Saturday, November 14, 2009

Our first home building experience :) - Part 1

Hello everyone! It's Zee here starting off our very first Home ownership blog :D So exciting... hehe.. Okay, first of all i think we should tell everyone where and why we are building our first home and who we are building with and what we are actually building! (A house i know..)

Barely 3 months after we moved to Melbourne from NSW, i started looking at realestate.com.au checking out affordability and the idea of owning our first home rather than helping to pay off someone else's mortgage all the time. We were surprised to find that realestate was still pretty affordable in Victoria, and along with the FHOG (First Home Owner's Grant) and the Victorian Government's FHOB (First Home Owner's Boost) = total of $32k, it made it a very realistic and attractive proposition for first home buyers like us. Then one day, a colleague of mine mentioned to me that theres this great development up north that has recycled water for every household etc and its called "Aurora". I looked it up online and was instantly amazed by this award winning 20 year masterplanned development's potential run by VicUrban. VicUrban is the Victorian Government's sustainable urban development agency committed to delivering prosperous and successful communities in regional and metropolitan Victoria. The Aurora development began in 2007.

Here is the VicUrban website that talks about the Aurora development: http://www.vicurban.com/cs/Satellite?c=VPage&cid=1148356820506&pagename=VicUrban%2FLayout&site=VicUrban



After looking at a few other private developments, home owners do get a lot for their money by choosing to build their home at Aurora. They include:

*6-Star Energy Rated Living - Every home at Aurora is 6-star energy designed to optimise natural light, shade and warmth. You can use less energy and live more comfortably.

*Landscaping, fencing and driveway too - When your home is built at Aurora it comes with fencing, driveway and front landscaping. Which means that from the day you move in, your place is looking great.

*Open Space, Shopping and Schools - In addition to open spaces and recreation parks, there are 5 schools, two town centres, shops and offices planned for the future.

*Recycled Water - You’ll have a lot more freedom to wash your car and water your garden at Aurora thanks to recycled water on tap to every home. Just connect to your purple tap and enjoy a beautiful yards all year round.

*Fibre Optic Connection - Enjoy high speed Internet and cable television thanks to fibre optic connection to every home. Enjoy a world of entertainment and information at your fingertips





At Aurora, they only sell "fixed price" home and land packages. That means a block of land has already been matched up to a suitable home designed by a certain builder, which in most instances, have already been pre-approved by the developer and local council. Whereas at some other private developments, you can have the option of purchasing land only and then finding a suitable builder and house design, or purchase a home and land package.
So off we went looking at snapping up our bit of turf. However we discovered that Stage 13 which was on sale then was 75% sold, and there were not many good lots left. We couldn't decide but were actually advised by the very helpful sales consultant at Aurora (Michelle) to maybe find out which house design we liked first before we picked our land, for the not so obvious reason (to first home owners especially) that the house design we like might not suit the block of land we want to buy (ie. too narrow). Makes a lot of sense doesn't it, so before we could drop off a deposit on land, we rushed off to check out the display homes! :D
Check out Part 2....
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)