Discount Land

The first suburb I looked into for land was Chittering. I knew next to nothing about the place other than being a name on the map. I have not visited the place either. It just somehow caught my eye.


Duchess M immediately said, "It is near my place! Buy!" My reply, "Er..... it isn't near your place." Since she was frolicking in some heavenly Tasmania site by then, I didn't expect her to check but she did later and came back exclaiming, "WAAAAH! Far!" That's right. I may not know my stuff but I can read the map.


Large pieces of land within 100km of Perth do not come cheap. In fact, if you are looking into suburbs within 50km such as Mundaring or Glen Forest, it may cost you close to a million bucks for a house on a piece of good size land. Even at a place like Baker's hill, where Albert lives, considered a remote sleepy town, will cost us around A$250,000 for 4-5 acres of land. True, there may be vast land that I can buy for just A$50,000 but those places are easily 200km and beyond. If I were to move within 100km, I can still keep my job. Beyond that, I will have to find another way to turn the wheel of life. The question everyone else will bring up will be Albany's education. Thus these are big decisions. I am not making them hastily just yet.


So I came across a piece of land being bought over from a developer and they sub-divided it into "small" plots of lands of around 4-5 acres each. If you are buying land from folks like that, very often they'll have a fancy website with information to better help you understand why you should be buying from them. Normally they'll also provide you a site map such as this:


and also, of course a price list:


I have to admit, it's the first time I've seen a "discount" on land. That confirms my suspicious that even vacant land by itself is heavily marked up and can be discounted. It's just that it is extremely difficult to do so with a developer with strong holding power on a seller's market. Thus buying land from a small land owner himself may option up to a higher possibility of negotiation. Contrary to what I observe my friends did when they build their houses, haggling intensively over construction costs, I will do so at the land purchase stage instead. No doubt, I will get rejections all over my face but wait till it becomes a buyer's market......


Having said that, A$165,000 for 5 acres 70km away from Perth City, isn't really that bad. The manager mentioned the land being on the "lower side of the road" thus the discount. I may just pop by and see how bad it is when I'm free. I'm nowhere near to making a decision to buy a bicycle, let alone a piece of land. Just window shopping.

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