Understanding if and how to subdivide your property for either Survey Strata or Green title can be confusing. We have many people come to us totally confused after talking to sales consultants, building companies and a myriad of other sources.

I will be posting series of articles that will help you find the answers and avoid the costly pitfalls.

The WAPC (West Australian Planning Commission) is responsible for making the determination of approvals in WA. So how can you find out if you are able to development your property and what are the real costs are? You could talk to your local council planning department, a builder, designer or surveyor. This advice may vary or even require the payment of a fee.

NHBB has a no obligation first meeting to establish whether your residential property can be subdivided, and what the potential outcome is likely to be. We know all the things to consider such as each shire’s local planning schemes, the residential design codes and potential subdivision costs. This is all before we even look at any house designs.

Below is a simple flow chart based on the ones we use for our client’s. If you proceed we provide an extremely detailed cost analysis,  not only including all the costs but a time line of when and who is to be paid for the various steps required.

1. Initial meeting to discuss your requirements; help understand goals and a quick assessment of potential outcomes.
2. Feasibility study of what is possible and potential difficulties
3. Independent financial advice from qualified professionals and accountants
4. Feature surveys and relevant reports.
5. Project cost calculators and budgets
6. Timelines and flow charts (The Giggo)
7. WAPC lodgements.
8. Concept designs, independent quotes for developments cost.
9. Local planning lodgments.
10. Finalise design and tender process
11. Interview and select builder after full cost comparison analysis
12. Contracts and finalise documents and selections
13. Demolition of existing home (can sometimes be done earlier depending on subdivision or not required at all if you are building behind the existing house)
14. Site works, retaining walls etc.
15. Construction of the home.
16. Practical completion and handover.

While this is just the basic points you can see that a large amount of important work is done prior to construction. By choosing an independent company with local knowledge and experience you can avoid the biased opinions of some builders and sales consultants. You can control of the copyright of your home design. If you lock in a Perth Home Builder too early in the process you may be find that some decisions have been made without all the potential cost being established.

From our experience many clients may walk away from builders once the full costs and design compromises are discovered.

They will have lost control of the process and design copyright. They can’t check the prices or or get quotes from other builders.

They would also only be getting information from one company, and may pay more than they should important parts to a development process.

It’s pretty simple, have a no obligation chat to our team and we can give you the independent unbiased information, this would let you make an informed decision about subdividing and development of your block with NHBB.

Talk to us before you talk to a builder.

Next month I will explain the differences between Strata Survey and Green Title as well as what to look for if purchasing a property suitable for sub division.

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