Gold Ruby Homes in Canberra. Any good?

I've been in my home for almost a year which was a home built by Gold Ruby Homes. I've know Matt for for over 10 years and he has been my go to guy with any questions I've had in relation to houses. The quality of home that Matt has built for myself and my other half is spectacular. His site manager Joel and offsider Tim provide a level service which goes above and beyond, and if you say Matt is a smooth talker, I think you may be confused as someone wanting to give you everything you want and to help in anyway he can could be considered as smooth, but it is actually genuine!

The cost for the build was well below what we would have gotten with any other builder without the level of inclusions and flexibility. Matt doesn't have display homes because any of the homes he has built, the owners are so happy and proud of what has been delivered they are welcoming to anyone wanting to see what can be done.

We have had quite a few people come through our place with Matt and I will tell you now I will build another house with Mat and his guys!

My home that has been built is a 4 bedroom 2bathroom beauty located in Harrison. You won't be disappointed with the work delivered and I am happy to talk to anyone who has any queries!

Good luck and happy building

Gold Ruby completed my house I Jacka a couple of months ago. I have absolutely no complaints. The process was streamlined with no problems. What I quite liked about working with Matt was that he would gently point out if he thought I am making a mistake with my choices, like tiling type and colors or even floor coverings in the bedrooms. I had to be cost conscious and he assisted me with advice to save as much money as possible, without compromising on the quality. AND THE PAINT!!! The walls were spray painted and the quality is fantastic! My kids make a mess and I simply spray and wipe, no lines ....perfectly clean. I do mosaic and now quite a bit about tiling. Not only did I observe while they installed, I checked the lines afterwards, absolutely perfect. Matt also picked up that the kitchen design could be better and I was able to change this before instillation. My oven and hob is not only quality but is cleans like a dream, once again Matts advice that helped with this one. I have no idea what glass they used for the showers but cleaning it is a breeze. I have experienced other builders....Bottom line, I will advise anyone to do business with GOLD RUBY!

I have built multiple homes through Goldruby and have always been very satisfied with the outcome. Dealing with Matt has been easy and straight forward at all times, with the quality of finish second to none.

Goldruby don't have a display home and are constantly building for clients that are referred. Matt and his team build over 50 homes a year - they must be doing something right!!

At any time, Matt will take you through homes under construction so you can see the quality, consistency and craftsmanship of his homes. In addition Matt is very flexible and able to accommodate your variations, inclusions and design a home perfect for your needs.

Go with Goldruby - you won't be disappointed!

We are currently building our 3rd house with Goldruby. When we built our first house we got quotes from builders who couldn't show us any of their work. Then I was introduced to Matt from Goldruby, he said they didn't have a display home but could drive us around and take us through houses they had built to show us the quality they produced. He even took us through houses that had people already moved in, they were so pleased with the house they had built that they said to Matt he could take any potential customers through their home.

Goldruby's quality is outstanding for the price they charge, none of the other builders were able to compete with Goldruby's price. We have had a lot of friends and family through our houses and they have all commented on how good the quality is and how good the workmanship has been.

We built a small 3 bedroom house first and made a good profit in only a couple of years that we were able to sell and build a 4 bedroom house for less than what we sold the 3 beddy for. Once the 2nd house was built it had already made money and we were able to use the equity to build our 3rd house as an investment property.

Matt has a great knowledge of the housing industry in Canberra and has guided us along the way in what blocks to look at purchasing and what inclusions can help make the house worth more money. Matt has also been accommodating to any request or change we have wanted to make. All the people that work for Goldruby are great blokes and very easy to deal with. I highly recommend building with Goldruby, we look forward to building more houses in the future with them.

Cheers
Ben

I have just finished a build with Gold Ruby. The only stressful thing about the whole project was me!! All their inclusions are above the basic standard and every contractor was really helpful as I have not built previously. They are so flexible and easy to work with. All the tradies and suppliers I dealt with commented on the quality of Gold Ruby's work and everyone spoke very highly of Matt in particular. To sum up my thoughts "Why would you build with anyone else?"

I have ended up with a very beautiful 4 bedroom home that draws comments from all my visitors on the quality of the workmanship and the finish. Particularly the painting.

The 10 last posts are 1 comment users raving about Gold Ruby Homes... made their 1 post and never posted again 8 months since. How's that a good sign?

Yeah, nothing sus there .

I personally haven't had much dealings with Gold Ruby and decided to go with another builder, but when speaking to the guy at the display home in Coombs... he seemed friendly enough, but I was turned off soon after.

He spent some time with me talking about house designs in general while we walked around the house, and then asked for my personal particulars to send me some designs based on what we talked about. I was thinking he would send me some of HIS designs however, not google search ones with American dimensions and labels ("grand room" etc).

As soon as I got those online examples, I knew he wasn't the builder for me.
Ultimately builder choice comes down to how comfortable you feel with them... not only from the first meeting, but with followups thereafter. If something rubs you up the wrong way in those early stages, cut your losses and move on. That's when builders are at their best behaviour. If they can't score 10/10 in those early stages easily, then time to move on.

There should be no questions or doubts when signing on with them or handing over any cash. I'd happyily give a free plug to Ren Homes here as they are the builders I ended up going with, but with only 1 post to my name as of this date (more to come as I'm legit), there's not a lot of weight you can put on this post either is there .

Looking for someone who has build with Goldruby homes recently and your feed back will be appreciated.

We built our home with Gold Ruby and would do it again in a heart beat.
Matt was contactable and available to suit our needs. Gold Ruby's quality of build is hard to find, including the inclusions. We have recommended Gold ruby and will continue to do so.

Rating: 3-Star

Our building project with Gold Ruby Homes was for a house and land package in Harrison.

I can’t comment on the final build quality of Gold Ruby homes, as we withdrew from the contract. The indications we did get when we inspected their in progress building projects on site with Matt, in 2016 prior to signing the contract, was that they did seem of quite a good standard.

We withdrew from the contract as the final completion date as stated in the contract had past and there wasn’t a slab. My wife and I were under time constraints, as we had just started a new family.

The timeline for our house and land package project:

• My wife and I met with Matt in mid 2016 and signed the contract to build with him in December 2016, for a place in Harrison.
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• As part of this process we met with Matt on a weekend (very accommodating of him) on a weekend to view three properties in the area that Gold Ruby had on the build at the time. They all looked pretty good and he showed the strength of the polystyrene external walls (with rendering) that his business uses. Apparently he doesn’t tell his employees when he is showing potential clients through a property and the building sites were in good order.
• We met with Matt and his preferred architect (after business hours) at the time to develop the plans for the house. A previous set of plans from a similar property was used as the starting point, given we got in early in the process we were able to request some changes to the plans prior to them being finalised.
• Matt did structure the contract so that we paid a deposit in advance and then no more payments until completion.

In February 2017 we gave permission to release funds from the deposit

• As part of the signing of the contract we paid a 10 per cent deposit of the final price, to be held in a trust account until the completion of the contract.
• Matt requested that we release half of the deposit (~$30k) to his business, to assist with progressing the paperwork (I assume paying the fees etc to ACTPLA).
• The deposit that was released was paid back, with interest, after was cancelled the contract. More on this later on.
• If any builder requests you to release funds from the deposit, I would not recommend you do it. As the client, you don’t need to open yourself up to this kind of risk. Your conveyancing lawyer will advise against it as well. Our lawyers did advise against it, but Matt told us they would say this and to proceed anyway. Why Matt’s business doesn’t have available liquid/cash assets (above the cash required to pay employees and other operating expenses) I don’t know. Though I don’t know if this a reasonable thing for a builder to.

The paperwork with ACTPLA was finally approved in November 2017

• During 2016-17 the ACTPLA median days to make a decision ranged from 30 to 55 days. You can check ACTPLA performance here. Though that just covers the development application, as separate Building Approval is required from ACTPLA on top of that.
• Our case was clearly longer than that.
• I did attempt to check the status of the application with ACTPLA directly, but I was unable to.
• The notice of development application was posted at the site on 3 April 2017 and written representations (e.g. objections from the neighbours) closed 26 April 2017.

Then we hit Christmas 2017 and the shutdown period.

• Given the final approvals didn’t come through until November, I appreciate that is getting too late in the year to start the project and then people are away in early January.

Preparing the site for the slab (March 2018 )

• By the end of March 2018 the site had been prepared, with plumbing and wiring in the ground, for the slab to be poured.

April to June/early July 2018 - waiting for the slab

• Matt advised that it was much more difficult to get finance from the bank he used (Westpac) at the time, which was required to fund the build to completion.
• To be fair, this was around the time of the banking royal commission and the banks did tighten up on lending (we experience it for our loan application post July).
• The bank eventually did approve the loan for the build (around May), but on the condition that there is a slab on the site (so there is at least some asset/collateral on the block).
• The pour for the slab never eventuated prior to the cancellation of the contract. I believe it was a combination of issues, with scheduling the concretors, having cash available to pay for the concrete pour (ahead of the loan being released) and poor weather over some periods.
• We were verbally advised that Matt had secured some sub-contractor work to help fund the slab, plus the foreman (Jason) was looking at selling some properties (possibly other options as well) to fund the slab pour.
• For the first time in 2018 I spoke to the foreman Jason (he was very difficult to get hold of - often had to ask him questions via Matt) on 7 Jun 2018. The advice from the foreman was, so long as the slab could be poured and finished by early to mid July, then they should be able to finish the build in October (sounded like they would push the build given our wait to date).
• No further contact was received until 6 July 2018 (I attempted to make contact with Matt or Jason prior to this date), when the foreman (Jason) advised:
  Sorry, I will know an extact date this time next week.

July to October 2018 - withdrawal of contract

• We could have waited for a completion in October 2018, but with no slab poured and not even a date scheduled in early July we couldn’t wait any longer (as we needed a bigger house for our newborn daughter).
• Started the withdrawal of contract process on 10 July 2018 with the notice to the sellers solicitor (Gold Ruby’s lawyers) requiring they register the units plan by 25 July 2018 in accordance with the Contract.
• The notice that the Contracts are rescinded was issued on 26 July 2018.

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• Gold Ruby Homes was charged interest from around this time until the settlement of the Ngunnawal property, which settled on 3 October 2018. Gold Ruby Homes needed the income from that property sale to pay our released deposit and interest (~$250) amount to us, which was received shortly after the settlement date.

Note:
Gold Ruby homes was in a 2016 Canberra Times article.


Summary:
I am sure Matt and his people build good quality homes, nothing with our interactions suggested otherwise. However, we were on a deadline for when we could move in but he could not deliver a house (nor a slab) by the contracted completion date. Yes, there were some external factors influencing his ability to progress the build (e.g. the banking royal commission and tightening credit at the time). However, I believe it all can’t be down to external factors (at least to pour the slab by the end of June 2018 ).


Suggestions:

• If you are on a firm deadline that you need a new house built, consider if you should be building a new house (this goes for any builder).
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• In hindsight, we should have taken this advice.
• If you do decide to build, but you need it built by a certain time work back three to seven months (90 to 190 days) and make that your deadline for a slab to be poured and building progress to be underway (depending on the type of house being built). If those conditions are met, without a reasonable explanation, then consider withdrawing the contract.

If after adding in the additional inclusions you want in the build, the final contract price with Gold Ruby Homes isn’t a rounded to a thousand figure. Then add an additional amount into one of the inclusions (e.g. kitchen) to round it up to a thousand figure. Just makes it easier calculating deposit amounts etc in future (we should have done this).

For the kitchen allowance, we found that the figure provided to us wasn’t enough to cover the kitchen quote from the preferred supplier. It wasn’t a problem, as we were under in some other allowances. Maybe consider increasing the kitchen allowance by $5,000 or so, to provide that extra buffer.

For any verbal building status updates that you receive, maybe consider keeping your own log of the key information that was provided and when (this goes for any builder).

Clarify with Gold Ruby Homes how the build will be financed to completion. If it is via a loan, have they had any issues with getting a loan from their bank recently? What conditions are there usually on the loan (e.g. does the slab need to be poured before the loan will be released)?

Don’t release funds from your deposit that is held in trust (this goes for any builder), if asked. You don’t need to take on that risk as the client.

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Goldruby never had a display home so looks like your full of BS. They prided themselves on showing home they were building for others and they said they didn’t need a display home because of the quality. So as for you meeting him at the display I Coombs, they never had one. I recommend Goldruby hands down quality and service and competitive on price. Do yourself a favour and go speak with them yourself.
Don’t listen to a person who has never built with goldruby and then pushes an unknown builder. Goldruby has been around a long time and they have build close to 1000 homes.
You can’t beat the experience!

My friends have been dealing with them for a couple of years now and after using covid as a excuse for no work being done, they then said they were waiting for council approval also the materials had increased and another $70000 was needed. After 2 years its still a vacant block of land, despite actually gaining council approval since October 2021 but telling my friends they haven't got it yet. I guess if my friends get there money back which they are finding hard to do at the moment, it won't be a totall lose. You make your own decision but please be careful with this builder

Hello. Did they eventually started the build?