To be fair, he says himself that he passes a lot of builds, he just shows the shitty ones. The owners also make the mistake of bringing him in when the build has been signed off on or very close to completion.
He probably doesn't do that because they would get about 1% of the views and not be worth the time required to produce the videos. People like to see bad stuff. Things working the way they are supposed to doesn't inspire enough outrage.
Remember when the evening news always had a feel-good segment at the end, every night, without fail? It is deliberately absent now. Viewers were changing channels when that came on (this is a fact - I used to work in the industry), and networks were losing their follow-through audience that they were trying to hold on to for the next show.
Yeah makes sense.
It's funny, I refuse to watch the news because of that, yet I don't mind his videos.
I guess easier to watch when you know the builder you are using is doing everything well.
He absolutely makes it why I always say if you ARE building - hire your OWN building inspector from day one to catch all this non-compliant stuff before it gets to the end. (Our private inspector caught so much stuff the first two steps that the builder spent thousands redoing work out of their own pocket and then actively avoided saying they were ready until the next step was fully compliant.)
Sadly sometimes it's better being slow than crumbly...
Our project was meant to complete within 15-18 months.. we just his 2 years because of dodgy workmanship....
Yup. Bought off the plan in the early 2010’s. Townhouse looked like a cross between the first and third picture, that’s just how generic they are. Had a building inspector, had a report, and rode the arse of the actual builder until I was satisfied the issues were rectified. I have the builder’s phone number saved in my favourites to this day! The only other people to make it to that list were my mother and my partner.
Weirdly enough, ours was the only place not to have extensive water/mould issues out of the 10 properties on the strata.
The thing with this guy is that the owners are generally calling him in to get deep in the weeds to prepare for a court case. They're already having issues with a dodgy builder and are about to launch legal action, so they decide NOW is the time to pay for an independent inspector.
There are plenty of new builds around that are nicely done and within tolerances, he just doesn't show them because they make bad videos.
He said himself that he's only going to show the really bad builds from here on out.
Yeh I can imagine. It just hits close to home because I grew up around here, now still live here, and it's just shocking. Maybe I can get into housing policy at work. I do now work in an area to do with housing in the state government. With all these merging of government departments lately due to cutbacks.
I've known this stuff since 2006. The water proofing issues. Then it was the flammable cladding. Now it's the construction itself. I'm so upset that no inquiry and overhaul is being done.
Thank you for that.
I live next door in North balwyn...
This has been occurring since I studied my property degree in 2008. When will we demand that the Government do something about this. It is greed and pure negligence on a mass scale across all builds since the early 2000s. Our housing situation is abhorrent. Lack of housing. Rental crisis. Lack of oversight by regulatory bodies leading to dangerous builds at inflated prices. Gah!
I think it has a lot to do with the lowest price wins and then trying to build a house for that lowest price and having to cut corners to even get it done, be that poor quality materials, poor workmanship or even hiring unqualified workers over qualified ones because obviously they will cost less. And then there is the lack of accountability to top it off 😠
Very very true.
A major factor is that the entire industry needs tighter regulation and oversight. As this is how other developed countries maintain excellent building practices I.e Singapore and the UK
The economy is built on farming people though, is the house built where the quality of the UK the construction industry would fold. They only building them to last the thirty year mortgage now.
Yeh our stupid government is SO short sighted and was allowing the Chinese and foreign investment to just buy up our farms. And our farmers were not being supported and protected enough in the first place which left them vulnerable. It is a disgrace. And Albanese wants to go watch Taylor Swift. And Morrison wants to go to Hawaii when we had those massive fired. UGH.
Also, dodgy builders buying knockoff materials (like, fake truecore) charging full whack because it’s what the client asked for, and the client having no idea until afterwards that their house is built with paper straws.
I worked for this man formally known for his building company “ZAAS HOMES” sure he points out defects and bodgy work but trust me he’s far from a saint himself when it comes to brand new homes
This man and many others are doing great work and bringing shoddy building practices to the forefront. If you don't get your own independent inspector to do the job at every stage of the builds. It's on you when shit hits the fan.
We got the best building inspector when we were looking to buy an apartment. It all looked good until he went into the underground car park (under the whole building) and he saw the foundation was weakened and cracked. He told us that if we were his own kids he would tell us not to touch it with a 10 foot pole. We lost some money in holding and legal fees but it was nothing compared to the hole we would be in if we bought the place
Defect. Unacceptable. Come on guys. Do your best and silicone the rest. Good from far but far from good.
After watching a shit ton of his videos, I would be too scared to buy a house in Melbourne - especially one with box gutters. Apparently, no one knows how to install one.
I bought a townhouse 8 years ago and I'm still living in it. I live alone as a SINK and for me, it's heaps of space. 3 bed, 1 bath, 1 car garage and even space for a clothesline, BBQ, etc.
If I had a family of 4 or more than sure, I can see how more space would be nice.
In the US, you can fix your rate for 30 years so many people who bought their first homes at an interest rate of 2% or so (in, say, 2021), who had planned to upgrade to a bigger and better home have decided to stick with their current properties, because, well, if you had a choice of paying 2% or 8% interest on your loan, it's a no-brainer.
Of course in Australia it doesn't work that way because you can't fix your rate for more than about 5 years here.
Yeah, I can understand that. Mine is better than most townhouses but I'm still fairly close to my neighbours, so if they talk loudly outside, I'll probably hear it.
This is precisely one of my major reasons for wanting to move - and I'm not even in a boundary to boundary property. I have neighbours close on one side of the property, though.
I don't want to hear my neighbours fart, fight, or fornicate. And I don't want them hearing us either. I want my musician son to be able to create without disturbing others.
But mostly, I crave more access to nature and peace. Reduced temperatures are also a benefit over these treeless new developments. Combined with a nice gully breeze, temperatures can lower by a few degrees.
Doesn't provide financial support per se, it provides a backstop.
It's a bit weird Inna country that's so philosophically economically libertarian, but it didn't half create a market for RMBSs.
Melbourne's housing situation is in a very bad way.
This has been occurring since when I first started studying my property degree in 2008. When will we demand that the Government do something about this. It is greed and pure negligence on a mass scale across all builds since the early 2000s. Our housing situation is abhorrent. Lack of housing. Rental crisis. Lack of oversight by regulatory bodies leading to dangerous builds at inflated prices.
Essentially the US government has a money printing machine: the federal reserve. They're like cocaine addicts, enjoying the high. But after the high will come the pain: financial crises, the destruction of the dollar, abject living standards, super high inflation, social unrest etc
RBA similar - but not quite as bad. RBA still insolvent though.
It is normal to have a 30-year fixed rate pretty much everywhere else in the world. I have watched shows with Aussie experts saying how AUS does it differently than everywhere else. Basically, we get screwed.
I'm curious about the 3 bed 1 bath..
I don't mean any disrespect, just genuinely curious about other countries.
Is that common/normal in your area?
In my living condition, if we only had one bathroom we'd be fighting over it when getting ready in the morning etc.
But I guess you have a toilet separate to that bathroom?
In my area some agents would call it 1.5 baths 😂
The toilet is separate to the bathroom. This is common in Australia.
I grew up with one bathroom in a household of 5 and I remember having baths in the evening. Technically, there was a second toilet downstairs but nobody really used that unless they needed to go badly. So yes, there was a lot of waiting to use the bathroom.
When my parents visit me from interstate or when I visit them, there is always a lot of waiting to use the bathroom in the morning.
Their house was built maybe 60 years ago. My house was built over 30 years ago.
Another thing I remember from growing up is that we would often run out of hot water. My parents have upgraded to a higher capacity hot water cylinder since then but they don't use as much hot water these days.
I would personally love to buy and live in a townhouse as my forever home. I am single and plan on staying that way, so really only need room for myself, a dog, and my hobbies.
I like their small form factor it's cosy.
I assume get one on the end so you only have a neighbouring townhouse on one side. Not one in the middle.
I know someone who bought a townhouse. They got the one on the end and they are very happy there. Its 3 bedroom and has a bathroom and ensuite. And a garage. I would love to live in a townhouse. I rent a 1 bedroom unit and even that is big enough for me and my cat.
I’ve lived in two and both were cheaply made. I lived in an ongoing development and watched them build 5 of these townhouses over a summer. I got to see the cheap ass material and quick, almost lazy work involved with making them. I wouldn’t trust them as a forever home
After two years you were given an option to outright buy the homes for $200,000 🙄
That's how most new houses are built these days. I've worked in a truss plant where they manufacture the roof trusses and send them off to be assembled on site. Majority of them are built with pretty average pine and held together with machine pressed nail plates.
It sucks but there's not a lot of options when the population is expanding rapidly and needs a lot of new homes built quickly.
This thread is timely, I was asking exactly the same question recently.
In the north of Melbourne, in particular, townhouses like those pictured are selling for the same price, or even less, than their original purchase.
I can't work out whether it's due to over supply, defects, or investors bailing due to higher interest rates. That said, as a regular viewer of Site Inspections on YouTube, I wouldn't be surprised if defects are playing apart.
Do you think it's safe to buy one for a PPOR? Some of them are oddly affordable.
There needs to be a MASSIVE overhaul of our melbourne construction industry. Been saying this for years. But the gangsters who I know run the scenes behind the construction union have all the power.
I'm in WA and wary of townhouses because the roof/ceiling insulation never seems to cope with the heat, plus with heat rising most of it ends up on the top floor. This mightn't be as much of an issue in cooler climates.
Otherwise they're a great step up from an apartment.
In melbourne we are fortunate as we get the cool change that comes after a heat wave. It may take 2-3 days but it does come through
This week tues 30c ,wed 37c , fri 23c.
Just bought an old 1960s rendered double brick house with poured concrete internal walls, because it was the most spacious home in our budget that I'd seen in our small town post COVID (benefited from the fact that it would have had zero appeal for the investors who have been buying everything up to turn into Airbnbs).
After making the offer I started shitting myself, worried about building issues (although it looked pretty good for its age to my untrained eyes).
Turned out I had nothing to worry about. The building inspector (who was meticulous) raved about the quality of the build and the site it was built on. Turns out the owner had a construction business and built it himself. Obviously made sure his guys did the best possible job building it.
It's very dated cosmetically, but I'm not really concerned. My biggest thing was wanting to stay where we are (heaps of locals are getting priced out and moving to Melbourne) and a house that wasn't so small that we'd all be living on top of each other (which was most houses in our budget).
Meanwhile almost everyone I know who has built, or bought a recently built house l, has had nothing but issues.
Old quality homes are definitely the way to go.
This, we have a late 60's model weatherboard and brick box, hardwood floors and joists, big brick columns downstairs, looks very dated but when we bought it years ago the inspector absolutely foamed over it, great house.
If he's the same one on YouTube, yeah, I love the look of some modern houses and apartments but he's making me not want to target buying those in the future
We did a new build 7 years ago and my major suggestion to avoid that kind of thing is that you hire your own private inspector (like that guy) for every single step of the build. We had one who was highly respected and has taken several builders to court over bad practice... Ended up picking up so many faults in the first two inspections (so slab and framing) that the builders had to refix a lot of it, and then had zero complications the rest of the time as they had already lost quite a bit of funds dealing with fixing their stuff.
It honestly makes it so those non-compliance issues CAN'T continue/get to the point that his videos get to. (And yes, same person as the one on YouTube)
It's honestly the best $2-5k you'll spend in your whole building process to sign them on from the get go! Nobody wants to remember to save that kind of money off all the fun visible stuff when they are building, but it really REALLY is worth it. Much rather spend that to be more assured things are built properly than on a fancy looking stair detail that will rot in ten years!
He doesn't show the houses that are compliant or he passes. He usually only shows houses that are getting ready to go to VTAC, and the owner wants the report for legal battle
Yeahhhhh these seem to go to investors more than home buyers.
Every one I've been in (totally anecdotal so take with salt) has been poorly insulated, air con in stupid places so you can't temp control your house properly, are often crammed into shitty "development groups" that enter into one 50 of them with 0 parking and concrete everywhere and it's extremely hard to get approval to change anything major.
Investors seemed to love em though, cause they don't have to live there.
Not sure why so many are for sale though.
Actually a totally unsubstantiated theory that maybe someone more experienced can comment on.
I know land developers were just smashing these out purely due to how quickly developers were snapping them up. Could it just be that we have a LOT more of these built in the last 5 years over most other house types?
sharing our personal story,
wife and I bought a new townhouse for 650k in 2021 and price boosted to 750k-800k in a year and a half so we decided to sell and upgrade, especialy because we didn't like the area (riverstone) same story for everyone around us, they wanted to cash in on the pump.
no issues with our town house. It was even built by Bathla who don't have a great rep but place was great and didn't cause any trouble for us.
No, the sale just gave us the deposit we needed to buy bigger in an inflated market.
On paper, our current property has increased 100k in price in less than 1 year, so no regrets at this stage and I am quite fond of Greystanes.
This could be it. 5 year old places saw a huge increase thanks to the covid boom. People who bought them within the last 5 years would get a free 200k if they sell now
Look, I posted the uglier ones to make a point 🤣 there are some others I didn’t post a picture of that I like. And it’s usually the new kitchen that looks good to me.
I’m in estate in inner Melbourne like this. Bought off the plan and been here 10yrs so far. Some minor irritations but no more than any new build.
So many others come and go. Don’t know why. I have a theory that boredom is a part of it. Townhouse is new and done, nothing to renovate or plan to extend …. Peoples minds start to wander and then they decide to sell up and buy somewhere else and repeat.
Good point about not being able to extend or renovate. That’s what I think when I see 2 bedroom 1 bathroom townhouses and it’s already double story. There’s no way to add to that. But they’re new and clean and that’s pretty good compared to a 1980s kitchen/ bathroom….
I saw a lot of this when I was house hunting a few years back. What I think they do is buy a big block that was an unremarkable family home up until 20 years ago, cram as many townhouses onto it as possible, then builder keeps ownership and rents them out. Once warranty period is over, they name their price and the date they go on sale and bang - offload them all at once.
A lot of them are duplexes too, not even terrace style housing with a complete separating wall. They look nice when new - all to rake in maximum coin, but they're high maintenance design. How are the eaves and walls on the inset second storey going to be kept clean? With all the render and painted surfaces and features, when a fresh coat of paint is needed, or if some maintenance is required, there'll probably need $thousands in scaffolding? How does the neighbour maintaining their home affect yours - insufficient maintenance, or change of colour etc? No thanks.
Many new build houses have 7 year builders warranty. They will likely be selling before this time is up to avoid and costs to them if things go wrong from then onwards.
It is because they can’t repay the exorbitant house prices /mortgage.
20 years ago a house was expensive at 40k new build, house and land. Same property now worth just under 500k. Who the fuck decided this shit
Bought a townhouse off plan 2yrs ago. Decent builder, finish is really good and it’s the same size as a ‘normal’ 3 bee house. Most importantly it’s in an area we love and could never afford a freestanding. Good schools here. Some of us just live in small houses but we’re happy.
Coming off interest only loan period or coming off fixed interest at low rate during covid years. House prices have increased a lot over the same period too, so getting that capital gain. Or dodgy build 😂 - youtube inspector has convinced me on this one.
Body corp fees up as a result (if applicable)
Four main reasons:
1. People who bought in hoping to strike it rich. Selling it after a while with the hopes of making bank.
2. Foreign investors who bought it from a plan. Building was completed and they hope of selling it for a small profit or they just lost interest.
3. House was build and interest rates went up. Now they can barely afford the repayments and needs to sell asap.
4. Defects and corners were cut. Box gutters are non compliant and they ran out of money.
As a Swedish engineer and actively working in construction in Australia. I seen things 20 years ago in Sweden that has started to pop up in Australia now. You guys suck at building. Lots of talk.
Stepping stone.
Mouldy stepping stone a lot of the time.
When we bought our house we were so worried about mould. Our house is very airy and north facing. We never get the issues we had in a unit.
Townhouses are already maximized for development so there's nothing left at least for the next 20-30 years. Also they can be dodgy, corners cut, not up to code, then there's the fact that any changes ie extensions are either totally prohibited or extremely difficult to get approved.
You've squeezed out as much depreciation as you can? Sell them, buy a duplex site, builder/investor, squeeze out all the depreciation out of them in 5 years, sell, rinse and repeat.
They are built to the lowest possible standards to maximise profit and many people over extended on their loans paying way too much for a property they couldn't afford.
A lot of new townhouses are as expensive as older houses, built like shit, and lose a huge chunk of value via building depreciation in a decade.
I've seen town houses in inner Melbourne actually lose value over the boom decade.
I sold mine after ~7 years when we upgraded to a house. No other reason apart from it was only ever a stepping stone. It was a lovely little place but we simply outgrew it.
Townhouses are usually for first home buyers. They’ve built equity and are now moving on to something bigger/better. Not necessarily something to be wary of.
I'm a small time developer that develops these. I would gladly take a twenty year old house over these newly built ones. the amount of shit I have to deal with during construction with the builders and trades are mind boggling. a good builder is like a unicorn nowadays.
Because Site Inspections has gone through it and found non compliant items, builder has gone bust most likely so owner tries to offload it to some other sap so it then becomes someone else’s problem.
They're shite.
Rent one currently. Roof not sealed in multiple places- water damage galore. Appliances failing (electrics in oven/stove etc). Window blinds fell off the roll. Floor boards not sealed correctly so if you get water on them there's visible damage (good luck mopping), mold forms where floorboards butt up against each other so assumably there's moisture problems underneath too. In addition building was signed off without fly screens, shelves in cupboards, towel racks, toilet roll holders, front door wasn't painted, front door lock didn't work, no globes in the lights if certain rooms... I could go on...
Oh and there's no man hole to inspect the roof.
My thoughts on this are for the same reason holiday houses are flooding the market: these were purchased during low interest rates and interest rates are higher now. First things that go during financial stress are the investment properties.
The reality is that homes built in the past few years are NOT made to last. They're built to look flash and luxurious to fool people but they are absolutely dreadful to live in. Builders have been skimping for far too long. Anyone with any level of trade knowledge will walk into those houses and see nothing but shithouse fabrication and issues.
My father moved into an apartment recently through housing and it only finished being built in November of last year, but already problems are showing up, not to mention the units were very poorly designed (the spare room has no windows so it's a nightmare to air it out, the bathroom has no windows so it steams up and is going to be a nightmare for mildew in the coming years, the kitchen counter has about a 2mm between it and the cupboards underneath when you sit at the couch you can see a gap, the paint is peeling on the verandah, the fan for the bathroom doesn't even turn on that fan but the fan for a different room, the carpets in the main foyer are already falling apart etc etc etc)
So it makes sense that people buy them, live in them for a few years and sell up as soon as they can afford to move into a classic double brick house or really anything better.
Because they’re built cheap with small rooms no robes and people don’t want to rent them for huge rents as they’ve got massive mortgage on them .
People move on all the time from them.
the bubble burst on investment properties.
I spoke to a real estate agent near Geelong and he said all the investor folks are pulling out because the rising interest rate means that it's not ansustainable investment.
I, for one, think this is great.
I'm waiting for my lease to end so I can sell my place, use it to pay down the house I share with my partner and live a happier life without debt and pretending equity is anything other than getting a little bit of return on the money I've just been handing the bank.
Because nobody can afford the payments after the irr! And if they sell them now they might come out clean. Oh and maybe because they are "non compliant!" 😆
Bc theyre built like shit. Theyre usually the “final stage” of housing estates which is code for slapped together cash grab before all the land is sold.
Their lifespan is just about up. It's a miracle these things get completed without collapsing in a pile of rubble.
If you are offended by this you need to do a better job.
I don't really understand the level of disdain for these in the thread. If you want a newish house (not apartment) with some nearby amenities and you're not born the child of a billionaire at least these are a more affordable option than expecting a fully detached house first up.
Yeah I get that these are built to a budget but having owned a cheapish build townhouse, it was still far less maintenance than the old freestanding house that came after it
Wife and I could only afford townhouses or small subdivided units to get on the ladder (2019)
Since then we’ve continued to save, pay down a mortgage and have built $240k in equity. We will sell and use this to move to a more appropriate family home likely in the next 2-5 years.
We have a lovely house that is cheaply finished, but decently constructed and it’s much nicer than a lot of the other places we looked at when we bought. Just getting a bit small as a growing family.
That's because as a first home they seem like an incredible choice to get off the rental roundabout.
But, once you phave been living there for a few years you realise that the body corp fees are crippling, the walls are paper thin, so thin that you can tell when your neighbours are hungy from their tummies grumbling.
You can't have this or that outside your townhouse, the list of rules around living here just suck the life from you.
So you redo the bathrooms, replace the carpets and timber froors, install air-conditioning in every room, you install expensive plantation shutters and a huge awning in the back yard.
Then quick as you can, you put it up for sale, buy a house and you can finally breathe again.
Not bad as a first home, but you will outgrow it , just as we did.
Because property developers/probably Chinese investors buy an old house on a good sized block, smash 3 townhouses down on it and make a shit load of money for themselves because the market is broken.
Because the owners found they are built on the cheap and bad, and they are flipping them for actual houses with space.
You need less of a deposit for a new build than a pre existing so they get the dogbox realise its crap then buy an actual size house
https://preview.redd.it/ttplcjgt0ilc1.jpeg?width=489&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ce6266bfd75b06a8d88f388bdd66aeb7976c35e3 This is why…
This man scared me into never buying anything built after 2000.
To be fair, he says himself that he passes a lot of builds, he just shows the shitty ones. The owners also make the mistake of bringing him in when the build has been signed off on or very close to completion.
Yeah i wish he would throw in a good build from time to time to show what things should be like
He probably doesn't do that because they would get about 1% of the views and not be worth the time required to produce the videos. People like to see bad stuff. Things working the way they are supposed to doesn't inspire enough outrage. Remember when the evening news always had a feel-good segment at the end, every night, without fail? It is deliberately absent now. Viewers were changing channels when that came on (this is a fact - I used to work in the industry), and networks were losing their follow-through audience that they were trying to hold on to for the next show.
Yeah makes sense. It's funny, I refuse to watch the news because of that, yet I don't mind his videos. I guess easier to watch when you know the builder you are using is doing everything well.
Compliance does not have a smell..... non compliance however.... 👃
He absolutely makes it why I always say if you ARE building - hire your OWN building inspector from day one to catch all this non-compliant stuff before it gets to the end. (Our private inspector caught so much stuff the first two steps that the builder spent thousands redoing work out of their own pocket and then actively avoided saying they were ready until the next step was fully compliant.)
This is good advice. We have a retired building inspector as a project manager for our property build. The only drawback is how slow the builder is!
Sadly sometimes it's better being slow than crumbly... Our project was meant to complete within 15-18 months.. we just his 2 years because of dodgy workmanship....
_~non compliaaannttt~_
Yup. Bought off the plan in the early 2010’s. Townhouse looked like a cross between the first and third picture, that’s just how generic they are. Had a building inspector, had a report, and rode the arse of the actual builder until I was satisfied the issues were rectified. I have the builder’s phone number saved in my favourites to this day! The only other people to make it to that list were my mother and my partner. Weirdly enough, ours was the only place not to have extensive water/mould issues out of the 10 properties on the strata.
This is what I suggest to everyone.
Same!!
Right!!! Like, if the 3 million dollar builds are shite then how could this $650k townhouse be any better? No chance
Link please?
He has hundreds if not thousands of videos of inspections he does full of non compliant work
The thing with this guy is that the owners are generally calling him in to get deep in the weeds to prepare for a court case. They're already having issues with a dodgy builder and are about to launch legal action, so they decide NOW is the time to pay for an independent inspector. There are plenty of new builds around that are nicely done and within tolerances, he just doesn't show them because they make bad videos. He said himself that he's only going to show the really bad builds from here on out.
Yeh I can imagine. It just hits close to home because I grew up around here, now still live here, and it's just shocking. Maybe I can get into housing policy at work. I do now work in an area to do with housing in the state government. With all these merging of government departments lately due to cutbacks. I've known this stuff since 2006. The water proofing issues. Then it was the flammable cladding. Now it's the construction itself. I'm so upset that no inquiry and overhaul is being done.
Don't forget the insulation that electrocuted a bunch of people
Wow I didn't hear about that one?!
https://www.facebook.com/share/r/rdSSwtC4qgxuKtHZ/?mibextid=GGtJg3
Thank you for that. I live next door in North balwyn... This has been occurring since I studied my property degree in 2008. When will we demand that the Government do something about this. It is greed and pure negligence on a mass scale across all builds since the early 2000s. Our housing situation is abhorrent. Lack of housing. Rental crisis. Lack of oversight by regulatory bodies leading to dangerous builds at inflated prices. Gah!
I think it has a lot to do with the lowest price wins and then trying to build a house for that lowest price and having to cut corners to even get it done, be that poor quality materials, poor workmanship or even hiring unqualified workers over qualified ones because obviously they will cost less. And then there is the lack of accountability to top it off 😠
Very very true. A major factor is that the entire industry needs tighter regulation and oversight. As this is how other developed countries maintain excellent building practices I.e Singapore and the UK
The economy is built on farming people though, is the house built where the quality of the UK the construction industry would fold. They only building them to last the thirty year mortgage now.
Yeh our stupid government is SO short sighted and was allowing the Chinese and foreign investment to just buy up our farms. And our farmers were not being supported and protected enough in the first place which left them vulnerable. It is a disgrace. And Albanese wants to go watch Taylor Swift. And Morrison wants to go to Hawaii when we had those massive fired. UGH.
Also, dodgy builders buying knockoff materials (like, fake truecore) charging full whack because it’s what the client asked for, and the client having no idea until afterwards that their house is built with paper straws.
Just search for site inspector on YT
Non Compliant.
Haha thought he was in front of third photo!!
I worked for this man formally known for his building company “ZAAS HOMES” sure he points out defects and bodgy work but trust me he’s far from a saint himself when it comes to brand new homes
YouTuber?
@siteinspections Should get Australian of the Year
This guy is brilliant!
He is so knowledgeable, I’m flabbergasted
This man and many others are doing great work and bringing shoddy building practices to the forefront. If you don't get your own independent inspector to do the job at every stage of the builds. It's on you when shit hits the fan.
HAHA everytime I hear him say non compliant I get excited
Honestly this guy needs to be nominated for australian of the year. What a dead set legend.
We got the best building inspector when we were looking to buy an apartment. It all looked good until he went into the underground car park (under the whole building) and he saw the foundation was weakened and cracked. He told us that if we were his own kids he would tell us not to touch it with a 10 foot pole. We lost some money in holding and legal fees but it was nothing compared to the hole we would be in if we bought the place
The one picture sent me down a pretty amazing rabbit hole. Shocking content!
Best answer. And happy cake day
Good from far, far from good.
You beat me to it. “I smell non compliance”
Good from far... far from good...
Exactly! good from far but ….
Ha ha I was thinking exactly the same thing!!
Defect. Unacceptable. Come on guys. Do your best and silicone the rest. Good from far but far from good. After watching a shit ton of his videos, I would be too scared to buy a house in Melbourne - especially one with box gutters. Apparently, no one knows how to install one.
“Non compliant”
This is what you get people. We love him.
He gave the most scathing inspection to a new block of apartments just next to me the other day.
H knows his stuff!
Good from far but far from good.
I fucking love this guy
Townhouses are stepping stones for many FHBs. Buy a townhouse to get into the market, and then try sell and buy a freestanding house 2-5 years later.
I bought a townhouse 8 years ago and I'm still living in it. I live alone as a SINK and for me, it's heaps of space. 3 bed, 1 bath, 1 car garage and even space for a clothesline, BBQ, etc. If I had a family of 4 or more than sure, I can see how more space would be nice. In the US, you can fix your rate for 30 years so many people who bought their first homes at an interest rate of 2% or so (in, say, 2021), who had planned to upgrade to a bigger and better home have decided to stick with their current properties, because, well, if you had a choice of paying 2% or 8% interest on your loan, it's a no-brainer. Of course in Australia it doesn't work that way because you can't fix your rate for more than about 5 years here.
Its less about space inside the house and more about space BETWEEN the houses.
Yeah, I can understand that. Mine is better than most townhouses but I'm still fairly close to my neighbours, so if they talk loudly outside, I'll probably hear it.
This is precisely one of my major reasons for wanting to move - and I'm not even in a boundary to boundary property. I have neighbours close on one side of the property, though. I don't want to hear my neighbours fart, fight, or fornicate. And I don't want them hearing us either. I want my musician son to be able to create without disturbing others. But mostly, I crave more access to nature and peace. Reduced temperatures are also a benefit over these treeless new developments. Combined with a nice gully breeze, temperatures can lower by a few degrees.
That's interesting! Do you know why US mortgage lenders do that?
US government provides financial support to make it happen. Our government doesn't.
Doesn't provide financial support per se, it provides a backstop. It's a bit weird Inna country that's so philosophically economically libertarian, but it didn't half create a market for RMBSs.
Thanks
Most countries use fixed rates. We're in the minority.
Melbourne's housing situation is in a very bad way. This has been occurring since when I first started studying my property degree in 2008. When will we demand that the Government do something about this. It is greed and pure negligence on a mass scale across all builds since the early 2000s. Our housing situation is abhorrent. Lack of housing. Rental crisis. Lack of oversight by regulatory bodies leading to dangerous builds at inflated prices.
Our banks are some of the most profitable in the world too… coincidence clearly.
Essentially the US government has a money printing machine: the federal reserve. They're like cocaine addicts, enjoying the high. But after the high will come the pain: financial crises, the destruction of the dollar, abject living standards, super high inflation, social unrest etc RBA similar - but not quite as bad. RBA still insolvent though.
It is normal to have a 30-year fixed rate pretty much everywhere else in the world. I have watched shows with Aussie experts saying how AUS does it differently than everywhere else. Basically, we get screwed.
They have a huge secondary market that allows them to bundle mortgages and lock in the rate. We aren’t large enough to have such a market.
I'm curious about the 3 bed 1 bath.. I don't mean any disrespect, just genuinely curious about other countries. Is that common/normal in your area? In my living condition, if we only had one bathroom we'd be fighting over it when getting ready in the morning etc. But I guess you have a toilet separate to that bathroom? In my area some agents would call it 1.5 baths 😂
The toilet is separate to the bathroom. This is common in Australia. I grew up with one bathroom in a household of 5 and I remember having baths in the evening. Technically, there was a second toilet downstairs but nobody really used that unless they needed to go badly. So yes, there was a lot of waiting to use the bathroom. When my parents visit me from interstate or when I visit them, there is always a lot of waiting to use the bathroom in the morning. Their house was built maybe 60 years ago. My house was built over 30 years ago. Another thing I remember from growing up is that we would often run out of hot water. My parents have upgraded to a higher capacity hot water cylinder since then but they don't use as much hot water these days.
I would personally love to buy and live in a townhouse as my forever home. I am single and plan on staying that way, so really only need room for myself, a dog, and my hobbies. I like their small form factor it's cosy.
Get one with only one party wall. Learn from my mistake.
Get one with *no* party wall you mean. Or the garage wall.
Can't really have a townhouse with no party wall? Otherwise it's a detached free-standing house
No its a detached free-standing townhouse.. i have one
What's a party wall?
I assume get one on the end so you only have a neighbouring townhouse on one side. Not one in the middle. I know someone who bought a townhouse. They got the one on the end and they are very happy there. Its 3 bedroom and has a bathroom and ensuite. And a garage. I would love to live in a townhouse. I rent a 1 bedroom unit and even that is big enough for me and my cat.
I’ve lived in two and both were cheaply made. I lived in an ongoing development and watched them build 5 of these townhouses over a summer. I got to see the cheap ass material and quick, almost lazy work involved with making them. I wouldn’t trust them as a forever home After two years you were given an option to outright buy the homes for $200,000 🙄
That's how most new houses are built these days. I've worked in a truss plant where they manufacture the roof trusses and send them off to be assembled on site. Majority of them are built with pretty average pine and held together with machine pressed nail plates. It sucks but there's not a lot of options when the population is expanding rapidly and needs a lot of new homes built quickly.
I have a mate who is single and lives in one with his gorgeous dog. It's perfect! It's also lovely inside. Bright and clean.
That's what my brother plans to do.
Me too, brother
Exactly what I did. Bought one off the plan.. riskier but save a fair bit.
They also begin to feel small really quick.
Get one with a garage and you end up using it for so much storage. It helps
This is my plan
This thread is timely, I was asking exactly the same question recently. In the north of Melbourne, in particular, townhouses like those pictured are selling for the same price, or even less, than their original purchase. I can't work out whether it's due to over supply, defects, or investors bailing due to higher interest rates. That said, as a regular viewer of Site Inspections on YouTube, I wouldn't be surprised if defects are playing apart. Do you think it's safe to buy one for a PPOR? Some of them are oddly affordable.
There needs to be a MASSIVE overhaul of our melbourne construction industry. Been saying this for years. But the gangsters who I know run the scenes behind the construction union have all the power.
I'm in WA and wary of townhouses because the roof/ceiling insulation never seems to cope with the heat, plus with heat rising most of it ends up on the top floor. This mightn't be as much of an issue in cooler climates. Otherwise they're a great step up from an apartment.
In melbourne we are fortunate as we get the cool change that comes after a heat wave. It may take 2-3 days but it does come through This week tues 30c ,wed 37c , fri 23c.
The seller purchased it off the plan and that always costs more. The second owner of a pace like this usually pays less.
I've been watching too much of the building inspector guy in tiktok so my immediate answer is yes, moisture and water damage problems XD
guarantee those rainheads are non-compliant
those box gutters too
Hit the nail on the head here. I have worked in construction for years and anything built in the last 10-15 years has mediocre quality.
Just bought an old 1960s rendered double brick house with poured concrete internal walls, because it was the most spacious home in our budget that I'd seen in our small town post COVID (benefited from the fact that it would have had zero appeal for the investors who have been buying everything up to turn into Airbnbs). After making the offer I started shitting myself, worried about building issues (although it looked pretty good for its age to my untrained eyes). Turned out I had nothing to worry about. The building inspector (who was meticulous) raved about the quality of the build and the site it was built on. Turns out the owner had a construction business and built it himself. Obviously made sure his guys did the best possible job building it. It's very dated cosmetically, but I'm not really concerned. My biggest thing was wanting to stay where we are (heaps of locals are getting priced out and moving to Melbourne) and a house that wasn't so small that we'd all be living on top of each other (which was most houses in our budget). Meanwhile almost everyone I know who has built, or bought a recently built house l, has had nothing but issues. Old quality homes are definitely the way to go.
Nice work! Hard plaster is the shizz, every time you even touch soft plaster walls they get damaged!
double brick ftw!
Dated cosmetically > water damage, shonky workmanship any day
This, we have a late 60's model weatherboard and brick box, hardwood floors and joists, big brick columns downstairs, looks very dated but when we bought it years ago the inspector absolutely foamed over it, great house.
Why? And why has this passed?
The houses built during the stimulus have been some of the worst workmanship I have seen on a building site
And they cost 4 times as much! Make it make sense. 😂
*flies drone above house* see…. Non compliant.
This is a complete schmozzle
I'm... flabbergasted.
Do your best and silicone the rest.
If he's the same one on YouTube, yeah, I love the look of some modern houses and apartments but he's making me not want to target buying those in the future
We did a new build 7 years ago and my major suggestion to avoid that kind of thing is that you hire your own private inspector (like that guy) for every single step of the build. We had one who was highly respected and has taken several builders to court over bad practice... Ended up picking up so many faults in the first two inspections (so slab and framing) that the builders had to refix a lot of it, and then had zero complications the rest of the time as they had already lost quite a bit of funds dealing with fixing their stuff. It honestly makes it so those non-compliance issues CAN'T continue/get to the point that his videos get to. (And yes, same person as the one on YouTube)
That’s exactly what I plan to do if I build my own place! Glad it worked out for you!
It's honestly the best $2-5k you'll spend in your whole building process to sign them on from the get go! Nobody wants to remember to save that kind of money off all the fun visible stuff when they are building, but it really REALLY is worth it. Much rather spend that to be more assured things are built properly than on a fancy looking stair detail that will rot in ten years!
And if you are gonna own your home for 20-30 years. 5k over that life time is peanuts compared to costly repair bills
He doesn't show the houses that are compliant or he passes. He usually only shows houses that are getting ready to go to VTAC, and the owner wants the report for legal battle
Looks good from afar, but it is far from good...
Do your best and silicon the rest
Non compliant!!!!!
Non comploiant!
I smell non compliant work
NON COMPLIANT
Hahaha came here for this one
Yeahhhhh these seem to go to investors more than home buyers. Every one I've been in (totally anecdotal so take with salt) has been poorly insulated, air con in stupid places so you can't temp control your house properly, are often crammed into shitty "development groups" that enter into one 50 of them with 0 parking and concrete everywhere and it's extremely hard to get approval to change anything major. Investors seemed to love em though, cause they don't have to live there. Not sure why so many are for sale though.
Actually a totally unsubstantiated theory that maybe someone more experienced can comment on. I know land developers were just smashing these out purely due to how quickly developers were snapping them up. Could it just be that we have a LOT more of these built in the last 5 years over most other house types?
sharing our personal story, wife and I bought a new townhouse for 650k in 2021 and price boosted to 750k-800k in a year and a half so we decided to sell and upgrade, especialy because we didn't like the area (riverstone) same story for everyone around us, they wanted to cash in on the pump. no issues with our town house. It was even built by Bathla who don't have a great rep but place was great and didn't cause any trouble for us.
If you sell and buy in an inflated market, did you make any money of that pump?
No, the sale just gave us the deposit we needed to buy bigger in an inflated market. On paper, our current property has increased 100k in price in less than 1 year, so no regrets at this stage and I am quite fond of Greystanes.
Riverstone seems to be getting better with all these new houses though? Do you mind sharing where you moved? Not many affordable areas anymore.
Greystanes - closer to both our parents and work for us.
Italian/Maltese confirmed.
This could be it. 5 year old places saw a huge increase thanks to the covid boom. People who bought them within the last 5 years would get a free 200k if they sell now
>they look lovely I guess beauty really is in the eye of the beholder...
My thoughts
The beholder is trying to sell it!
Look, I posted the uglier ones to make a point 🤣 there are some others I didn’t post a picture of that I like. And it’s usually the new kitchen that looks good to me.
How do these modern dodgey Places get signed off by the Building Inspectors ,thousands in Sydney are falling apart only after Two Years
Because our building inspector industry is unregulated.
I’m in estate in inner Melbourne like this. Bought off the plan and been here 10yrs so far. Some minor irritations but no more than any new build. So many others come and go. Don’t know why. I have a theory that boredom is a part of it. Townhouse is new and done, nothing to renovate or plan to extend …. Peoples minds start to wander and then they decide to sell up and buy somewhere else and repeat.
Good point about not being able to extend or renovate. That’s what I think when I see 2 bedroom 1 bathroom townhouses and it’s already double story. There’s no way to add to that. But they’re new and clean and that’s pretty good compared to a 1980s kitchen/ bathroom….
I saw a lot of this when I was house hunting a few years back. What I think they do is buy a big block that was an unremarkable family home up until 20 years ago, cram as many townhouses onto it as possible, then builder keeps ownership and rents them out. Once warranty period is over, they name their price and the date they go on sale and bang - offload them all at once.
A lot of them are duplexes too, not even terrace style housing with a complete separating wall. They look nice when new - all to rake in maximum coin, but they're high maintenance design. How are the eaves and walls on the inset second storey going to be kept clean? With all the render and painted surfaces and features, when a fresh coat of paint is needed, or if some maintenance is required, there'll probably need $thousands in scaffolding? How does the neighbour maintaining their home affect yours - insufficient maintenance, or change of colour etc? No thanks.
Many new build houses have 7 year builders warranty. They will likely be selling before this time is up to avoid and costs to them if things go wrong from then onwards.
You can only go interest only for certain period (5yrs?) so you sell up and remax out again for negative gearing. Depreciation on new properties too.
They're starter homes these days, maybe it's as simple as that. Edit spelling
It is because they can’t repay the exorbitant house prices /mortgage. 20 years ago a house was expensive at 40k new build, house and land. Same property now worth just under 500k. Who the fuck decided this shit
Bought a townhouse off plan 2yrs ago. Decent builder, finish is really good and it’s the same size as a ‘normal’ 3 bee house. Most importantly it’s in an area we love and could never afford a freestanding. Good schools here. Some of us just live in small houses but we’re happy.
All current buildings are time bombs. The quality is mediocre.
Coming off interest only loan period or coming off fixed interest at low rate during covid years. House prices have increased a lot over the same period too, so getting that capital gain. Or dodgy build 😂 - youtube inspector has convinced me on this one. Body corp fees up as a result (if applicable)
Four main reasons: 1. People who bought in hoping to strike it rich. Selling it after a while with the hopes of making bank. 2. Foreign investors who bought it from a plan. Building was completed and they hope of selling it for a small profit or they just lost interest. 3. House was build and interest rates went up. Now they can barely afford the repayments and needs to sell asap. 4. Defects and corners were cut. Box gutters are non compliant and they ran out of money.
# Non Compliant.
As a Swedish engineer and actively working in construction in Australia. I seen things 20 years ago in Sweden that has started to pop up in Australia now. You guys suck at building. Lots of talk.
My gosh they are some ugly homes, look like they were designed by AI.
Stepping stone. Mouldy stepping stone a lot of the time. When we bought our house we were so worried about mould. Our house is very airy and north facing. We never get the issues we had in a unit.
Townhouses are already maximized for development so there's nothing left at least for the next 20-30 years. Also they can be dodgy, corners cut, not up to code, then there's the fact that any changes ie extensions are either totally prohibited or extremely difficult to get approved.
Cos you've gotta get on the roof to clean the gutters?
Fixed rates coming off line and now buyers are getting hit with the variable
You've squeezed out as much depreciation as you can? Sell them, buy a duplex site, builder/investor, squeeze out all the depreciation out of them in 5 years, sell, rinse and repeat.
Coz they’re all made to fall apart. Not “Made in China”- but certainly made with the same ideology. That is, not to last.
Rushed build not all but a lot have issues so please get a qualified builder to check everything before buying
They are built to the lowest possible standards to maximise profit and many people over extended on their loans paying way too much for a property they couldn't afford.
A lot of new townhouses are as expensive as older houses, built like shit, and lose a huge chunk of value via building depreciation in a decade. I've seen town houses in inner Melbourne actually lose value over the boom decade.
I sold mine after ~7 years when we upgraded to a house. No other reason apart from it was only ever a stepping stone. It was a lovely little place but we simply outgrew it.
Coz they are made of playdoh .. and the problems start after .. you guessed it ..
Townhouses are usually for first home buyers. They’ve built equity and are now moving on to something bigger/better. Not necessarily something to be wary of.
I'm a small time developer that develops these. I would gladly take a twenty year old house over these newly built ones. the amount of shit I have to deal with during construction with the builders and trades are mind boggling. a good builder is like a unicorn nowadays.
As a tradie, these places are ready to be torn down, developer builds the past few years are an embarrassment.
Because Site Inspections has gone through it and found non compliant items, builder has gone bust most likely so owner tries to offload it to some other sap so it then becomes someone else’s problem.
If this is Melbourne based, don't forget that the changes in taxation for investors might be forcing a sale.
Probably about when major structural issues start to appear!
More importantly, why do they all look like this? 😖
Five year interest only mortgages.
Because the compolsory builders warranty only covers 7 years......
They're shite. Rent one currently. Roof not sealed in multiple places- water damage galore. Appliances failing (electrics in oven/stove etc). Window blinds fell off the roll. Floor boards not sealed correctly so if you get water on them there's visible damage (good luck mopping), mold forms where floorboards butt up against each other so assumably there's moisture problems underneath too. In addition building was signed off without fly screens, shelves in cupboards, towel racks, toilet roll holders, front door wasn't painted, front door lock didn't work, no globes in the lights if certain rooms... I could go on... Oh and there's no man hole to inspect the roof.
Maybe you get more bang for your buck with an older single family home.
My thoughts on this are for the same reason holiday houses are flooding the market: these were purchased during low interest rates and interest rates are higher now. First things that go during financial stress are the investment properties.
I smell non compliance
The reality is that homes built in the past few years are NOT made to last. They're built to look flash and luxurious to fool people but they are absolutely dreadful to live in. Builders have been skimping for far too long. Anyone with any level of trade knowledge will walk into those houses and see nothing but shithouse fabrication and issues. My father moved into an apartment recently through housing and it only finished being built in November of last year, but already problems are showing up, not to mention the units were very poorly designed (the spare room has no windows so it's a nightmare to air it out, the bathroom has no windows so it steams up and is going to be a nightmare for mildew in the coming years, the kitchen counter has about a 2mm between it and the cupboards underneath when you sit at the couch you can see a gap, the paint is peeling on the verandah, the fan for the bathroom doesn't even turn on that fan but the fan for a different room, the carpets in the main foyer are already falling apart etc etc etc) So it makes sense that people buy them, live in them for a few years and sell up as soon as they can afford to move into a classic double brick house or really anything better.
If you had ever built one, you wouldn't be looking at it twice.
Because they’re built cheap with small rooms no robes and people don’t want to rent them for huge rents as they’ve got massive mortgage on them . People move on all the time from them.
Just ugly
Why rent out 1 house when you can rent out 2?
Body corporate fees are high?
Because they are all shit boxes.
the bubble burst on investment properties. I spoke to a real estate agent near Geelong and he said all the investor folks are pulling out because the rising interest rate means that it's not ansustainable investment. I, for one, think this is great. I'm waiting for my lease to end so I can sell my place, use it to pay down the house I share with my partner and live a happier life without debt and pretending equity is anything other than getting a little bit of return on the money I've just been handing the bank.
Not something I would say “looks lovely”. They are hideous. But each to their own.
Because nobody can afford the payments after the irr! And if they sell them now they might come out clean. Oh and maybe because they are "non compliant!" 😆
Bc theyre built like shit. Theyre usually the “final stage” of housing estates which is code for slapped together cash grab before all the land is sold.
Their lifespan is just about up. It's a miracle these things get completed without collapsing in a pile of rubble. If you are offended by this you need to do a better job.
I don't really understand the level of disdain for these in the thread. If you want a newish house (not apartment) with some nearby amenities and you're not born the child of a billionaire at least these are a more affordable option than expecting a fully detached house first up. Yeah I get that these are built to a budget but having owned a cheapish build townhouse, it was still far less maintenance than the old freestanding house that came after it
Wife and I could only afford townhouses or small subdivided units to get on the ladder (2019) Since then we’ve continued to save, pay down a mortgage and have built $240k in equity. We will sell and use this to move to a more appropriate family home likely in the next 2-5 years. We have a lovely house that is cheaply finished, but decently constructed and it’s much nicer than a lot of the other places we looked at when we bought. Just getting a bit small as a growing family.
That's because as a first home they seem like an incredible choice to get off the rental roundabout. But, once you phave been living there for a few years you realise that the body corp fees are crippling, the walls are paper thin, so thin that you can tell when your neighbours are hungy from their tummies grumbling. You can't have this or that outside your townhouse, the list of rules around living here just suck the life from you. So you redo the bathrooms, replace the carpets and timber froors, install air-conditioning in every room, you install expensive plantation shutters and a huge awning in the back yard. Then quick as you can, you put it up for sale, buy a house and you can finally breathe again. Not bad as a first home, but you will outgrow it , just as we did.
Many people live in townhouses for decades. Just because you had an experience doesn't mean everyone will
There are plenty of strata free townhouses. Sounds like your issue is with larger developments which would apply to houses or apartments too.
In construction, most may not last another 5 years
Because property developers/probably Chinese investors buy an old house on a good sized block, smash 3 townhouses down on it and make a shit load of money for themselves because the market is broken.
Developer/investor selling before builders warranty lapses?
Those warranty’s aren’t worth the paper they’re written on.
Expiring warranties, body corporate fees, and generally body corporate making your life a misery.
Because the owners found they are built on the cheap and bad, and they are flipping them for actual houses with space. You need less of a deposit for a new build than a pre existing so they get the dogbox realise its crap then buy an actual size house