Renovating or Building your Dream Home?

It can be quite difficult to decide between building your dream home from scratch or remodelling an existing home. While you should choose the option that appeals to you the most, you should also take into account your and your housemate’s needs and other factors which we will go over.

Building your Dream Home

Building your own home is ideal for designing every aspect of it to fit what you have in mind. But one of the main stresses of this option is if your builders understand what you have in mind, as you will highly rely on them doing their job well. Therefore you must find good builders and architects that have experience with similar works. This option is much more costly but gives you endless possibilities when building.

Once you have an initial design in mind you should start looking for a plot of land for your new home. You should make sure to ask about planning permission and building permission, make sure it is big enough and inform yourself on how you can connect to utilities such as gas, water and electricity.

One of the pros of building your own home is that you won’t have to worry about the usual issues you would get in an older home that has been renovated such as pests, issues with plumbing, heating etc. You also get to choose the type of heating, materials, flooring,… which can be complicated to replace in old homes.

There are some cons to building your own home such as the cost and time needed not only for building but planning. If you have not previously lived near the land’s location you should make sure you are informed on the location and neighbourhood, as you might later find out there are issues with your location such as humidity. Ask your future neighbours about the neighbourhood and find a professional who can evaluate the land.

Renovating a Home

One of the best parts about renovating an existing property to be your ideal home is that you can choose your neighbourhood with more freedom.

When choosing a home to renovate you typically have two options:

• A new home that you can renovate while keeping its structure as it is all new so you don’t have to worry about fixing issues such as humidity, deterioration and upgrading utilities. This also allows you to move in sooner if you don’t have major changes to make and you can still make minor renovations while you live there as the home is already in a condition to live in.

• An old home which is cheaper to buy but will need more work done. While it might be cheaper you should make sure that it is worth renovating as these costs can sometimes be very expensive. You should have the home inspected by a professional to get an estimate of the renovating costs and identify any flaws before purchasing it. If you enjoy older homes such as Victorian houses renovating an older home is a great idea and you can keep the Victorian exterior while modernizing the interior to your taste.

We hope that our post has helped you decide what process to go through to move into your dream home, please do not hesitate to contact us if you want more information on home renovations or property development.