Gold Coast home - second build - volume or smaller builder?

Hi everyone! 😊

I've just joined this forum again as we'e already built once years ago, but this time we want to get it 100% right!

We are on the Gold Coast and looking to build our forever home, and we have some pretty specific needs. We have a tight-ish budget, and as we all know, property prices are wack right now. 🤯

I've had a look at some designs that I think would suit our needs with some hefty modifications to certain areas. The Valetta 43 by Plantation is our front runner right now in terms of all the space we need and all the luxuries we would like, but we also like the Sahara 43 and Emperor 42. It's an approx. 400m2 house for around $400k including basic upgrades. We're hoping that after site costs (I can't remember if this is included in the build price? 🤔) and necessary space changes (and hoping to add in a kitchenette to a self contained space along with those changes) landscaping and a pool, we'd spend no more than $450,000. Am I dreaming, or is this realistic? 🤞

Even though this will be our second build, I've forgotten SO much! 😅My main questions right now, because we only have experience with volume builders: is it more cost effective to build with smaller builders rather than volume, or is it more expensive? Is it worth exploring smaller companies? Will they be open to working with a floorplan that we've seen elsewhere but with massive changes? Does anyone have recommendations for Gold Coast builders?

How else can we save so we can meet our budget, and which things should we do outside of the build (or afterwards), are things such as flooring, air con, driveway, staircase cheaper to get done by outside companies?

Land is another issue; we haven't found anything in our budget as yet, we're looking for something minimum 600m2 and within 45 mins from Surfers Paradise. Does anyone have any tips on how to snatch up great land?

Sorry for the question intensive first post, I'm super excited for this build, but working with such a restricted budget is starting to kill my dreams and I need some hope! 🤣 We're still even miles away from having a deposit saved up as we'd like to put down 20% this time to avoid MLI. We're butting heads about whether to sell our other house to afford the new build or keep it as an investment; selling it would give us a massive head start on the deposit, but keeping it will reap rewards in 25 years when it's paid off. 🙄

Thanks for reading! 🙏🏻

Before anything else, seriously consider having a wind zone C design. Zone B just won't cut it in years to come where you will be building.

Hi! Oh, thanks for the tip! 😊I have no idea what that means, but I'll definitely research it! LOL

Without having a land you are already looking at house designs? I think you get too excited there. Land will have so much impact on the house you can build. Orientation, setbacks, overlays etc can change everything you had in mind. If it's a difficult land, not many volume builders will be willing to build. You might end up with custom/boutique builders anyway.

Volume builders prices rarely include site costs. Soil conditions, traffic controls, cranes etc will all impact your site cost. I'm in VIC. I don't imagine QLD being much cheaper. $400 for the house, $50 for site cost and landscaping...I think you are dreaming.

I'd recommend that you secure a land first before engaging any builders. Otherwise when they ask you where they are going to build, what do you answer?

Wife and I are building our first home that should be starting soon north of Brisbane and we are looking at ~$460k for 290sqm2 through a custom builder ready to move in. No landscaping or fencing though just the driveway.

So for 400sqm2 add another $100-150k.

Thank you! 😊That helps us get an idea!




Wow. Thanks. 🤣 Like I mentioned, this isn't our first rodeo, and of course we have looked around at land prices and have a pretty good idea of the range that's within our budget. We haven't even decided on the house plan yet, we are in such preliminary stages of research. But you have to start somewhere, right? 😊Don't worry, we're not going to a builder without land first. LOL
With everyone moving from VIC and NSW to QLD, it's driven the property market up massively; it's probably comparable to VIC and NSW now, but compared to QLD 2 years ago (and definitely since the last time we built), prices have gone up a lot.

In my opinion, find an ideal land is much harder than finding a suitable builder/design. All I'm trying to say is that try not to restrict yourself to a particular builder or design. When a land is utilized well, value improves.

I'm doing a knockdown n rebuild. I went through similar things as you. I looked at all volume builders and their plans. I fell in love with some and almost paid deposit. Then I calmed myself down and looked at the drawbacks on my land. I ended up using a draft person to draw a plan to utilize the land with the only house elements I need. It was perfect. Then I went with an independent builder. So far so good.

When I was looking at volume builders, house sizes varied around 35SQ-40SQ. Their base prices were all around $380k-$420k. But with upgrades and estimated site costs added, they were all just below $600k mark.

In my opinion, volume builders $1500/sq is reasonable, this should include site costs. For a boutique/custom builder, it would start around $2000/sq. Mine is at $2200 mark, but that includes all site costs and basic landscaping.

Hope that helps.

Pretty much everything Jason526 mentions agrees with what i've experienced building my house.

I'm building my first house (knock down rebuild) with one of the volume builders and it's been a pretty average journey thus far (just poured slab). As far as site costs go mine were just over 40k, they had estimated 15k in the quote. There were lots of things in the quote that were undercooked but by the time they were realized i was a fair way down the path and to be honest the costs are the costs, it was the deceptive way it was initially sold to me that annoyed (livid better describes it). I think it really depends on the sales person you get and i was a novice.

My house will be 40sq and will cost exactly $1500/sqm and that's with moderate upgrades but excluding driveway/landscaping etc. The other issue i'm having, which you've pointed out is the crazy housing market at the moment, i started this journey last July and have only just had the slab poured.

I started my journey getting excited looking at display homes and fell in love with quite a few all with different volume builders. While looking at these i found my land and once that settled i narrowed it down to my top three which just happened to be with the three top builders. Each had totally different promotions so the best way i found to compare was to get prices for each spec'ed up the same way (taking into account promos) and work out the $/sqm. As it turned out they all came out pretty close.

Good luck!