Is a pest and building inspection required?
These two inspections are often lumped together, but they answer different questions, and the honest answer is that you usually want both. They are not an either-or. Each should be carried out by a suitably qualified and licensed inspector — and in practice the same person is often licensed for both, which keeps the process simple. The point of the exercise is not to tick a box. It is to know exactly what you are buying before the contract becomes unconditional and the problem becomes yours.
A pest inspection costs roughly $300 to $400 and primarily checks for damage caused by white-ants (termites) and borers — the wood-destroying pests that quietly compromise a home's timber long before anything is visible to the eye. It can also surface rodent and cockroach activity. Those infestations rarely affect the structure, but they are a real-world condition of the property and can become a point of negotiation on price.
A building inspection costs about the same and reports on the condition and structural integrity of the home, internally and externally. It flags potential issues — movement in the structure, roofing and drainage problems, dampness, unapproved building work — so you go in with the building's actual condition on paper rather than the version presented at the open home.
When the inspections happen, and why the timing matters
For most private-treaty purchases, the contract is generally subject to satisfactory building and pest reports. That conditional period is your protection: if the reports turn up something material, you have a defined window to renegotiate the price or walk away without losing your deposit.
Auctions are the exception. A property bought at auction is an unconditional purchase — there is no cooling-off period and no subject-to-inspection clause to fall back on. The implication is straightforward: if you intend to bid, arrange the pest and building inspections beforehand, so you are bidding on a property you already understand rather than one you are hoping is sound.
Where inspections fit the finance
An inspection is a property decision, not a finance one, but the two are connected. A clean building and pest report removes a source of uncertainty for both you and the lender, and a report that uncovers a defect can change the numbers — sometimes enough to revisit the price, the deposit, or whether the deal is worth pursuing at all. Reading the reports before you commit, rather than after settlement, is the structural move. It keeps the cost of a surprise to the price of an inspection rather than the price of a problem you now own.
If you are working through a purchase and want the property and the finance considered together — including how inspection outcomes might affect valuation or your borrowing position — Book a strategy session and we will map it out with you.
General information only — not personal financial product or credit advice. AeFin is an Australian Credit Representative (CR 464548) of Finsure (ACL 384704).