The benefits of building a home in Australia.

You've been scouring the property market for your dream house and it just isn't there. Is someone else living in it? Does it even exist at all?

With a median price of $681,000, the property market in Australia can be a pretty exhausting place to be. But you know what? The second part of your life really begins when you realise you don't have to buy a house - you can build one instead.

There are two ways to build a house in Australia. The first is called buying off the plan - the house framework is already designed, but you get to pick out the details and inclusions. The other option is to team up with an architect to build your home from what you're visualising in your head as realistically as possible.

Of course, one of the biggest advantages is the freedom to customise your home any way you want - it's truly one of the only ways to bring your dream home to life. You get to pick out the details of where rooms go, as well as what materials are used.

For many, moving into a new house requires renovations, costing thousands of dollars on top of the new house. This can add a little bit of value to the home, which will help should you ever go to resell, but they'd have to be the right renovations. However, if you do a good job on the build, your property could end up being worth more than you paid as soon as your finished - instant equity!

As far as building costs are concerned, you have more flexibility with the final price as you can add and reduce square metres based on your budget. The average cost of building a new home (excluding land) costs around $286,843, reported the HIA. This means (according to Canstar) that it's cheaper to build in many of Australia's biggest cities, including:

1. Sydney
2. Melbourne
3. Adelaide.

If this is your first house, you might also be eligible for the First Home Owners Grant - it's not just an option for already established homes. Finally, stamp duty works a little differently in that you only pay stamp duty on the land if you're building, according to Canstar. That could be a saving of thousands of dollars depending where you reside.

The average Australian household consumes about five megawatt hours of electricity per year, reported Energy Australia. That means you would have to plant around 25 trees and keep them alive for 30 years to offset just a single year of a house's electricity emissions.

When you're building a modern house that means you're implementing the more energy-efficient (and environmentally friendly) practices. From the latest housing materials and appliances through to the actual design of the house - which can be designed to make the house cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter, aka 'passive design' - you can save on energy and utilities bills down the road.