Thread: Building vs Buying - When we don't live in Bali yet!!

Ok so we are looking at buying a house in Bali (as I keep saying.) I want to buy a house but my husband wants to build. As much as I would love to build my own there is no way I could see it going to plan while we are still living in Oz. My husband thinks it's a great plan and tells me there is some clause that the builders have to give a date when the house will be finished. If they are not they have to pay you a certain amount of money. I don't know if he has his info correct?

Would it be stupid to try to build a house when we don't live there? I think it is just an excuse for my husband to keep going over there to 'check' on the house haha!

Originally Posted by scout

"Would it be stupid to try to build a house when we don't live there?"
In a word, YES (in my humble opinion, of course)

I LOVE your opinion :)

it all depends on your project manager and builder, ours was fine but we did make frequent trips to inspect before paying the next payment, the money we saved by building rather than buying more than paid for the trips to check.

But on the whole no i wouldnt do it again, unless i was here. and thats just what we are going to do, sell and build again the reason being we now know exactly what we need for our lifestyle here, and its not what we thought.

all building seems to run late and unless you have a clause about finishing you can just wait until they are ready. we had our accomodation bills paid while waiting and so have some others here but one has been waiting 6 months with the builder still not hurrying much. mind they are living ina villa but not a good villa, no aircon and no hot water.

whynot rent a house and build when you get here.

Thanks everyone, when I told my husband it was a stupid idea he tried to assure me it was fool proof, and then I thought he must know something I don't know as he's from there. But turns out wife knows best (once again)!! I can't wait to show him these replies!!!

I love the idea of building a house but don't think I have the patience to do it anywhere, let alone BALI!

So all of the above seems to say:
1. long distance builds always end in disaster
2. if you are here the disasters will be averted

I have seen both of these assertions fail. Some long distance builds work because the project manager (often the architect) knows what he/she is doing and does it well.

Some disasters like tile roofs that leak, woodwork from low quality timber that will warp, plumbing all connected up wrong, bathroom floors that slope in the wrong direction and so on, and so on - happen while the new owner is living nearby and watching.

So give another though to buying an existing property, and then doing modifications if needed.

I think anyones mad to consider anything but renting. Just my 2 cents worth.....