Masterton - Westwood

Hello,
My land is 486sqm, georges river council. Our FSR is 0.55 and we just fit the Westwood 37.
We signed in march and have lodged to council, however council has come back so they are in the process of gathering the paperwork to re-lodge.

From tender price, our site costs did not change, but there are upgrades you will need to add on. We added approx 60k in total for upgrades (10k electrical, aircon 6k, tiles 14k, CCTV etc, kitchen stone, stacker doors).
There is a group on FB called Building with Masterton which you can join, its really helpful.

Are you on the building with Masterton Facebook group? There are a few of us in this group building the Westwood at a similar stage.

Yes i am

Hi all.
Could I ask how you are finding the process though Masterton so far?
We have found them to be quite elusive in regards to what is actually included in the ‘ultimate inclusions’ (ie: bricks, tiles, stone etc) We can’t even get a proper floor plan - can only have the brochure plan - from them even though they have completed a tender for us (mind boggling!!)
If you don’t mind me asking @ Tex088 - how did you know you would have approx 130K in upgrades prior to receiving your tender?

We are happy with masterton so far, everything seems to be moving alone ok( until lockdown but thats not they're fault)
We have our selections coming up bit will probably be postponed.

Our sales guy gave us a plan with hampton facade which we wanted on our first meeting not sure why they wouldn't do the same with yourself.

We visited dons tiles, accent carpets plus research online to get an idea what we liked and had a rough estimate of total price and added that to tender as a provisional allowance.

Hope that helps

I’m glad it’s going well for you! Wish we had your consultant! It sounds like it’s our sales consultant is playing hardball to get some $ out of us.

It’s not a great way for them to start. Unfortunately our site costs are quite high, so we would like to avoid changing the allowed finishes as much as possible. I don’t know why they think we would want to be locked in with minimal information and only 90 days to change things - crazy in this current environment!!!

Thanks for the heads up on dons tiles and accent carpets.
Hopefully our consultant stops hiding behind ‘company policy’ so we can start googling the ranges (bricks, stone, tapware, bathroom ware etc etc) during this current lockdown which will give us the best idea of where our build would be sitting at (looks and price wise)

Don’t suppose anyone would be willing to PM a list if they have one?

I still look forward to hearing updates about everyone’s builds regardless 🙂

Hi everyone,

Where is everyone on their timeline in building their new Westwood home ? We engaged first discussions with Masterton in June and now are about to sign the contract and pay deposit.

I was wondering was there any suprise costs that came after the contract. Sure there may be some changes you make for some upgrades but did anyone have any costs after contract was signed that they werent expecting ?

We are in the same position, signing and paying 5% deposit this week. The lockdown has us doing things a bit out of order though, I'm not expecting too many surprises the price went down a little once the site survey and soil sample had been completed, so I hope the other estimations are as accurate.

Hi Guys,
I am interested in Westwood as well and would like to know any surprise with contract price.

Hi Guys,
I am interested in Westwood as well and would like to know any surprise with contract price.

We haven’t started building yet our allowances, variations and site costs were about $100k over the base price, we haven’t gotten to kitchen or colours appt yet though.

Hello all,
Hello all,

We are starting our process with Masterton. Can I get some feedback on how the construction is progressing?

Tex088, how is your work progressing?

I mostly could find reviews back from 2016/17, when it wasn't as good but things could have changed/improved for better now.
There are challenges with any builder, I am more interested to know if there were more concerning stuffs (example, being responsive, delivering on what has been committed (not the timeline), but otherwise).

Also, if there is anyone in this forum who has already moved in, can you please share your experience.

Thanks in advance.

Masterton idk if due to Covid or industry wide issue but after signing the contract and paying the deposit. The process seems slow, people on the fb page say it could take up to 7 months from signing the contract to start building even through CDC. We paid our deposit on the 27th of september and in the 2 months they only managed to send us a post contract variation which itself did not address all the issues brought up. Quite frustrating and their communication is very minimal. Half the time you send emails and no response back.

We are similar, 5% deposit paid October 14, feels like things are moving slowly - I feel like a little more communication would be nice just a quick email - this week we have done this or done that even a your plans are here waiting for this they are swamped sorry for the delay would be better than wondering…

Agreed. Guess we just have no option than to be patient. I am doing a knowckodwn and rebuild and was hoping to be in the new home by christmas next year. Looking unlikely seeing the timeline of other builds.

We have approved plans and are waiting for construction plans, very close to starting.
Masterton have been good through pre construction especially with covid making some of the selection process a pain.
We are approaching 7 months in pre construction which seems pretty average with a lot of builders on other forums.
So far we haven't had any surprise costs, the sales people were upfront from the start.

Is the pre construction duration of 7 months from when the deposit was paid ?

Pre construction starts when the contract is signed.

We signed the tender (deposit) 20th March and contract 20th May

Hi everyone

How's everyone Westwood build going ?

We just signed our validation plans
Anyone get a price increase after this stage ?

We are about to be released to construction (should have happened a month ago but the rain delayed our demo) in the 20 day period after pre-construction is finished where they place all their orders.

No price increase on base only the variations for changes we made at colours etc appointments.

Did you spend much on upgrades?