Site Costs

We're planning for our first build - so zero experience whatsoever in this. Appreciate all your inputs if you could please.

We have a lot with approximately 250mm fall. Builders that I contacted said it's good and within 'building criteria'.

Now, one of the builders' inclusion brochure, it says

"All site and specifications taken care of for you: building allotment of up to 650 square metres. “M” Class waffle pod slab. Connection to standard sewer and storm water connection points within the building allotment. Includes Part A Termite treatment. A maximum of 300mm fall over building area, a maximum of 12lm of underground single phase power and a maximum setback of 5m to house. Excludes rock removal, telephone service and consumer account opening fees."

But they quoted fixed site costs of $15,000 on top of their advertised building price for a particular design. My understanding is it's already covered by the inclusion, except for the rocks part.. Am i missing something? What would the $15k possibly for? A little bit lost..

Hi Kidlat
You might want to follow this post here
Signed the contract expecting...now I am getting...(Ouch)

You prob won't know exactly until you actually pay for soil tests etc

It's likely because your soil isn't M class. Depends on where you are located, Victoria is typically H1 or H2. If the builder is willing to quote a fixed price they've either done soil tests or know enough about the area to do so without soil tests.

Hi Kidlat,
All house prices you see advertised are for the house only and do not include things like site works, OH&S, etc.
For example, we're building the Carlisle Homes - Radison 35 which is $290k however on top of that is $30k is site costs and $22k in OH&S. Add to that a garage extension, butlers pantry, refridgerated A/C and a few other changes here and there, we're not at $390k for the "house" build. Note that excludes adriveway, new cross over, correction of old cross over, letterbox, power pit, fences, gates, etc. so my real cost for the house is closer to the $460k on top of the cost to buy the property and demo the existing house.
Who/ what are you building with and where?
Cheers, Chris.

I see.. One builder is quoting fixed site costs, another is quoting provisional site costs up to H2 class, both $15k.. I guess with the provisional, I can get credits if the soil test comes back as M class, right?

This is in Manor Lakes VIC by the way.

That is right, but it's unlikely that it will be M. Talk to people in your area and see what their soil is and what they are paying. The builder will usually make sure they come out in front with fixed but with that said 15k fixed sounds pretty good to me. I'm in Geelong we had a provisional of 14k which I was mentally thinking would go up, I was hoping for under 20k, ended up with screw piles and 31k.

It's in Manor Lakes VIC.. Deciding between Henley and JG King, both have site inclusions of upto M class waffle pod slab. I guess the $15k quote is if the soil is classed higher, H1 or H2.. So I just hope test comes back as M.

Wow.. doubled up the original provisional cost. Did you have the option to fix the costs at the beginning?

If you are building in the North or West of Melbourne chances are your soil will be H2 or H1 at best. If there are rocks in your area or your block has fill or easements(you should be able to find this out from your developer) this will push your site costs up. I am building in Melbourne's north, Carlilse quoted 15,000 fixed, Fairhaven and PD were $18,000 and Henley was $7,000. My block has less than 300mm of fall, no fill, H2 soil, and no easements. Henley have built a lot of properties in my estate. The danger is if you don't fix and they hit rocks or lots of fill you will have to pay a lot more.

No option for fixed cost, new estate, lots of controlled fill, they wouldn't even consider it. We made peace with what we paid in the end, we feel we got a lot for our money compared to many in our estate.

Only $7000 for a H2 soil - I would say that was a good price. My lot has 2m easement from the back boundary, but it has 34m in length, so I don't think the easement will greatly affect the site preparation for a double storey house. And based on my conversation with the developer, the tests generally came out as H class but nothing extreme.

I guess I just have to make peace on $15k site costs - it is what it is.

Good luck.

Our soil test and back P class, problem. We are in Chelsea, think there is fill and they have to go down 1.6 metres for stumps, only 1 metre allowed for in proposal so have to wait for engineering report to find out additional costs, not sure what site costs are included in the proposal price.

Just hope it doesn't exceed our budget!

P class - that's unfortunate. Is it on the beach side of the Nepean highway? I'm renting in Bonbeach, but moving to West as we want to have a new build house. Just couldn't afford a KDR in this area.

No not beach side, we are about 2kms from the beach. Trying not to get worried as I don't really understand what it all means but my gut feeling is it doesn't sound good. Sigh

Are you doing a Knock-Down-Rebuild (KDR) or building on a vacant lot? Well, I really hope it doesn't exceed your budget!

KDR, starting to think this perhaps wasn't the best idea. Have to wait up to 5 weeks for site cost estimates now

So we have got our fixed site costs quote:

Foundations and footings 15300
Council OHS 2600
BAL 4000
Re-establishment survey 900

22,800. Sigh. For a 260mm fall, possibly H1.

At least they are fixed? All adds up though. Will you still be building? Good luck

Yes all fixed, except for the BAL I think, as explained by SC if by building start the BAL requirement is lifted they will credit it back..

Will still build, just need to manage $$ and put all of them together under our budget. Compromise.