Browse Forums Building A New House 1 May 23, 2011 6:38 pm My husband and I are researching project home builders, including the biggest ones, in order to build in the next year or so in Bungendore, NSW (near the ACT). One of the big companies has two branches, one based in Sydney and the other in Canberra. We are looking at a particular one of their designs, which is essentially the same design different name). As it turns out, both branches build in Bungendore and have price lists for the area (due to proximity to both Canberra and Sydney). However, the base prices are ~$40,000 different! For the same house! The differences I can see is that the Sydney based branch includes air con, while the Canberra based branch includes ducted heating. Otherwise, the differences are miniscule, and if anything, there would be greater haulage costs from Sydney, which is the cheaper price. I am wondering if anyone has come across this issue before and/or what they did about it. We are going to speak with both branches about it but ultimately it makes more sense for us to choose the branch with the lower price. Incidentally, the Canberra branch doesn't seem to understand the NSW planning system so this isn't working in their favour either (I am a qualified and experienced town planner!). Re: Two different prices from same builders? 3May 23, 2011 9:07 pm Volume builders with a bigger volume in the Sydney maybe? Overheads and whatnot. Matt's Brando: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=46340 Started March 30th 2011 PCI July 15th Re: Two different prices from same builders? 4May 24, 2011 8:07 am It will be all the things mentioned above, as well as incorporating the cost of freight etc. For ings manufactured in Sydney or elsewhere, it bviously costs more to freight to Canberra. 'There is a difference in price between cities in just about every thing - petrol, food etc. Re: Two different prices from same builders? 5May 24, 2011 11:05 am Thanks for the replies! I guess the confusing thing is that the closer branch is the more expensive builder - I would have expected that the Sydney branch would have higher costs due to the travel involved for labour and the haulage involved for the gear. I expected that the Canberra branch would have access to local labour, products etc and therefore their price would be cheaper. Well, I'll update when I have heard what they say! I would have expected that for the Canberra branch to be competitive they would either match or beat the Sydney branch prices for local customers! Dealing with Sydney would be more of a pain for us despite the cheaper price just because we'd need to go to them for meetings I assume, which is a 2-3 hour drive for us. Re: Two different prices from same builders? 6May 24, 2011 4:08 pm Hi Mavisandjack My Partner and i are having the same predicament, in fact we have a block of land in Bungendore aswell and currently researching builders. We looked into custom building however we are finding the costs to be far outside our budget. We have sinced looked into project builders and finding them to be more reasonable, yet SO much dearer than their counterparts in Sydney and Illawarra. As you mentioned sometimes upto 50k+ cheaper. Whilst i understand that there may be added cost to get supplies from Sydney/Melbourne to Canberra, surely this does not add up to 50k in freight. Also a lot of the equipment would already be in the Canberra region and sourced locally, however i fear the large differential in prices starts from the suppliers charging builders more, who in turn charge us more. Unfortunately if you want to build a house, you just have to pay for it. Another interesting fact i came across researching a particular design from M'ton. I found their 2008 price list for our region and the house we are interested in, the list price was ~$229k, yet 3 years later the list price is ~$318k. Thats a $90k increase!!! for the same house. How can that be right???? Re: Two different prices from same builders? 7May 24, 2011 8:36 pm Thanks for the tip! I think we may be looking at the same builder you've mentioned there ... I'll be speaking to the Canberra branch soon (waiting for the block to settle), and asking them how they could charge up to 50k more for the same house ... and why we would choose them over the Sydney branch! Tradie may sit at home but will need to get house plastered as well or will you sit it out? 6 9974 yep you need a joint, foam is easiest, will look fine once rendered with a joint. 2 5241 Hi, have purchased a house with 2 single garage doors. The Centre pillar one side sits proud to the other. Can I change 2 doors into one. Please see picture. 0 6353 |