Buy established? Buy to invest? Build? What?

We first looked at buying a house in 2007. Unconditional loans were quickly approved back then. With two strong, steady incomes, everything you could say was 'sweet' (as they say in NZ). We made a few attempts at viewing open homes on the weekends but couldn't find anything we both liked. However, we had visited Homeworld during our travels and agreed that IF we were to build, we would start with the Bellmarch 'Manhattan' home.

But, complacency set in, whether our 'do nothing' two years ago was a blessing in disguise, we're not sure, but we were surprised that even with my redundancy in late 2008, we were still in a position where we could buy a reasonable house according to our RAMs broker. Thanks to my husbands career.

So, we looked. We looked for 4 months. I went first and then dragged Mal and the kids with me all over Northern Suburbs, Northern beaches and as far as Berowra. After renting in Epping for 5 years we thought living nearer the Hornsby area would be a welcome relief to not paying the daily tolls for the M2 and Lane Cove tunnel when driving to North Sydney. Why is driving to work so expensive when you live on the Northern side?

Anyway, during one of our occasional visits to Homeworld, the rep at Bellmarch mentioned that if we wanted to build the Manhattan we should look at buying land at The Ponds.

Our instant reaction, 'Great! Now we can add the M7 tolls to the daily expenses'. We weren't too enthusiastic about living in the North West but we decided to drive to The Ponds, for a look.

We drove through Newbury and I remember seeing this as a new land development area a few years back. After driving in circles trying to find The Ponds Sales office, we didn't find it on that day. We did smile however when we drove past some newly built houses and saw couples with shovels in hand, spending their weekends planting, or laying new dirt in preparation for paving etc. I looked at Mal and said, that will be us if we decide to build here. Being a North Queenslander, he said he was more than ready to roll up his sleeves on what would be our 'own' piece of land. He was more curious as to whether I was up for it. I'm still wondering.

Okay, now I'm waffling.

After finally giving up the idea on buying an established home or a small unit in Dee Why...aahh the beach, I registered our interest to receive email updates from The Ponds office on the 22nd May.

On the 26th May I received my first update. The prices for the size of land blocks looked great. After looking at land and house options for a good 4 to 5 months now I felt comfortable with the asking price. Of course you would need to add the toll prices and travel time to the cost of living out west when you are working in North Sydney and the older son high school next year near Hyde Park in the city.

On the 28th May we put a deposit for a block of land in the IRIS release. Silly me, I thought they were like any sales office and open to negotiation. Why would they? There were dozens lined up behind you that wouldn't even ask. So, we paid the deposit and sent an email to Bellmarch to 'get ready' we were interested in a quote to build on our lot.

Oh dear!

What is all this stuff we received in the email from The Ponds about a Design Review Panel and certain guidelines and restrictions when building on corner lots?

What the heck is this?