Fairhaven Homes: Building in Livingston Cranbourne

Hi All,

I am a planning to build my first home. Livingston in Cranbourne East is the estate that I have shortlisted.
I've been looking at a few builders for the last couple of weeks. Came across Fairhaven Homes. the online reviews have been very positive. However, those reviews are for the premium 'fairhaven range' & I am inclind towards their budget 'bridgewater range'.
if anyone has/is building something from the bridgewater range (clovelly,bronte,bondi plans), your feedback on the quality & extra costs would be appreciated.

Also, has anyone heard of 'Eight Homes'?? I could not find any online reviews for this builder.

Thanks

DCharger

http://www.8homes.com.au/

Thanks Ed.

But i've already checked their website & they fit my requirements. however, I would like to know if anyone has built with Eight Homes & how the quality & the experience has been.

Hi DC,

Sent you a pm regarding 8 homes

Thanks for the input James86.
It'll be good to get further updates from you.
Will keep you posted.

Good Luck..!!

Hi DCharger and James86...

I'm currently looking at building down that way also; I have done a walk through with the 8Homes consultant and was impressed as you most likely would be with anyone in that role... I too am a little bit worried as to who 8Homes are... what I do know is-

1) They have only been an active company for 6 months.
2) They are owned by Maher Corp?... inconnection with Urbanedge Homes (Who also have good reviews)
3) Backed by Master Builders.

That is pretty much it, please correct me if any of this information is incorrect... and also could you let me know what more you know about them, as I am yet to make my decision.

Cl1ck.

Hi Cl1ck,

You are correct on all 3 points. I have looked at 2 builders in-depth so far. Fairhaven & 8 Homes. Fairhaven & Urban Edge are both high end builders with homes starting from approx $190-$200K, however, to tap into the first home buyer market & recent slowdown in housing construction, they have come up with budget brands.
The difference is Fairhaven Budget Line is Bridgewater but still under Fairhaven, on the other hand, Urban Edge have taken a different route by creating a different brand all-together - 8 homes
The Prices of Both Fairhaven's Bridgewater Line & 8 Homes are in direct competition to each other.
Both are backed by the reputation of good builders with strong reputation.
The difference is - Fairhaven would allow you to customise the floorplans (only to a certain extent), 8 Homes wont let you alter the floorplan (from what I was told by the sales person.

In the end it's always a gamble - display homes are always constructed by the best contractors to the best standards, however, people go with a builder based on their reputation, build through existing customers reviews re the quality & user experience.
I would recommend checking the displays for fairhaven at casiana grove as well. check the reviews of fairhaven on the 'product review' website as well.
Depending on your budget, they do have their bridgewater range on display in Narre Warren & Warragul as well.
if you visit narre warren display centre, you might find the displays a bit boring. as those displays are without any furniture or any bells & whistles that you normally see at the display homes. That is good thing because it gives you a fair idea of what you would actually for the money - without any bells & whistles.

you might think i am advocating for fairhaven..dont..because I have visited all of their display centres in victoria - casiana grove, narre warren & even warragul.

I am also looking forward to fix an appointment with 8 homes to go through the base price inclusions as they wont provide me with an inclusions list without setting an appointment to go through the plan & inclusions for an hour or two.

oh btw - which estate are you looking at?

Thanks

DCharger (hope it's not too much for a friday.!!)

Hi DCharger,

Thank you for the prompt reply!

We are coming down on Sunday to look around at a number of Estates for land... we were keen on Cranbourne West's Ambrosia estate, but we have been currently scared to move to Cranbourne when we started looking into the 'Methane' incident that happened 4yrs ago... as we found that Methane can last up to 20yrs to disperse... so we are looking to be as far away as possible from ground zero, but still in the same area. The only other thing I'm not too big on is the block sizes, I feel 448sqm is too small for our house... it only gives us a 2meter backyard!... so i'm looking around for well priced larger blocks... 512sqm at least.

I've only just had my walk through done on the Seven.1 home and I was extremely suprised as to how little it cost to add beyond the inclusions, my partner and I chose a lot of upgrades yet it cost very little, Evap cooling being the most exp at $4,600 which isn't too bad... we didn't add the Alfresco ($7,500) or the gas fireplace ($5,500) as we will add them later, after market style.

We will go through some of the Fairhaven displays this weekend and some other brands too... we want to book an appointment with another builder just to see how their processes go.

Thank you for your information DCharger!.. maybe we'll end up being neighbors?!

Hi Cl1ck,

Hope you had a good weekend checking the estates around cranbourne.
And thanks for letting me know about the Landfill Issue as well. I wasn't aware of it..!!
We were down at Cranbourne on Saturday as well & looked at a few other estates as well - Casiana Grove, Alarah, Ambroisia & Quarters. But when I checked on the landfill gas leak issue, i realised that most of these estates are really close to the site. further issue with Quarters is that the area is too low - you can actually see the fall over to Quarters from Hall Rd. The height of the estate is 30-38 mts above sea level which is approx 10-20 mts less than the other estates (45-50 mts above sea level). This leaves the Quarters estate prone to potential flooding - Thompsons Road x Evans Road was flooded (temporarily) during this year's heavy rainfall & Cranbourne normally get above average rainfall as compared to metro melbourne.
As a result we might give 'West' a miss & focus towards 'East'.
So far Livingston has ticked a lot of boxes - bus outside the estate, Casey Indoor Recreation Centre across the road, Casey Fiels Sporting Complex 200m to the right, Sth Gippsland Hwy & Centro Cranbourne less than 1km on the left, etc.
Re the lot size, i understand that most estates' average lot size is 400-450sqm with a few 512's.
Only estate selling large blocks is Botanic Ridge (600-2000+sqm). but then again it's really close to brookland greens (methane leak issue site).
Don't know if you have kids, but we being a couple with no immediate plans of starting a family, we want to go for a medium maintenance house (20-25sqs @ 400-450sqm).
Trick to getting a backyard (4-5m+) is to go for a squarer house design. That's what i'm working on atm.
But in the end it's all individual choice & circumstances (family, kids, etc).
Oh & how did you go with your walkthrough @ fairhaven.??
Also, I'm looking at organising a walkthru with 8 homes, could you tell me what sort of escalation over base price am I looking at?

And Yes - we maybe future neighbours..!!

Regards

DCharger

8Homes is the budget line of Urbanedge Homes.

We're building in the Pasadena Estate which is just up the road from Livingstone and Casey RACE - but the address is Clyde. Worth checking out - it feels like it's going to be a nice place to live!

Hi there,
We're building next doors in ParksEdge

Just saying hi! How far away from completion are you?

x
Smiely.