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The First Home Owner Grant

The First Home Owner Grant (FHOG) is 7000$, never mind what the property price is (if you buy in 2009). If you buy in 2010, the property must cost under 600K for you to qualify for FHOG. Find out whether you’re eligible or not here.

The First Home Owners Bonus

If you buy before the 30 June 2009, the Bonus is 3000 for established and 5000 for new homes, but the property must cost below 500K.

From 1 July 2009 on the Bonus is 2000 for the established and 11000 for new homes, and the property must cost below 600K. More about the Bonus here.

The First Home Owners Boost

This is the recent “injection” of free money which was made available October last year. If you buy before 30 September 2009 an established home, your bonus is 7000, for new homes it’s 14000.

Then from 1 October the bonus will be reduced to 3500 for established and 7000 for new houses. Here is the fine print about the Boost.

And the last important bit: it’s the contract date that counts – not the settlement date.

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Comfort of your Home

When we say “home”, we mean the dearest to our heart place, the one that we value more than anything. It is a home where we grew up or our kids are growing up, or a place we’re growing old in.

But this article is about a new home for a new family. When anyone decides to build his own home, the first specialist to see would be an architect.

Read full article here…

Sunlight and your home

The ideal positioning of the house is different in various parts of Australia. And if in the north (Darwin) the main concern is hiding from the sun, in the south (Melbourne) we need to think of a way to keep the sunlight in our house.

To keep sunlight in the house means both letting it in and making it stay there for as long as possible.

Read full article here…

Building on a difficult terrain

Adjusting the house to the landscape is the first task to be solved when building on difficult terrain. If your block of land has slopes up to 20% - it’s rather regular terrain. The difficulties start to appear on slopes that are steeper than that.

Read full article here…

All About Flooring - Wooden Floors

The more civilized a nation, the more materials it uses for flooring. In the rural villages of Central Asia, where people work in their fields and gardens, their houses have no flooring - the floor is made of dense clay. The wealthy cover their floors with carpets made of camel wool, and the poor with thin and cheap rugs.

Read full article here…

All About Flooring - Ceramic Floors

In different countries people choose different materials for floor, and their decision is influenced by many reasons - traditions, climate (temperature and humidity), the price of materials and available technology. For example, in the warm coastal countries the climate is hot and the humidity is high. Timber doesn’t like such conditions and also it is not as commonly available as in the countries located further inland.

Read full article here…

All About Flooring - Carpets, Linoleum and Concrete

Another type of flooring is wall-to-wall carpets and linoleum. Carpets - soft, warm, easy to handle, varying in colors - should be replaced every 10 years. The reason is that plastics used as a base for carpets start to decompose after that period of time.

Read full article here…

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• Collection of articles with handy tips about house buying, practical advice for renters, many resources for building a home.
• Online tools such as land and property value calculators, and links to useful websites that I use and recommend.
• Fresh content is added regularly – I learn something new every day and pass that on to my readers.

Who is Chris Lang?

I am originally from Europe and have traveled a lot in the world. When I came to Australia, I realized that here it doesn’t matter where you’re from - what’s important is that you’re here to stay. And I’m staying - what to do, fell in love with this country and Melbourne (where I live) is a beautiful city.

Naturally, to make yourself at home in a new country means you need to buy one. It’s very hard not to – everyone in Australia is playing the “real estate game”. I’ve bought and sold a couple of houses in my life and thought that I had it all figured out, easy, but NO – not even close. Australian real estate had many surprises for me and, I am sure, has many more.

So I thought: “Maybe someone else can benefit from the things I am learning” and decided to start this blog. I am writing here about all of the stuff that is new to me, about things home buyers need to know, about possible mistakes newbies can make.

My personal story of starting a new life in Australia is here, read it and you will really get to know me. We all learn “as we go”, so if you have something to add, experience of your own to share – I’d love to hear about it, leave a comment or write me to chris@homeiown.com.

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