Once a upon a time, West Australian homes were built to suit acreage blocks. Now, however, with block sizes rapidly shrinking as demand for housing skyrockets, narrow lot home designs are becoming an increasingly popular choice for Perth families.
Now, let’s make one thing clear: living in a narrow home doesn’t have to feel like a tight squeeze!
Ben Leitch is an experienced Narrow Lot Home and Unit Development Design Consultant at Plunkett Homes. In his experience, it’s achievable to produce very attractive and liveable narrow lot builds, both in single and two storey designs.
“The outcomes can be very good, especially if the client wants a minimal garden to look after” he says.
Narrow lot homes also offer a wide range of benefits. One of their biggest draw cards is opening up affordable home ownership to families in some of Perth’s most sought-after locations.
“The most compelling reason to consider a narrow lot home is you will not be living behind someone’s house. You will also face the street with access directly to the street. Most of these types of sub-divided blocks are reasonably close to the CBD. So it can be a great way of leaving the outer suburbs (30 to 40km away). If you work in or close to the city, getting back to somewhere like Morley, Cannington, Melville or Riverton really cuts down your commuting time.”
All of this considered, it’s no wonder narrow lot homes are becoming such a common request for Perth home buyers!
In this article, we’ll explore the key benefits and considerations of building a narrow lot home in Perth, providing you with the information you need to determine if this unique style of living is the right choice for you and your family.
Narrow Lot Home Design Factors to Consider
Building your new home on a narrow lot comes down to: location, garage size choice, site related costs and neighbour contribution.
“If the client is looking at established older suburbs, then it’s more likely most of the narrow lots available will be at least 9.0m wide (half an 18.0m wide block) or 10.0m wide (half a 20.0m wide block).”
“Garage placement can be tricky on narrow lot blocks. But with our free Plunkett Home design service, we can work within council regulations and often deliver what the client wants.”
“It pays to inspect the land to help with saving money, says Ben. “This will have a big impact on site-related costs. We offer this inspection at no additional cost.”
“The number one thing I urge my my clients to look out for when purchasing a narrow lot is the slope of the block. This can have a huge impact on site related costs.”
Benefits of Narrow Lot Home
1. Innovative Designs (Bigger is not Always Better)
Narrow lot homes often come with a pre-conceived stigma that they are ‘cramped’ or ‘too small’. Builders like Plunkett Homes are designing homes that surpass expectations. We do this by including innovative design elements to raise a sense of spaciousness.
Elements such as raised ceilings, skylights, floor to ceiling windows and open plan spaces give narrow lot homes a real feel for flow of movement and space. Mixing indoor to outdoor living spaces emphasises the functional outdoor space, which can sometimes be limited.
In addition, a narrow lot home is forced to be different through necessity. This leads to striking design features that aren’t so common.
2. Smarter Space Maximisation (Flexibility of Building a Two Storey Home)
Builders are taking the perceived size restrictions of narrow lots and turning them into advantages by making use of space in innovative ways. The challenge with a narrow lot home is to ensure that the comfort and liveability of the design are up to, if not better, than the standard of typical 4×2 home designs.
More often the case, this challenge can be met with building a two storey home. That is a smart way to capitalise on limited space and keep the backyard, without compromising on your lifestyle.
Building a two storey home can help maximise space. It can give you the opportunity to add that swimming pool or space for the family backyard cricket.
3. Live in a Premium Suburb Location (Coastal or Inner City Living)
Finding a large block of land can be a rare and a possibly expensive in a suburb that is close to the beach or city. However, more home owners sub-dividing their land to narrow and battle axe blocks. This creates parcels of land near the inner city and coastal suburbs which can be bought for a reasonable price.
With over 120 years of building experience, Plunkett Homes is able to design narrow lot homes and custom-designs. All of which are designed to suit the unique-shaped blocks found in such premium built up locations. Trust us to help you to build in that sought after suburb you desire.
While building in a popular suburb can be costly, the big advantage of narrow lot homes is they help reduce further cost excess.
4. Affordability
Lot sizes play a huge factor behind Perth land prices. It goes without saying – the smaller the lot, the smaller the price. But this depends on location, of course.
Also by buying a narrow lot home, you may be able to squeeze into your perfect inner-city location or a premium coastal location.
Alternatively, you could build your narrow lot home in a more affordable suburb. This frees up funds to spend on other luxuries – like a swimming pool.
There are many creative and smart ways to enhance your backyards space. Hanging vertical wall plants outside and once again creating an indoor to outdoor flow is one thing you can do to increase the sense of space.
5. Environmentally Friendly (Less Maintenance, Less Cost)
To maximise the amount of living space on the narrow block of land, narrow homes favour porches and alfresco over larger grassed outdoor areas. This lends the design to be a more environmentally friendly as well as increasing potential living area. Not to mention saving on gardening, maintenance and water bills.
With any home, it’s also important for the design to be solar passive and incorporate the best orientation for maximum energy, efficiency and comfort. Plunkett Homes takes all of this into consideration.
Ben’s Takeaway Tips & Tricks For Narrow Lots
- You’re better off spending more on a flat block than going for a cheaper block with a little slope.
- When retaining issues and stepping of the house is compounded – the saving of $20,000 on the block could cost you another $50,000 on the house.
- Orientation/overshadowing – many people don’t consider the orientation of the block. Depending on the zoning of the block you can only overshadow 35 or sometimes 25% of the neighbouring block. In saying that, North/South blocks are best.
- Easements are not a scary thing, they are simply a fact of life with building on inner-city blocks. But many people think you can’t build inside them, and sellers may expect less for these blocks because of it. Do your homework and talk to Plunkett Homes. We offer a free service to help you work out the best outcome for your block before you put that offer in.
- Be realistic. Building on a narrow block is more expensive per square meter. So don’t assume that the cheap ‘promo’ home will cost the same on a narrow lot. You need to consider building on boundaries, court yards, store rooms (For survey strata blocks).
View Our Narrow Lot Homes Range.