Mostly Doveton, and elsewhere when it comes up
A wall you share, and a courtyard you actually use.
The number at the front is smaller, the block is smaller, and there is no lawn to hand your Sunday to. What you trade is the space between you and next door, plus some say over the outside of your own home.
How we go through one with you
Same care we take with a house, aimed at a different set of questions. The courtyard and the paperwork do most of the deciding.
First
We work out whether a townhouse suits you at all
How many of you there are, who works nights, and whether a shed, a dog or a trailer is part of the picture. Some of that is hard in a townhouse. Better to know now than at the third inspection.
Once we know that
We walk the ones that fit
In person, at an ordinary hour, with the courtyard and the shared wall and the parking properly checked rather than glanced at on the way through. Saturday at eleven tells you nothing about Tuesday at six.
Before the offer
We read the owners corporation papers
The fee, what it covers, what sits in the minutes, whether anything is scheduled that owners will be asked to pay for. This is the part people skip and later wish they hadn’t.
After the offer
Contract, then settlement
Every clause explained in the language your family actually talks in, the searches followed through, and someone you can ring the whole way. Then the keys, and a courtyard to fill.
Three things worth checking before the kitchen.
The owners corporation, first. There is usually a fee, and it covers different things in different developments: sometimes only the building insurance and the driveway, sometimes a great deal more. Ask what it is now and what it has been. It is a cost you carry for as long as you own the place.
Then the wall you share and the courtyard you get. Knock on the party wall and listen to it. Stand in the courtyard in the middle of the day and see whether the sun reaches in, because that is where the washing goes and where the kids end up. Check where the bins live and where a second car parks. None of it is glamorous, and all of it is what daily life feels like.
The questions worth asking
What does the owners corporation fee actually pay for?
It depends entirely on the development. Building insurance and the common driveway are the usual minimum. Some include garden maintenance, lighting, gates or a shared bin area. The papers say exactly what, and we read them with you before you offer rather than after.
Are new townhouses noisy through the shared wall?
Less than people fear, more than a detached house. Newer builds put insulation in the party wall and it does a lot of work, but you will hear a door close. Go and stand in one at a time of day when people are home, not in the quietest hour of the week.
Can I rent it out later?
Usually, and a lot of owners do. Check the owners corporation rules first, because some developments carry conditions about leasing. If renting it out is the actual plan rather than a maybe, say so at the start and we will look at different things on the way round.
Do the first home incentives apply to a new townhouse?
A new townhouse is the kind of property those incentives were written for. Whether you qualify is the separate question, and it turns on price, timing and your own circumstances. We look the current rules up with you, on the day, with your file open.
Townhouses with a courtyard behind them
They come up in small groups, four or five front doors at a time. Ask for the plans and the price list, because the good ones move on the phone.
The kitchen is what sells a townhouse. The owners corporation papers tell you what it costs to live in one.
The short version
- What we list
- Brand-new townhouses: three bedrooms, two bathrooms, one car space.
- Where
- Doveton mostly, and elsewhere across the South East when it comes up.
- Languages
- Hazargi, English and Urdu.
More in what we do
Walk one townhouse and one house on its own block on the same afternoon. The difference stops being theoretical about four minutes in.
Tell us the street and we will meet you there.
Bring whoever is helping you decide. We would rather answer the family’s questions in the courtyard than have them arrive after the contract is signed.
Call 0448 414 786