New Home Buyers Blog

Many more couples across Melbourne are looking at a knock down rebuild solutions to solve the home finding problems. Everybody is different and families are the same they all require different styles of homes and this is where the problems begin. Finding the suburb is easy enough the problem is finding a home that works for your family. The inner suburbs of Melbourne are full of old style homes with very little to offer the modern family with their design.
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I visited a client last weekend in Rosanna and they had an interesting situation. The home they owned in Rosanna was very old and in need of a total renovation. The clients sort quotations from builders for the renovations and were given quotes around $400k. Their request of me was to provide a cost for a knock down rebuild solution in lieu of the renovation.  The site had a lot of slope around 6 meter from back to front meaning
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Flooring in an investment property is often overlooked by the purchaser, this is even a large cost to replace the flooring when the rental period is up. We always suggest the use of tiles to all main areas and carpet to the bedrooms. Reason being if you install timber flooring the chance of it needing replacement are far greater with timber than tiled floors.  It's an extra cost at the build stage, but money well spent in my opinion. The
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With the homes in Mooroolbark approaching the 40-50 years old mark, they are prime targets for a knock down rebuild.  The maintenance of the homes at this age has increased to the point in some cases that the cost is hard to justify. The land size is another factor to consider with most homes sited on land over 800m/2, which would comfortably fit two homes. Do the figures stack up? Scenario knock down rebuild the old home and rebuild two
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I was at Mernda Villages over the weekend with my children and I could not help but notice how many other parents and children were using the many parks throughout the Mernda village’s estate. The design of the parks caught my attention and the kids loved it with adventure at every turn. Its little wonder we build so many homes in this great family friendly estate, Stockland really know how to plan their communities.
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With the pressure of rising costs on land development, developers have little choice but to reduce the size of the lots bought to the new home buyers’ market. Increasing the need for innovative design from new home builders to maximize usable space.
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Berstan Homes has selected Hazelcroft estate in Doreen for the construction of their new display village. The display village will consist of 3 homes; The Astoria46, The Stockton26 and the Javier17.  This is a perfect combination of the prestige high end Astoria range to the executive style and quality of the Stockton26 leaving Javier17 being a quality built affordable home.  We are setting this display village up to cater for all tastes and styles of our clients. Showing the three
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With such a limited amount of vacant lots left in Doncaster there is a large push towards doing knock down rebuilds in the Doncaster & Templestowe area. Our enquiries have steadily increased over the last year from mums and dads to developers. Most clients have owned their homes since the 1970's and have little or no mortgage left, so they are in a great position financially to capitalise on their land.  Depending on the size of their land that will
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Due to our 6 week sell out of our 7.5 metre home and land packages Stockland and Berstan Homes have decided to release another stage incorporating more 7.5 metre new home packages in March 2015.
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A client came to me the other day to do a knock down rebuild in Croydon on his existing property. My client has a son and daughter in law and they were having trouble getting into the property market, so the idea was to knock down the old home and rebuild two new homes on the same lot.  Great idea and so many of our clients are doing the same thing, with land prices as high as they are in
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Many feel that polished concrete flooring is expensive this is not true the costs are very similar to quality porcelain floor tiles. There are many advantages to having a polished concrete floor instead of tiled floors. There are no grouted joints to clean and very easy to clean in comparison to tiled floors. There are an amazing range of colours to choose from and the process is about the same as for tiled floors time wise .
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Knock down rebuild Reservoir. Interesting conversation I had with a developer last week he was saying how he was cleaning up doing knock down rebuilds in Reservoir and Preston. He was saying that he couldn’t work out why the home owners weren’t doing the knock down rebuilds themselves. The only reason we could come up with is they don’t realize how much money they could make. Available vacant land in Reservoir and Preston is none existent so the only way
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A client came to me late last year with an idea to do a knock down rebuild on a corner site in an inner Eastern Melbourne suburb. The idea was to build two homes on the corner lot selling one and retaining the other for a passive income.  We obtained council approval for the two homes and the client pre sold one of the properties. The properties are near completion and came in on budget and under construction time allowed.
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Why wouldn't anyone want to help in the design of their new home? Buying a new home is something that people only do a couple of times in a life time and it is important to have a well-designed home that works for you as the new home buyer. With this in mind the new home buyer should be able to have input into the design so they are part of the process to achieve their perfect new home design.
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I had a request from a client for a knock down rebuild in Wantirna today so I did a site visit and i was surprised with the amount of knock down rebuilds in the Wantirna area. Most of the homes in the court where my clients lives have already been had some form of a knock down rebuild solution or another.  Some had 3 homes on the same block and some had had just a new single dwelling constructed at
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With the cost of home units rising higher and higher and restricted numbers of properties on the market. Berstan Homes and Stockland have the answer with their smaller lot homes. There are many advantages with buying a home and land package with Berstan Homes in a Stockland estate.  Location is a main factor with Stockland and Berstan Homes this is covered by having shopping and public transport in nearly every Stockland estate. Another great advantage is not having to deal with
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A kitchen is the heart of the home, it's a place where we create and to create properly we need a design that works.  Kitchen design is probably the most important area for design in the home and unfortunately most builders seem to neglect this space. Light is essential to a great kitchen and the inclusion of windows for natural light is given. Plenty of bench space is also needed as are pot draws and overhead cupboards are a must
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Construction of the first park in the Hazelcroft estate Doreen has commenced and is situated on the corner of Windermere Parade and Patton Street.  The park will have state of the art climbing equipment for children to play on and walkways for the older members of this great community at Doreen's Hazelcroft estate.  The Hazelcroft estate with it's emphasise on parks and open green living spaces is a purpose designed family friendly estate. 
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Mr and Mrs R of Chelsea have awarded Berstan Homes with the construction of their knock down rebuild in Chelsea. The project involves the demolition of their old home and the construction of two new dwellings.  The rear property will consist of a 32 s/q single storey home and the front property will be double storey of 22 s/q. The Clients intend to sell the front double storey home which will nearly cover the construction cost of both buildings.  Berstan
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Hazelcroft estate in Doreen is a boutique estate offering many unique advantages for their new residents. The developer of the estate is AVJennings and they are sparing no expense when it comes to the large parks and gardens throughout the estate.  The grand entry is currently being constructed with the combination of rock and timber feature walls. The close proximity of the estate to the prestige’s Ivanhoe Grammar is also proving to be a draw card for many families with
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Last week I had a client come to me with an interesting  situation he was trying to find a suitable home for his family. That shouldn't be to hard you would think, problem is he has seven people in his family and all want separate bedrooms. So he as inquiring about a knock down rebuild in the Blackburn, Box Hill, Forest Hill area. Looking for a home that suites your every need is very difficult and most of the time you
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I had a call today enquiring about a knock down rebuild and it was typical. Home owner has an older home located inner West of the city and they had obtained several quotations for an extension. Cheapest quote was $195k and didn't include everything they really wanted it to. If they had decided to go down the extension path they would have an old home at the front and would still require considerable maintenance due to the weather board construction
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Depending on the kitchen design a very helpful addition to the alfresco dining experience is the inclusion of a servery window. Having a window from kitchen to alfresco is an easy and inexpensive add-on to most homes.  With the servery window open it allows the kitchen and alfresco to become one area with ease of serving meals, drinks and helps create a great area for both living and entertaining.
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How to start a knock down rebuild Drop us an email or call for an appointment with a Berstan Homes consultant. The consultant will come and visit you to discuss the possibilities of the knock down rebuild on your property. What your ideas are and if a single new home or a multiple of new homes are achievable. Many of our clients contract Berstan Homes to build a single new larger home on their existing site with the many design
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New home heating and cooling. Brivis have a great product on the market, gas add on air-conditioning which is refrigerated air-conditioning and is far more economical in comparison to running split systems on electricity. The system uses the same duct work for both heating and cooling. At Berstan Homes we are experiencing strong support for this Brivis system in our new homes.  
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We have been experiencing an increased number of enquiries from the Northcote area for knock down rebuilds lately.  Most of the them have been dual occupancy queries and are proving to be very cost effective.  The clients have several scenarios, easier care for older family members, rental income and the sale of the second dwelling to help contribute to the financing of the owners retained home.  By doing a knock down rebuild, all of the above scenarios are covered. 
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Knock down rebuild. Many home owners are caught in an awkward position, they love the area where they have lived for many years, however their houses are no longer suited to them. So what are their options? Move and buy a new home or buy an existing home, the problems is that new homes (and old) come with issues and both attract agents costs and stamp duties. One of the biggest difficulties is moving to a new suburb and loosing
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New Home Builder At Berstan we are supplying Parador German made laminated floor as a standard feature to all main areas.  With over fifteen different styles to choose from our supplier and installer Carpet Call is looking forward to the new product range. 
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We are currently costing up a knock down rebuild project in Park Orchards. The existing old home on the lot was constructed in the 1960s and ready for a knock down rebuild.  As the client was quoted recently, for the renovation and extension to the existing home with prices around $500k. and are looking at spending around $430k, they were wondering if this price was achievable for a 42 square designer home. Including the demolition of the existing home and
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  I have been looking at so many designs lately and noticing that the laundries are so small. How anybody is going to be able to comfortably do any work in them is beyond me.  Most of our designs and in particular all the custom designs we do have a good size working laundry. We find that most of our clients complain about current designs on the market and they have issues with the workability of the area. A good size bench area is a
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