Your home’s position
The way you position your home on your block of land can significantly impact your comfort levels. For example, if you want to access lots of natural light, your home should be north-facing. This is also true if you want solar panels – they should be north-facing to access as much sunlight as possible during the day.
Taking advantage of natural sunlight helps to heat your home in winter, reducing power bills. But you also need to make the right call for your lifestyle. For example, if you want an outdoor entertaining area that doesn’t get too much direct sun, it’s best to build this on the side of the house that gets the least intense sun.
Bushfire Attack Levels
When you build on a large block of land, there is probably a lot of open space around you. Also, acreage properties in rural or bush settings are often prone to bushfires. Before building, you must have a Bushfire Attack Level assessment done. This is to ensure you understand all of the risks of building in certain areas.
It also informs the materials that your home should be built with. For example, in a high-risk bushfire area, you need special considerations such as non-combustible building materials and clear access away from the property.
High wind areas
With beautiful open spaces often comes the risk of high winds. Most of the time, this won’t be an issue, however, in some high-wind areas, homes are more at risk of being damaged. Again, it’s not really a dealbreaker and you can certainly build in high-wind spaces, but you need to be aware of the risks.
In addition, much like the Bushfire Attack Level, you may need specific construction standards to be followed, and the use of stronger materials for framing the house and roof. Your builder will help you to understand this, but it’s something to keep in mind because it can increase the building cost.
