Mortgage broker Mount Lawley

Character precincts and what they do to a project

Large parts of Mount Lawley sit inside character protection, and the suburb straddles more than one local government area. The rules on demolition and street-facing alterations are stricter than most of Perth.

In practice that pushes almost everything towards restore-and-extend rather than knock-down-rebuild. The front of the house stays, the work happens at the rear, and a second storey is negotiated rather than assumed.

For finance that means construction lending on an extension, not on a new house. The valuation is done on an as-if-complete basis against plans and a builder contract, and lenders differ on how they handle the older structure being retained.

1. 1

   Confirm the planning position first

   What you may do to the street frontage decides the whole project. That answer comes from the council, not from the agent's brochure.

2. 2

   Get the existing property valued

   The equity you already hold usually funds the deposit on the works. It is often more than owners assume, particularly if they bought some years ago.

3. 3

   Take plans and a fixed-price contract to the lender

   An as-if-complete valuation needs proper documents. Sketches and a builder's verbal estimate will not get an approval.

4. 4

   Draw down in stages and keep a contingency

   Working on a house that is ninety years old uncovers things. Hold money outside the loan for what the plans could not predict.

Why two houses in the same suburb value so differently

Mount Lawley rewards proximity to the good streets and penalises proximity to the busy ones. Two houses of similar size and age can value quite differently based on which block they are on and what faces them.

Valuers price that in through the comparable sales they select. Owners often expect a suburb-average outcome and get a street-specific one instead.

The consequence shows up at refinance time. If you are counting on a particular figure to release equity, the lender's valuation method is worth choosing deliberately rather than accepting whatever the first lender uses.

Beaufort Street, investors and mixed-use

The Beaufort Street strip gives Mount Lawley something most character suburbs do not have: a working commercial spine with residences above the shops.

Those buildings are financed as commercial or specialised residential rather than as homes. Expect a shorter loan term, a lower lending ratio and a valuation that leans on the lease and the commercial use.

The university campus and the strip also support a steady rental market, so investor files here are common. Lenders assess investment loans on the actual rent under a signed lease, not on what a listing suggests it might achieve.

• Home loans for buyers competing for character stock
• Construction finance for rear extensions and second storeys
• Refinancing and equity release once the renovation is complete
• Commercial loans for shops and mixed-use buildings on Beaufort Street
• Investment lending assessed on the signed lease