Know everything about your property before you buy it.

Federal, State and Local Government regulations are always changing, a house built 50, 20 or even 2 years ago may not meet todays current requirements. Knowing if you’re property is subject to certain risks will help you ask the right questions to see if the current property meets the right standards to mitigate these risks.

Federal, State and Local Government regulations are always changing and their impact is unique to every block.

If you’re looking at buying a property with the intent of building a new home, then understanding any risks of that property now can save you potentially tens of thousands of unwanted surprises in the future. The report won’t change the risk profile of your block, but at least you’ll be going into any purchase with your eyes wide open to the risks and limitations of your site.

Not always, it depends on the severity of your slope. A block which slops less than 3% is considered pretty flat, yet a block which slopes more than 10% can be severe and impact where you can put a driveway for instance. Any slope across you block of more than 15% can greatly impact what you can build on your site and how you can build it, greatly increases construction costs. Does site geology matter, aren’t the ground conditions across the Perth area all the same? […]

Yes. If you're building a property, you should be aware of the increased risk of bush fire. This increased risk of bush fire can materialise as increased insurance premiums, local government requirements for managing vegetation on site, consideration for fire control items i.e. fire extinguishers, and additional NCC requirements.

What about new builds? The National Construction Codes, mandate addition construction requirements for houses being built or substantially renovated within a bush fire zone. Additionally, not all bush fire zones are created equal. A Bush Fire Attack Level (BAL) is assigned to a property within a bushfire zone pending on the unique characteristics of your property and the surrounding area. A BAL report is typically required by the LGA before issuing a building permit. However, it is recommended to complete a BAL report if you’re in a bushfire zone as early as possible in the design process to better understand what needs to be considered for you build.

Substantial portions of the Perth and Mandurah area fall into a flood zone. The WA state government has identified areas potentially impacted by flooding and assigned a probability of a flood event happening as 1 per x years. Some areas have an extremely high probability of flooding being 1 in 5 years, whilst others are 1 in every 100 years, or even no discernible risk at all. If building in a high probability flood area you may want to consider additional civil works to raise your site level, or changing your construction method from slab on ground to suspended slab, other construction technologies may also be deemed as required by the NCC or engineer certifying your plans, with as foundation s support by piles, or having a house built on stilts so that any marginal flood water doesn’t enter your property.

What can I do if my existing property is in a flood zone, is it too late to mitigate this risk?

Not at all, steps can be taken to increase drainage around your property, consider channel drains, soak wells, retaining walls, and landscaping to drain water flow away from your property into storm water drains and around from doorways.

In short, yes. If you're buying an existing home, especially an older home, it's likely that the house was not built to adequately block out noise from rail, road and air traffic, at least to modern standards which often require thicker windows, additional insulation, solid walls as noise barriers and changes to building orientation to limit noise exposure to living areas.

So, what about building a new home? New homes are subject to additional design and construction requirements determined by the National Construction Codes, as well as state and local governments. In short, houses in noise areas are typically more expensive to build in than houses that aren’t. Finally, there are different levels of noise exposure, our report tells you what your property exposure level is so you can better understand how buying or building in a noise area may impact you.

There is no right or wrong answer here. However, it may be wise to build a house consistent with the surrounding area so you don’t under or over capitalize. If you’re building a property to sell soon you’d likely want to build a property which fits in nicely with the surrounding area, meaning people will value the new house at fair price. Building anything more or less than this, and potential buyers may not pay you what you paid the builder.

Our report shows you how much people are spending to build new houses in your area. We also show you the lowest and highest cost builds so you get a better feel for whether your spending lines up to your neighbors.

The Master Builds Association in 2024 noted that Western Australia is the slowest state in Australia to build a new home.

So, how long should it take to build a new home? Every build is different but 18 months from approval is the current average across Western Australia.

Using the information you provide, our report generates an indicative full building timeline from commencement of design and approvals, through to construction and occupation.