What a Finished Property Costs to Own Each Year

The purchase price is the beginning. What ownership costs annually, and which components are controllable.

Buyers budget for purchase and assume ownership costs will be modest. They are predictable rather than modest, and understanding them before purchase prevents the recurring surprise of a year in which several arrive together.

What this number does and does not include

This covers the annual cost of owning and occupying a finished residential property. It excludes financing cost and the purchase itself, which are separate calculations.

Cooling and electricity

The dominant running cost in this climate, driven by the building's envelope, equipment efficiency and how it is used.

• Pushes it up: Poor insulation, inefficient or ageing equipment, large glazed areas without shading.
• Brings it down: Envelope improvements, equipment servicing and operating practices such as reasonable temperature settings.
• How to control it: Service equipment before summer and address obvious envelope weaknesses, since both affect a cost that recurs every year.

Water

Domestic consumption plus irrigation, which in properties with landscaping can exceed domestic use.

• Pushes it up: Extensive landscaping, irrigation leaks and inefficient fittings.
• Brings it down: Efficient fittings, climate-appropriate planting and prompt leak repair.
• How to control it: Monitor consumption for unexplained increases, since an underground irrigation leak can run for months unnoticed.

Maintenance and repairs

Routine servicing plus the repairs that arise, which are irregular but not unpredictable.

• Pushes it up: Deferred maintenance, ageing equipment and previous poor workmanship.
• Brings it down: Planned servicing, which costs less than the failures it prevents.
• How to control it: Build a schedule from component ages rather than responding to failures as they occur.

Service charges

For apartments and managed developments, the shared cost of operating the building and its systems.

• Pushes it up: Ageing buildings, extensive amenities and deferred maintenance requiring correction.
• Brings it down: Nothing directly, though participation in how the building is managed has influence.
• How to control it: Assess the charge and the reserve before buying, since this cost is largely fixed once you own the unit.

Insurance

Cover for the building and, separately, contents.

• Pushes it up: Higher rebuild values and automatic renewal without review.
• Brings it down: Annual review and comparison.
• How to control it: Review at each renewal rather than allowing automatic increases to accumulate.

Periodic renewal

Items with defined lives: air conditioning, water heaters, appliances, external paint and waterproofing.

• Pushes it up: Deferring replacement until failure, which usually includes consequential damage.
• Brings it down: Replacing before failure and spreading replacements across years.
• How to control it: List major items with their ages and expected lives, then spread the replacement cost across a plan.

Costs that never appear on the first page

• Emergency callouts when equipment fails outside working hours.
• Consequential damage from failures, particularly water related.
• Special assessments in managed buildings for major works.
• The cost of neglect, since deferred maintenance compounds rather than disappearing.

Keeping the budget honest

Build the annual budget from the property's actual components rather than from a percentage of value. Two properties of identical value can differ substantially in running cost depending on envelope, equipment age and landscaping.

• Before purchase, estimating the annual cost from the property's characteristics.
• Annually, comparing actual costs against the estimate.
• When any major component approaches the end of its life.
• On any unexplained increase in utility consumption.

If you are buying a finished property, Domira can inspect it, verify the documentation and price the findings with you before you commit.