Site Costs article in New Home Buyer

Your new home and its shiny, squeaky clean appliances won’t be of much use to you without electricity to run the television, gas to warm the kettle and water to power the shower – and a house with no sewerage connection is not a home. Standard site costs usually allow for easily accessible service connections located within 10 metres of the new house. If your service connection points are further away than this, you will pay more.

Some knock-down and rebuild clients building in established areas get an unwelcome surprise when the water board reveals that their sewer connection is located within the road or footpath. This can add thousands to the standard sewerage connection fee, as the street and footpath will have to be dug up then repaired to council’s satisfaction. You can see if this cost will affect you upfront by obtaining a sewer diagram from the Water Board and giving a copy to your builder.

Similarly, people building on battle-axe blocks can face much higher service connection fees than those on more conventional lots if the services haven’t been brought down the access handle from the street. If the distance between your new house and the street is 30 metres, then you’ll pay three times as much as another client. If possible, negotiate for the services to be extended to your block as part of the land contract.