this post was submitted on 23 Oct 2024
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Housing Bubble 2: Return of the Ugly
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I work in the development department of a city that's and enclave for the ultra-rich. Literally every household in the city is millionaires or better.
Every house in the city is unique. Every build site requires civil and structural engineering. Every home has an architect designing it to be a unique structure. The average new build here is 8-10 million dollars, with the big ones being 50 million+.
We're talking tennis pavilions on the roof, indoor arboretums and galleries, the works.
And they're all built cheaply and fall apart within a decade.
They're shitty houses, but when people are dropping 8-figures on them, they can afford to drop a couple million more on a remodel every 5-10 years.
You can't buy a quality house anymore.
I'm starting to think the play is to buy undeveloped land and just bite the bullet on the cost of building a house/a road to the nearest govt maintained road.
Unless you're physically building it yourself, it's still gonna get corners cut at every stage.
Also, don't underestimate the drainage and erosion control engineering required for a home and a road. Those cookie cutter neighborhoods have regional drainage and detention. Your undeveloped land won't.
I'm sure with some research you could find a company willing to follow your specifications and instructions, but obviously that comes with cost.
To your second point, thanks for the heads up. There's plenty more research that I need to do before I worry about drainage, but I'll keep the thought in mind.
Septic and Drainage should come before any kind of detailed architecture. It'll save you 30 grand in Engineering revisions if you don't have to re-do the drainage plans.
Also, never let an architect be in charge of a project. It's like having the font designer be in charge of office software.