This Australian couple was turned down for a mortgage. But that didn’t stop them from building their dream home. this is how they did it

Undeterred by the rejection from mortgage brokers, an Australian couple, Luis and Valentina, refused to let their dreams of owning a home for their family fade away.

The couple had diligently applied for multiple bank loans, hoping to get financing for their first home, but were told to come back “when they have the money.”

Undeterred by this setback, Luis and Valentina decided to embark on an innovative and profitable path by building their dream home using shipping containers, all on a budget of $300,000.

“We’re here today because several mortgage brokers didn’t believe us when we started thinking about buying our first home,” they said.

‘Our budget was not very big. We were saving for our deposit and had an idea to buy in the AUD200-300 range.

“We were also planning to get married and have our first child, so they basically told us to come back when we had more money.”

In 2020, Luis and Valentina purchased a 1,000 m2 piece of land located approximately 50 minutes drive north of the Adelaide CBD.

With the prospect of building their home from scratch, Luis and Valentina realized that this was their chance to make their dream home come true.

“We found this block at a really good price and we did it,” they wrote.

The couple initially approached builders with the idea of ​​building their home out of shipping containers.

To her dismay, rejections and ghosting became an all-too-common experience.

‘Oh boy! Rejections and ghosts left, right and center. If this was going to happen, the only way was if we were going to make it happen and decided to build it ourselves.

Luis and Valentina then turned to the expertise of an architect to help design their ambitious two-story house, made entirely of shipping containers.

The house sits on a 1,000 square meter block of land, located about a 50-minute drive north of Adelaide’s central business district, and is made up of eight shipping containers.

The family of four lives in a tiny house on the property while they finish building the container house, which is estimated to cost between $250,000 and $300,000.

After ensuring the house’s design was thoroughly reviewed and certified by a structural engineer, Luis and Valentina received council approval for their plans in 2021. The following year marked the beginning of their ambitious project as construction work began. of the “container” house of your dreams.

The family of four currently resides in a small, cozy house located on the same property. Their temporary living arrangement allows them to stay close to their project while they actively build their dream home.

Valentina, who is a wedding photographer, said that she and her husband, who is a certified builder, do “a lot of the work” themselves.

The couple explained that a construction loan allowed them to make their dream come true without being frugal.

“Many of the big expenses have already been incurred and we still have to make the rest of the budget work for the remaining works,” the video says.

“We’re doing a lot of the work ourselves, and we’ve been lucky to have so many people willing to help.”

He added that a person does not have to be “rich” to build a shipping container home and urged others to follow the non-traditional construction process.

‘Let the opinion on this be: you can do it too. You don’t need to be rich. You just have to want it badly,” she wrote.

‘You don’t have to be rich to build a container house. It may not be an easy process and you’ll probably get shot down one too many times, but as long as you have a clear vision of your end goal, IT WILL HAPPEN.’

Valentina wrote in a comment that the construction is estimated to cost between $250,000 and $300,000 once completed.

Shipping container homes in Australia are treated the same as any construction and must comply with the same standards that govern a traditionally built home.

In South Australia, builders must follow the Australian Building Code and the South Australian Development Regulations 2008.

In-state shipping containers must be used for residential use only and meet the requirements for a Class 1a Building in the National Building Code (NCC).

Shipping container homes in Australia are treated in the same way as any construction and must meet the same standards that govern a traditionally built home (stock image)

Based on an average Australian home in 2020, nine 40ft high cube containers would be used for a build, with the cost of a 40ft container ranging from $8,000 to $13,800 depending on availability, age and quality. of the container.

Shipping container homes can cost as little as $1,200 per square meter, roughly a 40 percent reduction in construction costs compared to traditional construction.

Total costs can range from $50,000 to $150,000, not including modifications like insulation, electrical, windows and doors, with luxury shipping container homes costing as much as $400,000.

You can follow the efforts of the couple in instagram and Tik Tok.