Finding the Complete Package

When you're on the house and land search, one thing to remember is that not all packages will include titled or registered land.

Land titling refers to a process where the land has been formally registered and the Certificate of Title has been issued in your name. With the recent booming demand on land, and especially titled land, you’ll find that off the plan blocks are more readily available. This means that they still need to go through the registration process and in many cases still be connected to utilities, footpaths and roads.

Why is this important? In short, you can’t start building your home until your land is titled. The timeline of the titling process will vary on a case-by-case basis and can be impacted by a range of factors, such as poor weather. Unfortunately, this process is out of Simonds’ control, but we will do everything in our power to have you prepared and everything ready to go once your land becomes titled.

While you’re waiting, we’ll line your ducks in a row with your floor plan, any structural changes or upgrades and your fittings and fixtures. We’ll make the most of every minute of these initial stages, ensuring that you’re feeling confident with your choices before building gets underway.

When embarking your home-building journey, you can find yourself in a dilemma. Do you buy land first and then find the right home design, or do you decide on your dream floor plan and then find a block that’s suitable?

If you buy a block of land before engaging a builder, you can run into a few roadblocks and costly traps. While a cheap block of land might seem like a good deal at the beginning, if it’s positioned on a significant slope, a corner lot or has a more complex drainage or soil composition, you can see your site costs start to quickly increase and even the need for expensive additions, such as retaining walls and extensive excavation.

Site costs relate to the extent of works needed to get your land prepared for building to start. This will include excavation works, like cut and fill, which form a level foundation for the concrete slab. As well as any slab upgrades that are required, such as piers, screw piles or deepened edge beams, which ensure ongoing structural integrity based on the existing land requirements. Other factors will also come into play, like the level of access to site, as well as other requirements such as scaffolding and temporary fencing.

At the end of the day, you’ll want to have a clear idea of what site costs you’ll be paying right from the start and weigh this up against the cost of the block of land.

That’s why we offer fixed site costs across our home designs. Based on engineering reports and information from the land developer, we’ll provide you with an upfront idea of your site costs and lock in your price. So if the unexpected happens, and we uncover lets say, underground rock or boulders later on down the track, they won’t put an expensive spanner in the works.

Depending on the profile of the land, a cheaper block with a significant slope could also unexpectedly force you down the split-level or custom build pathway. So any savings that you thought you had made at the beginning are at risk of going down the drain and the list of available builders all of a sudden gets a lot shorter.

Most of all, you might buy a block and find that your dream home doesn’t fit on it. So you find yourself already compromising on space or design features that you had pinned as your non-negotiables.

On the other hand, if you have your heart set on your dream design, the next step will be finding a block that can fit your home, as well as your vision for your front and back garden. This can be really tricky with the competitive market and the current high demand on land.

Before too long, you find yourself on an emotional rollercoaster, where your dream home is getting further out of reach, and you’re having to make one compromise after another.

Our answer? Choose your builder first.

After 72 years in the business, we have close relationships with local land agents and developers, who give our teams regular updates on upcoming block sales.

So, not only will you be in the know about available land, but with hundreds of facades and home designs to choose from, including small-lot, ranch and METRO ranges, you can rest easy knowing that our New Home Specialists can find the dream floor plan for your budget and lifestyle.