With over 45 years of experience, you can trust the team at Metricon to help guide you on your dream home journey. But why take our word for it?
We’ve decided to turn this blog over to some of our loveliest customers, so that you can pick their brains and get the inside track on top tips to achieving your happily ever after in the home-building adventure.
Can I afford to build my own home?
This is a huge question we hear from first-time buyers regularly, and with interest rate hikes, it makes sense that this is a concern. But why help pay down someone else’s mortgage with rent that’s probably rising just as fast when you could be investing in your future?
Twenty-something Melbourne-based couple Kriselle, an accountant, and her partner Elliot, a nurse, were genuinely surprised by how quickly their first home came together for them and their adored rescue dog Harley.
They were blown away by a visit to the two-storey, four-bedroom, three-bathroom Alka display home in Truganina, in Melbourne’s western suburbs. One of our HomeSolution by Metricon designs, the beauty of these brilliant family home and block plans is that you can get on the property ladder with a minimal upfront deposit.
“Just like every first home buyer, we worried a lot about saving enough for a home deposit and staying within our budget/borrowing power,” Kriselle says. “We were initially planning on saving $40,000 first, enough for a 5% deposit plus any additional costs, before browsing for a home. House prices kept rising year on year, and by the time we have saved that $40,000, it no longer covered the 5% deposit that we originally needed.”
But all their fears melted away once they looked around the Alka and realised Metricon would assist with an easily achievable savings plan and deposit scheme. “It was the perfect first home for us,” Kriselle says. “We called our New Home Advisor and locked it in right away. Within a month, we paid a $5,000 deposit, signed the purchase contract and paid the 5% balance of the land.”
And because the total house and land costs were under $750K, they could access the Victorian government’s First Home Owner Grant and avoid paying Lender’s Mortgage Insurance and stamp duty too. “We were so glad we visited Metricon, our New Home Advisor has been really nice to us and answered all our queries,” Kriselle adds.
You can learn more about Kriselle, Elliot and Harley’s first home-buying adventure here. Here’s more info on Metricon’s $5k* savings plan opportunity, and some top tips for saving that deposit.
Will I know how to choose the right home for my block?
With so many options to choose from, Metricon knows that it can be overwhelming narrowing down the right home for the right block. But our experts are dab hands at figuring out the logistics for you, as software engineer Rahbee and his PhD student wife Rubaiya know.
They moved to Sydney from Dhaka, Bangladesh, in 2017 and were enjoying apartment living until the imminent arrival of their gorgeous son Daniel meant moving somewhere bigger and stepping away from the insecurity of the rental market.
“While we loved our apartment in Sydney, we knew it was time to upgrade to a bigger home with a larger backyard, among other things, to accommodate for our lifestyle and the arrival of our son,” Rahbee says.
They had their eyes on the two-storey Middleton design, Rubaiya says. “But then we realised we could actually fit a bigger home on our block. A friend recommended the Leonard, and when we saw this design, it ticked all the right boxes for us.”
With five bedrooms and three living areas, the Leonard, built in a new estate in Leppington 38km southwest of Sydney’s CBD, was the perfect fit for their growing family, offering plenty of room to entertain guests too.
“We love everything about our home, especially the family living area,” Rubaiya adds. “It’s so spacious and connected to the outdoors – it brings in so much natural light and makes the whole house well ventilated. I love to cook, so the kitchen with the butler’s pantry is also a highlight for me. Even little Daniel loves it and keeps crawling in here.”
Read more about Rahbee and Rubaiya’s home-building experience here, and you can learn more about choosing the right land and home package here.
Can I achieve the tree or sea-change dream?
After the last few hectic years, many of us have dreamed of getting away from it all and leaving the city behind, with a noticeable rise in tree and sea changers.
Robyn and her husband Shane were overjoyed that they could move with their two kids to the beautiful, roo-packed community of Axe Creek, close to regional Victorian hub Bendigo, where they opted for the four-bedroom, three-bathroom Davenport.
“Building with Metricon gave us the opportunity to create a home that was everything we wanted,” Robyn says. “We now have storage for days, spaces that work for our family and our lifestyle, and room to move. We were able to customise the floorplan, which was already so close to perfect, to cater to our needs exactly.”
It’s been transformative for their family, Robyn says. “We couldn’t dream of a better place to raise a family. The way the kids play has really changed so much since living here. The reliance on technology just isn’t there now, they love playing out in the dirt and riding their bikes up and down the driveway.”
While Robyn and Shane moved away from the city to be amongst the trees, Yvette was worried that rising prices might force her and her two boys to leave their beloved perch by Adelaide’s north-western beaches behind. “It was a stressful time,” she says. “We loved it there.”
But the perfect solution presented itself care of Metricon’s KnockDown Rebuild option, allowing customers to create a brand new, affordable home without sacrificing their ideal location. “I quickly became aware that there were several options that I could look at which would allow me to stay in the location I had grown to love for more than ten years,” Yvette says.
She got advice on replacing their now too-small home with the two-storey, four-bedroom Banksia 27 from the Freedom range. “I was completely sold by having the downstairs lounge for me and the upstairs leisure room for them,” Robyn adds.
You can read more about Robyn and Shane’s journey here, and hear more from Yvette here. And here’s a guide to why regional living might be just the trick for you.
If you’d like to speak with one of Metricon’s home-building experts, get in touch by clicking here or calling 1300 786 773.
