Checks when purchasing land

Here in WA the buyer is expected to show "due diligence"; that is, if any checks aren't done prior to settlement there's no recourse against the vendor. I assume it's the same throughout Australia. I don't know if you put any conditions on the contract (such as "subject to no soil contamination") or if that's even a concern in your area.

If you have a good settlement agent they'll be able to recommend contractors who can perform such tests/inspections, and your state's Real Estate Institute (or equivalent) will have checklists online, I'm sure. Alternately a Google search for "property buying checklist [state]" should bring at least a starting point for the information.

It's great to hear you're moving to a couple of acres, and I speak for many of us here when I say that we look forward to hearing about your journey over the coming months & years.

Unless you're concerned about heavy metals I wouldn't bother with outsourcing any soil tests. You can run your own PH tests from a kit from the hardware store and its best you learn how to do it yourself so you can keep an eye on it.

For soil makeup I prefer the sausage test, gives you a pretty good idea quickly. Bit of googleing will reveal the method quickly.

Both these can be done on a plate onsite for instant feedback. Just learn how to do a proper core to get a representative sample. Again google or youtube is your friend. Thing with soil is its all about averages and tests performed a few meters apart can vary a lot.


What I've learnt from my own short journey on my current property and permaculture principles;

1. Observe, observe, observe... I know it says it in all the books. Yet did I actually do this? No.... too keen, to excited. I could have saved many $1000s in nursery stock if I just waited a year or two. Remember a tree in the wrong spot wont actually outgrow one placed a year or two later in the perfect spot.

2. Start small then scale up. Even at 2.5 acres I'm sure you can get carried away. Even though I haven't seen what you've got, I'm thinking its a blessing only 0.5 acres are cleared and I'd only clear what you're going to plant out immediately. The existing trees are a wonderful place to start planting next to and will support your new plantings for better effect.

3. WATER! Another thing the books all say to get right first, this also would have saved me a lot of money. At 2.5 acres planting permaculture style you wont run out of space unless you're wanting field crops or large livestock. Your limiting factor will be water, get your catchments and tanks sorted first before starting projects that need water.

4. Hugelkulture is awesome. If you're clearing land you should make some hugels with the brush, yes it *should* be rotting but I've found good results even with fresh wood. Just be very careful with wind orientation, it'll dry out the top of the hugel and a dry hugel is a dead hugel.


Look forward to hearing news of your property. Always excited to see people buying up land and growing their own food!

Lately been looking at getting some land, doing an interest only loan until my car is paid off in 3 years then just normal mortgage but putting all my over time into paying it off.

But I dont think banks will touch me if I'm not putting a house on it, correct?

Hi,   'tomatoes' just rattling a few things off the top of my head, have no idea of your situation so just some random thoughts.

• If buying land in a residential area, the first thing I look at is the neighbors.  One can work with the land etc.. but not so easy to change the neighbors.
• Check the deeds for granted servitude, a neighbor might have access through the property to get to theirs, there also might be pipelines and gas routs, telecom etc..
• Risk of termites some areas are worse than others.
• Another thing I check is flood risk of the area, there are many flood maps published or I do my own flood maps by calculating catchments, runoff etc..  
• Fire risk maps are usually easy to come by and potential escape routs if a fire does flare up nearby.  Some properties are death traps. 
• A simple google earth sat image or  or if in NSW maps.six.nsw.gov.au/ is excellent for visual on the property, and check of ownership.  
• Risk of dumping on the property one has to look at location, check for disturbed areas on the sat images or drive around the boundary and look for tracks. If it is heavenly wooded people are lazy and would not bother going there to dump.
• Free hold or a gov type of lease where you have to pay a small annual fee.  If not freehold there might be native title against the property.  One can also check online if there are any registered aboriginal or european heritage sites on the property that can give you problems further down the line. 
• As above if there are endangered species esp vegetation trees that can become a problem - if previously identified they would be listed on a state directory.
• If there are any water or bore licence associated with the property
• Building and clearing rights for the area.  Some places have stringent building codes or approval processes.  For example some councils require very large water tanks for firefighting prior to giving building consent. In NSW there are now guaranteed width of clearing around perimeter fences and size of area one may clear for a residential building that are exempt from clearing laws. 

I am sure there are my more things to check - if I think of any will add them to the list.

I do a self stability assessment of house for structural issues and foundation stability.  Since there is no house or structure on the property!! you worried about landslides or soil movement, or the quality of the soil/rock for foundation material.  If there are deep heaving clay's etc... it can increase the cost of construction.  One can usually get regional soil maps from gov spatial/GIS web sites.    It does get a bit technical and if you don't have experience in that area it requires a huge learning curve.

Getting a geotech is serous investigation, you are sure taking this to the nth degree.  Make sure he comments on soil types and properties for both foundations and vegetation, he should also have an idea of flood risk.  Geotech will usually not give written comments on things like flood risk as it is professional reputation without having done detailed investigation, but often you can get a verbal opinion or advice of where to look etc...   It is exciting at least you can sleep well at night knowing you have covered all the bases. 

Good you are all over it.  Finding out what hoops one has to jump through to get a DA is very wise.