Nearing retirement Jim, a father of two young adults was looking for options to get his children into the property market. The family decided to purchase a block of land with an existing house and add a granny flat to double the income by renting two properties.
After thorough research, parents and their two adult children bought a block of land with an existing house as an investment property in Davistown, a south-eastern suburb of the Central Coast region of New South Wales. With an expected weekly rent of $420 from each property, income would exceed the estimated monthly mortgage repayments. The investment project would not only grow equity by itself but also leave some cash at hand.
Why Ibiza was a perfect fit?
“My family and I researched quite vigorously to look for a granny flat to suit the purpose. There are plenty of options to choose from.”- said Jim. The family looked at the best layout, design, quality and ease of construction. And they went ahead with the Ibiza from YZY Kit Homes as it ticked all the boxes.
“We liked the design. We liked the layout. The support offered by the local Central Coast builder of YZY Kit Homes was great. We had a few modifications done, to suit the block. But as you can see, with the finished product now, it’s quite big, open, airy, and it just ticks all the boxes, in terms of what we were looking for, for a granny flat. ” – said Jim.
Quality European materials
Quality, soundproof materials were also important criteria when choosing our Ibiza. The corner of the main street is directly out the front of the Ibiza. And the traffic noise can be quite heavy.
“There’s a lot of delivery trucks, a lot of buses, motorbikes flying by. And once these doors are shut, it really does quieten it right down. You don’t really hear the effect those noises have when the windows and doors are shut.” – said Jim.
The solid timber walls and double glazed windows are good in dampening the noise. “The double glazed windows and doors are fantastic. They work perfectly for noise, heat, cold.” – said Shayne Price, the local builder. There is no Air conditioning, but ceiling fans installed in every room.
Customized building design to suit the block
Jim’s family chose Ibiza from our standard granny flats range. However, they had a few requests from the council and had to alter the building design. The building had to be narrower to satisfy the setbacks required. Also, a family wanted to make a few windows modifications which are not a problem.
“It was all very simple. We basically put our ideas forward and we worked with our local builder to get the desired building on a plan. We even had things like light switches, power points pre-drilled at the factory for easy and fast building process” – said Jim.
Fast construction: building went up in 4 days
When the building works started, everything arrived on site. Shane and Steve, a local team of builders came to do the footings to get it up to floor level. Then they did a handover to Jim, the owner-builder.
“The build was amazingly quick. Once the product arrived on the 19th of December [which is a bit close to Christmas], we had it up before Christmas. We had it actually up in 4 days.” – said Jim.
All the channels for the power points come pre-drilled in the factory. “Really it was just like a big Lego game, it just went together beautifully.” – said Jim.
“I think they’re fantastic for the owner-builder because everything is laser cut precisely on a computerized machinery down to the millimeter. We know they will go back together perfect”. – said Shayne Price, the local builder. “Any handy man can build them. It is always good to have a bit of a building background, but you don’t have to be a qualified builder to do it. The fact that everything is exactly to what the plans say, makes it really easy to build.”
“The support was fantastic, from Shane and Steve. There wasn’t a stupid question to be asked, there was always an answer, and that just made it so much easier. “-said Jim.
“YZY Kit Homes work on any block. It doesn’t matter how narrow your access is. It can be a front yard, back yard. Can be dead flat or steep. Basically YZY Kit Homes can be built anywhere.”- said Shayne.
Colour scheme choice
Originally Jim’s family were going to oil the interior walls, and have the natural timber finish. But as it is a rental property, they decided to paint the walls so it is easy to repair. If you have a child’s pen on the wall or any other scratches, brush-on paint will fix the damage without the need to repaint a full wall.
“We liked the colours we chose. It just makes it feel that much bigger and airier. And we’re very happy with what we did.” – said Jim.
If you are looking to build a granny flat in the Central Coast, Sydney or The Hunter region, please contact the builder of this project.
If you need an extra room built somewhere else, please find your nearest builder and contact him for a quote, site inspection or general information.