Anyone building with Firstyle Homes? Let's connect

Hi Koffeetime,

I paid for the 2k deposit & got the tender. We're abit scared as we don't know how this construction sector has been going recently. How did you go with yours? Did you encounter any issues?

Hey koffeetime,

I see. Seems like we had a much different experience with them. I really felt the difference regarding their customer service. In the beginning (during enquiries) they are so friendly, nice, patient & accommodating. Still sounded nice after putting in the $2K deposit. However, everything changed after the $15.4K planning & admin fee was deposited.

It was kind of stressful when no one knew what was happening with ours. I had to rock up to the display home to ask about our preliminary plans. The sales person wasn't happy when I went & said appointment must be booked before coming in, but when I tried contacting them there was no response.

We had a long delay in getting the building contract & literally only got a few hours before we had to sign it. We couldn't get out of the contract because we already paid for the land & we were told that we'd lose all of our deposits including the land if we decide to back out.

Just wondering about how you went with colours & electricals? Do you by any chance have some of the price lists for them? We had to ask for some of the info about colours but they didn't give much info just some brochures about bricks, roof tiles & some ceasarstone but no price guides.

It's going well so far. We got in touch with a few people who have already finished their build and know someone who is going to build next street to ours. Did you have any specific questions you needed help with?

1. Were there any notable delays from the builder, apart from the usual ones like council and finance approvals?

There weren't much delays for us. If I had to recall, we had to wait about 5-6 weeks for our variations quote to come through. There were some delays from the bank and mortgage broker side, but nothing big from firstyle. We went through CDC, so it was pretty quick on the council vs CDC front.


2. Regarding the BASIX costs, which can be quite high, were you provided with transparent charges? Did they reach the upper limit?

We were shocked by our site costs, as it looks like our land has some kinda water body underneath it and they had to have more piers or something. Basix etc wasn't huge but also, we did sign when having a Basix rating below 7 was acceptable, early this year.

3. Did you experience any additional site costs beyond the standard estimate, and was the builder transparent about them?

As mentioned above, our site costs were about 35k plus, we didn't expect that much. We were thinking about 20k or so. Looking at my other post, I asked if that cost was ok/reasonable. It turned out it was ok.

We are almost close to stage 4 of our build, I haven't seen anything extra come through after the fixed price contract was signed. Welcome to Gables, and I hope you find a good builder to build your home.

Which street are you in?

Ours is in Empire Drive

Hi, what Basix Costs? i thought all these home prices include Basix? what would they charge for?

Compared to Box Hill display village Grantham, we have changed the floor plan a bit. We have our butlers pantry, laundry towards the rear of the house like Montara model. The total floor size was about 40.7sqm and it is costing us close to almost $700k.

Above cost doesn't include downlights in first floor, security camera system, additional wall lights wiring work, WIR for master etc. We also signed this in Dec 2022. So prices may have increased since then.

Electricals works outside is costing us additional of 12k.
Carpenter work is 11.5k.

12 months since the construction began or since you signed the contract?

Richard is our site supervisor. The finish date as per the contract is 7 June, but the kitchen company they were using went into liquidation last month. They have revised our contract to 26th June.

Have you escalated with them already?

We have escalated a few times, our build progress was bad between brick stage and pre-lining/lining stage (stage 3 and stage 4). We kept escalating and the project is almost on track except the kitchen stuff.

Our understanding was Firstyle had onboarded a couple of new kitchen companies and were working with them to deliver projects on time. I am not sure if your build was affected with the kitchen company liquidation or not, best is to check with them.

Let me know if you need any other details.

Hi 👋🏼
My partner and I starting our house with Firstyle in Vineyard.
All seems to be going well.
Quick question regarding the internal colour appointment - did you choose your tiles during the appointment?
Also, which company provides the tiles?
We were wanting to have a look at the options available before our appointment.
Thanking you in advance for your reply! 😊