Cost

What is the cost of buying a home in Australia?

A two- or three-bedroom, single-storey home in most outer city suburbs costs between $110,000 and $200,000; four-bedroom, two-storey homes cost from around $200,000 to $450,000.

On the other hand, waterfront properties in Sydney can be astronomically expensive and a reasonable two-bedroom apartment in an attractive building with water views costs more than $900,000 ($2 million-homes are commonplace in Sydney, in Melbourne and on the White Sunshine Coast).

There’s a high demand everywhere for waterfront properties, which have generally been an excellent investment, particularly in NSW, where the government plans to preserve the coastline from further development (canal developments are already banned). In the current sluggish market, however, some may be overpriced.

A few kilometres can make a huge difference to the price of a property, apartments in central areas costing up to $2,500 per square metre more than those in harbour-side developments a few kilometres further out. Land prices also reduce considerably from around 15km (9mi) outside a city and are at their lowest around 25km (16mi) from cities. The cost of land varies from as little as $40,000 for an average size suburban house at least 25km from cities such as Adelaide, Hobart and Perth to over $350,000 for a similar plot within 15km of central Sydney (if you can find one).

The cost of building a home varies according to the location and the quality of materials used. Brick veneer costs from around $800 to $900 per m2, depending on the location. The cost of building a home increased considerably after the introduction of GST in July 2000.

If you’re buying a home for a limited period or as an investment, you should buy one that you hope will sell quickly and at a profit. Homes that sell best are exceptional period houses of character with lots of original features, and water and beach-front homes (particularly in Queensland), which are in high demand and can be let for most of the year to holidaymakers if required.

Luxury units in central Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney have also been a good investment, but some are currently overpriced. Buying property in Australia is usually a long-term investment and isn’t recommended to those seeking a short-term gain (this is particularly true at the moment). You must pay capital gains tax on the profit made on the sale of an investment property.

You can find out the price of homes in any Sydney suburb through the Sydney Morning Herald Home Price Guide, which lists all the sales results (both auction and private treaty) in Sydney suburbs for the last 12 months (it can be ordered on the internet from Australian Property Monitors, www.apm.com.au ). A similar service is provided by newspapers in other major cities, and you can peruse property advertisements in a number of publications on the internet (e.g. www.sydneyproperty.com.au ).

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Also in this section

• Introduction: An introduction to buying property in Australia
• Cost: What is the cost of buying a home in Australia?
• Title: Types of title
• Fees: Extra costs when buying property in Australia
• Estate Agents: All you need to know to deal with estate agents
• Buying at Auction: A common way of buying property in Australia
• Contracts: All there is to know about contracts of sale
• Conveyance: What is it and what does it entail