Negosentro | Dual Occupancy Housing: A Smart Home Investment | One should consider a few factors first to ensure that a duplex model house design will fit their needs and develop and live in them. Answering the following questions will help determine if people are comfortable or the right persons/ families fit into the dual occupancy designs in housing development. It is advantageous for large families or joint families who prefer to live next to each other as separate units in the same compound.
1. What is the principal motivation for doing a dual occupancy development?
- Desire for change
- To decrease the running costs
- Financial benefits
- Change in lifestyle/ family circumstances
- Increase in nuclear families
- Security benefits
- Ease of maintenance
- Modification of house
2. How much of their time can the person put aside for this in the next few years?
- It is a fundamental question because time is money and more. The amount of time and work that one puts into a dual occupancy development plan will reduce the amount of money one will have to pay for since one will do more tasks and responsibilities personally.
- One should approximately spend 10 hours a week for the first year on design, town planning, documentation and permits. Later on, one can work six or seven hours a week for the second year for demolition, construction and landscaping.
- Being organised and getting everything done promptly will ensure that the work runs smoothly.
3. What kind of skills and knowledge is required?
- A good understanding of all the different architectural design stages, building permit, own planning, demolition, and construction.
- Good management can deal with all the professional consultants like town planners, architects, building surveyors, engineers, interior designers, landscape designers etc.
- Good financial and accounting skills
- Ability to manage people when things get difficult or slow, like getting permits or dealing with local authorities.
4. What are the potential ways this development will impact a person’s personal or family life?
- It can turn out to be a life-changing event; the stress that comes out of this exercise can turn out to be a major deal-breaker in most families.
- Getting the required permits from the town councils and other government agencies can be challenging and demanding. However, building a dual occupancy house may seem easy.
- Another challenge is budgeting issues, controlling costs, and making design compromises to satisfy government bodies and neighbours.
Note: All of the above questions and steps might seem to be a bit overwhelming for some people in this time and era, especially when they have to look into planning for weeks and go after the government agencies, which can seem to be daunting. In such cases, the best option is to look at builders or development consultants like champion homes to manage the entire process.
When should one consider dual occupancy designs?
- Pull-down and rebuild two new housing
- One has a large housing in an area where land prices are rising
- One wants to stay in their current location but doesn’t need as big a house
- One can build two houses next to each other and still have extra space.
- One can have a house for living apart from the other one.
What can one do with a dual occupancy home design?
- Live in one house, sell the other
- Live in one place, rent the other
- Sell both houses
