Convert Community Title to Torrens Title

[jon2378]

Hi,

I'm looking to buy my first investment property. It's an old 1950's brick house, on 650 square meters in Adelaide.

I just found out the title is a Community Title, shared with the house next door. Apparently 10 years ago the land (originally 1,000 square meters) had been community title divided and a new house built next door.

Could anyone give me a rough estimate of how much it would cost to convert from a community title to a torrens title? Has anyone been through this process before or could provide an insight into it?

Currently they share the same gas/elec meter and have a small strip of common land that is on my half of the subdivision, so its a bit of an inconvenience. I've also been told that i can't develop the property unless my neighbour agrees to it as well, which could be a pain in the future.

Thanks for your help,

Jon2378

 

[jon2378]

anyone? surely someone has tried this before?

 

[Daniel121]

anyone? surely someone has tried this before?

Someone here may have done it, but I doubt if anyone can answer your questions... as the cost and process can vary a lot depends on the area and local council.

Did you talk to the local council to find out if it's feasible to do so? I guess surveyor may able to give you better idea how much is going to cost.

 

[jim1964]

anyone? surely someone has tried this before?

Ok,this is my view in one word............Expensive.Community Title is the cheaper alternative when dividing land,to Torrens them look at 15 to 20k.
Then you have to get the adjoining owner if any to agree,bit of a headache.

 

[jon2378]

thanks for the replies.

I was guessing it would cost around 15k to convert it, but this heavily depends on the infrastructure (water pipes, sewage).

I've tried contacting a few surveyors, but they've all required payment and an initial survey in order to provide a rough estimate of costs.

I'll try with the local council and see if they can provide any clarity. I plan to make an offer subject to the neighbor agreeing to a torrens title division.

Who knows, if he's interested he might even contribute towards the cost of it getting re-titled, but I wouldn't count on that...

 

[jim1964]

Must be a pretty good deal to want to pay your neighbors share.Alexander & Symonds are helpfull surveyors,free costings.Where is it?

 

[jon2378]

It's south-west of adelaide, within 10km of the city. It's not a terribly good deal, it's just the type of property I am interested in and I feel it's in an under-priced area and that I can add significant value to the property.

Price is negotiable, so if neighbor is not willing to pay for his portion of the change of title (or not willing to even have the title changed at all!) I would take this into account when negotiating price.

Based on the councils valuation i'd need the vendor to drop the asking price considerably (~10%) for me to actually justify purchase it from an investment perspective.

I feel the real estate agent is lacking experience, and has quoted an unrealistically high asking price in the hope that someone will eventually purchase it. But as expected, there hasn't been much interest and thus he'll have to either keep the property on the market for quite a while, or lower the asking price.

Most real estate agents these days, if they're actually trying to sell the property quickly and for a good rate, tend to advertise a lower asking price to generate more interest and give them the best chance of achieving above market rates, due to competition. Almost every auction I see, the price guide is much lower than what they tend to sell for, unless you get very picky vendors, who want maximum price and don't mind if the property stays on the market for months.