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Buying Established Homes vs. Buying Land for Sale: The Pros and Cons

House-hunting can be a long and frustrating process. It takes time to find and study all the options and decide whether they conform to your needs. You want your new house to be located in the right area, be large enough, and have all the amenities you are looking for. Let’s give you insights into buying established homes vs. buying land for sale with the pros and cons. 

When weighing your options, you may find that buying land for sale and building your home on it is the way to go, but the route that most people choose to take is buying a home that has already been built. It might be a brand-new home, or it could be a home that has been on the land for a number of years. There are pros and cons of buying established homes vs. buying land for sale discussed below.

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Buying Land for Sale: Pros

You Get Exactly What You Want. 

Affordable new construction is possible, especially if you have previous construction experience. You might be able to build a new house relatively affordably, allowing you the opportunity to include all the design options that you have always wanted, depending on the regulatory environment where you live. Do you favour an open plan? Build it. Do you desire a library? Build it. Homes for the average individual are built in large numbers. They might be finished in the traditional sense, but they might lack the attractive details you’re seeking for. Why give in? Build the thing you want.

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You Can Do it Affordably, In Some Places. 

Of course, unless you have extremely big pockets, you won’t be able to buy a lot and build in the midst of a major city. However, you can do it for very little money if you’re willing to build a little further from the core of the population. Unbelievable as it may seem, Lagos still has affordable land available. You might be surprised at how little money it costs to develop exactly what you want if you can be flexible with location. 

You Can Build Crazy Equity. 

While not everyone will be in a position to think in this manner, if you can start construction in a developing neighbourhood, the value of your new home or place of business may increase by at least two or three times. Playing this game is not a fantastic decision unless you are confident about it. However, for those who are knowledgeable about the trends in real estate development, this can be a fantastic method to invest in new construction while being certain that it will pay off significantly in the long run.

Buying Land for Sale: Pros

It can be more expensive.

Buying Land to then build on our own can be more expensive, as you’re literally bringing up your building from the ground up and this costs a huge amount of money, in comparison to buying an already-built house which needs very minute changes. 

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Buying Established Homes: Pros

Neighbourhood and Community.

Most existing properties are situated within established neighbourhoods. There may also be more nearby amenities, like shops or restaurants, schools and worship centres, whereas new builds are built on more isolated plots.

Character. 

Older properties have had time to develop a sense of character and unique history that you will become a part of. You may want to personalise a home, and an existing home gives you more of a chance to adapt and change things, including building work.

Making an offer. 

With an existing property what you see is what you get. If you have done your homework with all the necessary searches of its legal status, and you are happy with its findings, then you can bid on a property with confidence. This is not necessarily the case when you buy off-plan.

Relatively Cheaper.

It will be cheaper to buy a pre-existing property. You do not have as much control over what the home offers, though, as there really won’t be any customisation available unless you also do renovations on the property. This can end up costing you more than if you had simply chosen to buy land for sale and build a home in the first place.

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Buying Established Homes: Cons

The process of actually finding a home can be somewhat of a chore. You have certain needs and requirements that are very important to you. It is not always possible to find these in the communities where you want to live, which means that it can sometimes be a long time before you find the ideal option.

You can also listen and watch an episode of our podcast – Reality Check about ‘The Realities of House Hunting in Nigeria’. 

The Middle Ground

You can decide to go for another type of property: off-plan developments. 

This, in comparison to buying established homes vs. buying land for sale, is probably the next best option you would find. You get the structure – which saves you money on building from scratch but gives you the creative freedom to design how you want every other detail to be – the colour palette, the wood pattern, and everything in between.

 

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