By Jill Fraser

Unfortunately the costs associated with owning your own home don’t end once you’ve settled on the purchase of your property... and I’m not just talking about loan repayments.

Let’s look at a few of the slew of expenses that could have you forking out many more thousands of dollars than you anticipated.

• Termite contract renewal: If the home wasn’t protected properly in the first place, if builders didn’t do a good job or if you failed to read the fine print you may need to undergo regular 12 monthly inspections in order to fulfil warranty requirements. This could mean $2000-plus per annum.

• Owners corporation fees: Property in common will require a budget for maintenance, repairs and insurance. Fees can include administration and sinking fund fees as well as special levies. Check to see if any major project is on the agenda, which could add to the financial burden.

• Parking: If your property doesn’t have off-street parking your local council may hit you with an annual fee for a resident’s parking permit, which are around $50 pa. Alternatively you could buy an off-street parking bay for $20,000-plus.

• Maintenance: Finance expert Eric Tyson, co-author of “Home Buying for Dummies”, says to count on at least 1% of the home’s purchase price per year for repair’s and maintenance.

• Insurance: CHOICE provided Money Confesssions with the following. For a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom weatherboard house insured for $225,000 (building) and $55,000 (contents) in St Kilda, Melbourne the home insurance premium costs are on average about $320 and contents on average about $380. NB: CHOICE assessed 38 policies from 21 insurers against common cover conditions and exclusions and found average price differences of up to $350 per year for home defined events, $380 for home accidental damage, $300 for contents-defined events, and $410 for contents accidental damage policies.

How are you handling the costs associated with your property? Click here to discuss this on FatCat's MoneyConfessions