Buying a house was "the best money" Kristen Peska has ever spent.
But not that kind of house.
She is talking about the $5000 cubby she purchased for her two-year-old daughter Leilani.
It has a Colorbond roof, deck, white-picket fence, mailbox, slippery dip and hot pink telescope.
Leilani likes to play in the cubby with her dolls and cousins, three-year-old Aria and five-year-old Tiahn.
"It's probably the best money I have ever spent," Ms Peska said, adding Leilani spends time in the playhouse every day.
"They're playing in it for hours, and they don't want to come inside. My little one especially, she'll cry when she has to come inside.
"It's not only a cubby, but it's an extra room too. So it's just fantastic."
Ms Peska bought a kit online, and then got her brother Jason Peska to install it as he landscaped her Kambah backyard.
Mr Peska, who owns residential construction business Construkt Building, built a custom cubby for his two daughters with lights, plasterboard and a pergola.
"It was a bit next level, over the top," he said.
"It's so important to the kids, they absolutely love it. It's somewhere to play, their own little sanctuary ... a mini version of their own house and a little space that they can make their own."
After posting images of the cubby online, he received an influx of requests from Canberra parents.
"We've had a lot of people approached us about custom making them [but] it's really not worth paying what we'd have to charge.
"You're paying double [for a custom one]."
Home by Holly real estate agent Cris O'Brien sold a house in late 2022 with a decked-out cubby.
It had a rock-climbing wall, slippery dip, "home theatre" TV, deck and underground storage.
"They live in a house that it's more of a courtyard home and had three small children," she said.
"They made a COVID project for the family to build this little cubby house just to provide an extra playing space.
She said more parents may have invested in the structures because of COVID-19.
"I think probably during lockdown, people were trying to work out ways to utilise their spaces that they had at home."
Ms O'Brien said permanent cubby house structures would not necessarily add value to a home.
"I would think that in some cases, it could potentially add desirability, so if [buyers are] deciding between one house or another," she said.
"But I suppose it depends on ... who the market might actually be that will be interested in that property.
"Sometimes people do things that are quite permanent and difficult to remove."
Mr Peska said the best value cubbies are online kits.
His sister bought Leilani's playhouse from Victorian company Cubby Central.
"It all comes flat pack, and it gets bolted together, and it's a great overall product," Mr Peska said.
"They've gotta go through pretty rigorous, safety things to be able to sell a kit like that, I'd say."
A well-built cubby house could last a decade, Mr Peska said.
"The biggest thing is the actual material that it's made out of, so make sure it uses external grade timber," he said.
"Being treated pine, for instance, is probably the biggest thing.
"A kid can play with that for ten years. But if you don't buy cubby houses made from the right materials, it won't last long."
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