Choosing a place to call home is a very personal decision. Your home is likely to be the most expensive purchase you ever make, so it’s important to consider everything. Overall your home should be a place you love and a purchase you feel happy with. Here are some questions to think about when choosing a community.

Australians and New Zealanders love property. Our rates of home ownership - by investors as well as by owner-occupiers - are very high. While it may be emotionally driven, it’s important the decision to buy is a practical one. This means choosing a community that offers good long term capital growth potential. If you’re investing, it also means an area with good rental demand. And it means being realistic about your budget, you still need a life as well as home!

Do you need to be close to public transport? Do you need easy access to major roads? To be able to walk to schools or to parks and playgrounds? These practical considerations naturally help you decide where is a handy place to live. But also bear in mind you are making a decision for how you’ll live down the track. Your need for shopping, healthcare, transport and schools may all change over time. While no-one has a crystal ball, anticipating future needs is part of choosing a community.

 

Are you ready for a sea change or a tree change? Do you want to be close to bustling city life? To be able to walk to cafes to meet friends? Or are you looking for a more laid-back out-of-town feel? Or a mix of both city and country?

It’s well proven happiness is not linked to material things so much as to social connection. A nice new home (and maybe a car too) can certainly lift your spirits, but what matters more in the long term is feeling part of a neighbourhood and being connected to people whose company you enjoy. Some communities do this better than others. Take note whether the developer behind the community has made space for good parks and playgrounds or BBQ areas and walking paths where you can meet friends and neighbours.

 

When you’re buying into a new community, it’s important to know that the developer is reputable. How long have they been around? Are they well-known? Do people speak highly of them? It’s always good to talk to people in your prospective community and learn about their experiences.

  

Whether you’re buying for the first time or the fifth, there is a tingle, a voice in the back of your head, that tells you if this is ‘the one’. You can’t explain it, you just know when it’s right.