This snippet is from one of our previous episodes: Q&A: A Tax-Saving Hack For An Offset Account, The Simplest Way to Keep Track of Your Properties and How To Distinguish “Emotional Value” from “Property Value”

Building new often gets a bad rap when we’re talking property.

But what if you’re not building purely for investment?

That’s the question Bryce & Ben unpack in this Throwback Tuesday episode.

As Ben explains, building new can absolutely make sense when it’s a lifestyle decision — especially if the home brings you joy, suits your family, and gives you a place to build long-term memories.

But that doesn’t mean ignoring the fundamentals.

Before building new, it’s worth considering:

  • Whether the location has strong long-term appeal
  • How much future land supply exists nearby
  • Whether the block has scarcity or unique features
  • How the home design supports owner-occupier appeal
  • Whether the decision is being made for lifestyle, investment, or both

Thinking About Your Next Property Move?

Whether you’re planning to build, buy, upgrade or invest, it helps to have a clear strategy behind the decision. Empower Wealth’s team can help you understand how your property plans fit into your broader financial goals — whether that means purchasing your dream home first, buying an investment property, or working out which move should come next.

A Property Portfolio Plan can help model how today’s financial decisions may affect your future position.

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If You Enjoyed When Building New Actually Makes Sense, You Might Also Like:

Transcript

Bryce Holdaway
Okay. “Hi guys, I love the insights I’ve gained and I feel you’ve saved me thousands. My question is around new property. I understand buying off the plan is a bad idea as an investment, etc. However, my partner and I would like to buy a house for the next 10 or so years to raise a family and everything that comes with that.”

Ben Kingsley
Nice.

Bryce Holdaway
“I’m a building designer, so I’m a bit more biased towards building. So my question is, would building a house with an outlook to live in it for an extended period, 10-plus years, stack up over buying an existing property?”

Ben Kingsley
The answer to that, in short, is yes.

Bryce Holdaway
Scratch the itch.

Ben Kingsley
Absolutely. I mean, where we want to articulate our difference here is that this is a lifestyle choice. So if you’re buying for lifestyle, then I’m all in. I mean, that’s an experience, right? You’re going to build memories in that house and as a building designer, Brody, exciting times for you, right? If you can get that marriage right with that open style and the alfresco deck and you can really get that blend of a great design that has strong owner-occupier appeal, if you ever choose to sell it, then I’m all for that.

The only caveat I have is around where you do that. So if you’re doing that in a brand-new estate area where you know that there are acres and acres of vacant land, and that’s going to take 20 or 30 years to absorb, just be mindful in those particular locations your capital growth may be a little bit more sluggish than what it would in regards to if you’re in an established area. Because remember, the appreciation is in the land. Now, the home gives me some emotional value, so I might get some intrinsic value out of the asset if you’ve built it well and it’s unique to the other Lego houses that are in the street. That’s where you get that uniqueness and attention if you do choose to sell it in 10 or so years’ time.

So we love the idea of people choosing lifestyle if that’s what they want. So same, you know, I sit down and have a chat with someone as a client, what’s the big rock in the jar? “Oh, we really want this dream home.” Great, let’s go dream home first, and let’s get that out of the way, scratch the itch, right, and then let’s plan out when we’re going to buy the next investment. Let’s put a target on when we can get to that next investment.

Bryce Holdaway
Are you familiar with Marie Kondo, Ben?

Ben Kingsley
Yes.

Bryce Holdaway
In terms of part of her philosophy is tidying the house, right? One of the things she says is, grab the item — usually around clothes, right — and ask the question, does it bring me joy or does it not bring me joy?

Ben Kingsley
Yeah, I’ve heard you say that before.

Bryce Holdaway
So it’s kind of the same thing here, right? What we’re describing here from Brody is not an investment decision. It’s a decision about will this bring me joy, will it not bring me joy? Because the same logic could be applied to a holiday. Well, I don’t know many holidays that are an investment, Ben. They’re an investment in your self-esteem and your mental health and all those sorts of things, but they’re not an investment that gives you return.

Ben Kingsley
But they can be priceless, can’t they?

Bryce Holdaway
Correct, right. So it’s sort of in the same category, and I can understand why a lot of the discussion points that we have in this podcast can create confusion around this, because we are assuming that all of the frameworks that are coming up for us is pure intention is for it to be an investment.

Ben Kingsley
Return on investment.

Bryce Holdaway
Not for it to have some form of joy in your life. Because we had a question like that last week or the week before as well. So I wanted to reinforce this point that if you want to live in it and it’s part of a community and you’re surrounded by your network and that network brings you joy and all those sorts of things, that is totally separate to the fact of whether I buy it purely for an investment, with the caveat that you said before. It’s often, for a lot of people, the biggest amount of cash that they will ever outlay.

So it’s probably not a bad idea to have some form of capital growth prospects in mind. Don’t let that… rentvesting, on paper, is the best thing to do. It just makes sense mathematically. If you live in a vacuum and you don’t have a heart and you don’t have an experience and you don’t want to experience all that life has to offer. But when you live in your own home, there’s a peace, there’s a sense of… you just can’t describe that. A mathematical equation on paper can’t actually solve.

Ben Kingsley
My home is my castle, Bryce. You know, the famous Castle movie. Exactly that. So even in some of those new estate areas, each parcel of land can also be unique. Like if it’s in a court, so you do have some scarcity if you’re in a court, right? No through traffic.

Bryce Holdaway
So, Veronica (Morgan) always says to me, house and land estates are like Officeworks. You just go and you pick something off the shelf, you match the two things, you put it in your trolley and you walk away. Because what you’re doing is you’re picking a piece of land, then you’re over here in a catalogue and you’re sort of going, “Will I take that house with that plan?” And then you just marry the two. And then it’s not until later you realise, “Ooh, I could have actually got a lot with the north-facing orientation,” or, “I could have actually designed the house to take advantage of that aspect,” all those sorts of things. Because it’s usually, not always, but usually early on in our property ladder experience. So we don’t know those lessons until we’re looking in the rear-view mirror.

Ben Kingsley
So we trust you, Brody. You’re going to go out there and you’re going to find that right parcel of land and you’re going to build a great building design that maximises the advantages of that block. Go forth and conquer, my friend.

Bryce Holdaway
Yes, enjoy Brody. Send us a photo of Christmas lunch at your place with all your loved ones around you. So go for it.