Make Sure You Do Your Homework Before You Buy to Avoid These Issues…

Buying a property riddled with barriers to development success can cause a nightmare for purchasers and potential lead to losses of thousands of dollars. Doing your homework and making sure you are fully aware of hidden issues affecting your property is integral to ensuring a pathway to approval without blowing the budget! See some of our tips below on what to look out for and when in doubt, just reach out:

1. Understand how the Planning Code affects your property.

There are many aspects of the planning code that can affect your property, not just the zoning. It is also important to understand how every overlay affects your property. Some overlays like flooding and bushfire hazard overlays are more obvious, but many other fly under the radar and can often affect your proposal. An example of this is the Aircraft Noise Exposure Overlay, which can affect your property at varying levels. At its most basic level, this overlay may not impact your proposal but in areas with higher noise exposure your proposed development may be stopped in its tracks. If you aren’t sure how an overlay may affect you, talk to us and we can let you know exactly how it will affect your development ideas.

2. Where is the Infrastructure?

Infrastructure such as SA Water sewer and water mains or Council CWMS mains can be on private land. The position of these services can affect your proposal or in some cases require extensions or upgrades which can cost you thousands. Other street infrastructure may also affect your proposal, and even seemingly harmless features between your boundary and the street can significantly affect your development, and potentially make it an impossibility. If you are located on a major road keep a special eye out, as costs can skyrocket quickly for extensions of water or sewer mains or relocation of any infrastructure.

3. Easements, Encumbrances and Land Management Agreements

Your Form 1’s and Certificate of Title can hold important information about any restrictions over your land  which can stop your project before it even begins. Even if you proposal lines up perfectly with the planning code, restrictions on the title can still stop the proposal dead in its tracks. Often outdated encumbrances and land management agreements (LMA) can be resolved through your conveyancer, but it always best to locate and investigate these dealings before buying. If you are unsure what something in your Form 1’s or Title mean, talk to us or your conveyancer so you can fully understand how this may affect your aspirations.

There are many more potential barriers to your development which can be hidden for the average buyer. It is important to do your research before buying, and when in doubt reach out to a professional for advice on how this could affect your project. We assist a number of developers in working through these checks early, and many of our clients have avoided properties which faced major issues! Many of these issues would have resulted in their projects facing difficulty gaining approval, becoming too expensive or not being possible at all!

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