How can you buy a house without checking out the foundations/basement yourself or by a pro?
Widespread sentiment that if you don't buy something ASAP, you'll never be able to - meaning lots of buyers skimping on due diligence to close a sale.
A whimsical tale of dishonesty, laziness and incompetence. Merry fucking Christmas
(A joke but also not really because housing prices here in Australia are absolutely insane)
If the house collapses that's a good thing because then the heritage protections are gone and you can build something better. The property value probably goes up if the old workers hut falls over.
What inspectors actually do also depends on who is engaging them and how much they get paid. For example, in the ACT it's mandatory for sellers to have an inspection done. This will generally go to the lowest bidder and they will put in minimum effort, e.g. the report will have things like "Roof inspected as far as can see from ladder placed against the house" and "furniture present, unable to inspect area". If you were the buyer and engaging an inspector, and the seller cooperated, you could have them inspect as much as you were willing to pay them for.
I guess it depends who you hire (and whether or not you want to know about any issues, which is the most compelling reason I've seen in the replies so far for why this was "missed").
Things have been crazy for a long time, but I am actually optimistic for Melbourne specifically - the construction rate is up and the state government has been decreasing the power local governments have to block or delay development. If this continues, housing affordability should improve. My main concern is that a change of government may put an end to it, but I hope not.
Some details about what VIC is doing differently in this AFR article if you're interested (archive link because original is paywalled):
Attic access has to be weatherstripped - cheap ass builders just seal it.
I ain’t buying’ no pig in a poke. If it’s new construction I can inspect before completion (and you should); if it’s used, I am breaking the seal and crossing the streams. Attics got way too much “fun” to discover.
Anything that is so bad as to call off the sale was probably visible during a basic walkthrough or from the street, anyway.
The Victorian government has also failed significantly on public housing. The wait time is about 20 months (10 months is VicGov's target, it was 14 months 3 years ago) and they're currently looking to demolish many existing options without many short term optionsnfor residents.
It seems very unlikely to me that Victoria's house prices will drop in any sigificant way this decade.
True.
> If it’s new construction I can inspect before completion (and you should); if it’s used, I am breaking the seal and crossing the streams. Attics got way too much “fun” to discover.
Don't do this! you can't see much anyway. At least not without walking up there and that disturbs your insulation. Everything you care about is about the roof working, so look at the roof from the outside. Keep the roof in good shape and you don't need to go in the attic.
Also until the house is yours you are not allowed to break that seal. Once it is your house you can do whatever you want, but it is too late.
I think there is a good chance it will, as long as a change of government doesn't deliberately dismantle the current approach. Yes there's population growth and yet prices have been stagnant or declining the past few years and construction has picked up. That's a good trend!
I'm not familiar with the situation with public housing but am happy to accept if the government has failed there. But this seems like a separate failure rather than an indictment of their approach to increasing supply generally which I think is working.