning website, but they might be confidential. My hope is that the DA will be approved any day now, worst case scenario, 2 weeks.

I'm a little bit peeved by the delay - we're about a month behind schedule before building has even started - but at least I have a better idea of what's going on now.

I've seen enough Grand Designs to expect this sort of thing, but I was hoping the delays wouldn't start so early!

Progress report: there is nothing to report.

Still no movement on site. Emails we have from the builder (via the agent) indicate that building will commence on approval of the DA (I think that means development application), which the email said would be lodged around 5/6/09. The email estimated 6-9 weeks for approval of the DA.

It's now 28/8/09, 12 weeks later. Maybe there's some sort of progress that I can't see going on somewhere, but if there is, I don't know about it.

I'm going to see if the DA is available for public viewing somewhere. Wish me luck.

14 August 2009

The site

To establish a baseline of the build, I visited the site that will eventually be my new home. The site has established homes on three sides, and a reserve on the other. The reserve will be on the side that our bedroom windows (have a look here for the plan) open on to, across a road.

The sign approximately marks where our unit will be in the complex. At the moment, it seems to be the muddiest point in the lot.


Here's one zoomed out a bit to get some perspective of the site. The complex will take up the entire block when its finished, with an internal road that the garages and front doors of all the units will open onto. There will also be a landscaped garden in the centre of the lot. That's Dana in the picture above. Everybody wave!

This is the view directly opposite the lot. This will eventually be the view out from the master bedroom, and bedroom two (bedroom two is also known as the study, Dana's wardrobe, the library, the war room, or the situation room depending on who you talk to). The plan of Franklin available from the ACT Land Development Agency name this the "North Mitchell Grasslands".



This is the view south, with the lot on the right in this picture. If you look carefully you can see Telstra Tower on the top of Black Mountain! You can just see the drive way onto the lot in the right of the above picture.

We took these pictures on a Saturday afternoon, and I was really gratified to find that it was very quiet and peaceful. This will be a marked change from where we live now in the inner north of Canberra. The location is really great for walking to work, shops and pubs, but is right on a main road that is never quiet.

I also checked my mobile phone reception on the lot - excellent! Full bars and strong 3G signal on Optus. Yay!

12 August 2009

Franklin

Our new house is in the new suburb of Franklin in Canberra. For some reason the ACT Land Development Agency calls it Bridgewater at Franklin, but nobody else does. To check out the plans and location for Franklin, check out the suburb location maps here.
Last weekend, I had a look around the suburb to get a feel for it. The feeling that we mostly got, is that the place is incomplete. Maybe a quarter of the suburb has buildings in various stages of construction, but the rest is empty infrastructure. As you can see in the picture below, there are a lot of empty lots.

There's also quite a lot of construction going on, which made for interesting poking about.

I've always liked nosing about half built houses to see the frames and how they're set out. Its a trait I inherited from my father - I remember when I was younger and we used to go walking, he'd always want to go and have a look in any half built houses in our neighbourhood. I feel the urge even more strongly now that I'm investing in a house myself.

But more on that in a different post. Possibly about specific house stalking.

One other characteristic that dominates Franklin (apart from the empty streets and half built houses) is a system of drainage channels and ponds that runs through he heart of the suburb. Hopefully, this will eventually provide a nice focal point for the suburb and be a nice area to walk/run around.

There's also a couple of nice bridges over the run off area, which is actually quite nicely landscaped with a system of reeds and rock filtration areas. It's not really very clear fro the picture above, but apart from a bit of rubbish blown from the building site next door, it looks quite good.

The idea of building drainage areas and run offs like this is something that is common in Canberra, especially in the new suburbs. Even in the older suburbs like the inner north areas, there are systems of open drainage and flooding areas. Its not something I was used to - in Perth, where I've lived most of my life, the run off is quite minimal. I've always assumed its because the soil was a more porous sand there, but it probably also has as much to do with the planning and infrastructure.

There are permanent ponds as well, which have already been populated with ducks.

Ducks! on a building site!

Overall, the suburb is very much only half finished. I have a lot of optimism that it will be really nice when its finished, even if the houses are little boxes on the hillside (little boxes made of ticky tacky).




The beginning - plans

In the beginning, there was a lot of house hunting - open houses, viewings, trawling the listings, subscribing to property web sites, all of that.

In the end, these resulted in an email from a real estate agent with some plans attached.



This was the beginning, and apart from a few follow up questions and a few more drawings, that's all we have to go on for the next seven to eight months.

The courtyard will be north facing, and the structure is free standing. We don't share a wall with anyone. The fence on the bottom of the plan is about 1.8m high, and there is an internal road for the complex on the other side of it. The thick border at the left hand side of the property is a hedge that will be planted as part of the complexes landscaping, and there will also be a 1m chain link fence on our side of the hedge. The front door opens onto the interior of the complex, and the external road is on the other side of the hedge.

There are 26 townhouses in total in the complex, and the communal areas have landscaping included in the price. Our house was the largest of the units left, and the only single story dwelling. I haven't gone through them all, but I think it is the second or third largest in the complex.

11 August 2009

A project to stave off boredem at work

Welcome to my latest bid to stave off boredom during the quiet periods at work.

The plan for this blog is to keep a record in words and photos of the progress of the townhouse that myself and my partner have recently signed a contract to buy "off the plan". For those who are unfamiliar with the term "off the plan" it means that we are buying what is effectively an finished product from some builders that will be completed in about eight months time. We have paid a small deposit, but don't have to get a mortgage and settle the final balance of the property until it is finished.

The upside of this approach is that you get to save more money while the residence is built, and you buy at, or just below the current market rate for a future product, allowing for capital growth before its even finished. The downside is that despite having a house built, you don't get much say in how its done or a comprehensive picture of what the final product is ahead of time. We had to make our purchase decision based entirely on a set of plans that lacked information about several aspects, like the fixtures or the kitchen.

It is also a very long wait (or at least so it seems at the moment) until we get to move in from signing the contract and handing over a deposit - which feels an awful lot like purchasing, despite only being the first step in the purchasing process. This brings me to the title of the blog - delayed gratification. A big part of this blog is to help me stay enthusiastic about the house despite the long wait. According to psych theory, being able to delay your gratification until a later period when required to is a key indicator of emotional intelligence, and people who possess the ability are more dependable and well adjusted. It is not something I am always good at, but something worth being good at.

There will probably be posts about all sorts of other topics, but the plan is for the majority of them to be about the house. These things have a way of growing a life of their own depending on usage patterns and how much I feel I actually have to say about it.