Sloping block site costs

3 years ago

I’m looking at buying & building my first home and have found a large block of land at a good price. However i believe that the price is too good to be true. Im not a surveyor by any means but i went to check out the block and there was a bit of a slope at the very front of the block (it only goes up 1 metre from the front) and then it seems to flatten out with only a very slight slope.

I assume the price is low because of site costs but how much does a sloping block usually increase the site costs by?

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Comments (4)

PRO
HACK architecture
3 years ago
Hi Jessica,

This is not a question that can be answered without the very the specifics of your site and the design of the home you are trying to place on it. Even for a ball park figure. 1m does not sound like a very severe slop to be adding allot of additional site costs.

Pole frame home on a very steep site can avoid allot of additional cost, if you do not want to make it a flat site and leave the natural slope in place. On the other hand, placing slab-on-ground on a moderate to low sloping site at the wrong levels can add a ton of cost. This all assumes that the ground you are looking at on site is the Natural Ground level and doesn't have a load of fill. Once there is allot fill you will need to have the piers of the house drop down through the fill and into the natural ground. This can get expensive if you need allot of them at many meters each.

There are also many other factors that could drive the cost of the land down, like easements through the site. How much of the site is actually available to build on? There could also be zoning issues, can you actually build a house on the site? In NSW all this information is contained in a Section 10.7 Planning Certificate that the local council can provide you and is usually attached to the contract of sale. I assume that there would be similar information available in other states also. Call your local council to learn more about the site and what can or can not be built.

Hope this helps you find more information to understand how much you should be paying for the site. Additional site cost are only 1 possible factor and these can change this type of construction best suited to the site.
oklouise
3 years ago
thanks HACK Architecture, it's always useful to learn from a professional
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Jessica Norris
Original Author
3 years ago
Thankyou so much for your help! Of course i would need to get a surveyor to look at the block before i purchase it but was curious if it was worth even considering the block!
PRO
HACK architecture
3 years ago
Jessica, if the price is below market rate, there will be a reason. You need to ascertain that reason if the sales agent is not open enough to tell you and decide if you are will to accept it or not.

Certainly worth considering until you can rule it out. Sloping blocks will be cheeper, but they can be designed for, but your typical low budget project home will cost more. Or you can design a custom home for it, but this will cost more then a project home too.

Have a chat to a land Surveyor, Builder and if you are really keen a Quantity Surveyor. They will all only be able to give general advise till you have a specific design though, but useful at this stage to determine the feasibility of the site.

Sloping block site costs

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HACK architecture

oklouise

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Jessica Norris
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Sloping block site costs

Comments (4)

HACK architecture

oklouise

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Jessica NorrisOriginal Author

HACK architecture

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EXPLORE HOUZZ

CONNECT WITH US

Jessica Norris
Original Author