The average Australian home buyer spends more than seven months searching for a property, does around 90 hours of research and inspects 12 properties before finally settling on a purchase – yet most spend only an hour inspecting the property they eventually buy.
This is according to a national survey commissioned by St.George Bank, which shows that home buyers tend to skimp over a lot of a property’s finer details before making probably the most important purchasing decision of their lives.
“Most people will look at a new car for longer than they inspect the home they buy,” said Andy Fell, St.George’s general manager of retail banking.
The survey also found more than half (55%) of Australian home buyers said they discovered hidden problems with their homes after moving in. The most common problem was related to plumbing, followed by poor TV reception and bad mobile phone coverage.
Other problems that came up included noisy neighbours, major cracks in the walls or floors and a lack of high speed internet available in the area.
Rising damp and insufficient parking onsite were problems with just 8% of respondents.
