Henley/Plantation/MainVue Homes - General Discussion

Hi everyone,

I have noticed that there is no general discussion thread on Henley or Plantation or MainVue homes.

It would be useful where anyone can discuss and ask general questions instead of a particular house design.

Feel free to ask any Henley / Plantation / MainVue homes here.

All tips and advises from our experienced members are most welcome.

I'll start with some tips based on our limited experience so far:

1. Please ask your sales person to give you a walk through tour to the house you are interested in. Please confirm every possible item inclusion you can think of.

TIP: Try to haggle and negotiate during this phase with sales person. Remember verbal means nothing. Everything has to be in writing.

2. Request a quote. Try to get site cost fixed. it might not be possible in all cases but won't hurt to check with Henley.

3. Ask your sales person to book introduction tour to Cosham. It's colours and materials selection centre.

4. Try to visit Cosham at least 4-5 times.

5. Pls don't forget to request Cosham staff to provide you pricing booklet for the house you are after. These booklets are very helpful and will answer most of pricing related answers for you. Best part is that this booklet would have all prices specific to your house and not just general guideline.

6. If you are going for flooring with Henley, it's better to visit Cosham couple of times just for tiles, floorboards, and carpets. We found it most time consuming part during selection.

7. In Cosham, don't forget to check Colour Selection Boards. I think there are 6 of them. If you will like one of these boards, it will save you money and time. These boards offer bricks, tiles, and mortar from higher category without any extra cost. Also saves you from confusion of how it'll look at the end.

8. You will find enough variety of materials selection within standard range. No need to upgrade unless you really want to spend extra. TBH we found even upgrades very reasonably priced.

9. If you are after a complicated electrical setup, please request a separate electrical appointment, beside colours & material selection appointment. No one told us about this.

10. You'll have professional help from Cosham staff during your colours and material selection appointment. No need to be panic.

11. Tender appointment was great. We dealt with one very experienced staff member who answered all questions, pricing, changes right at the spot. You should receive tender documents in advance too, pls go through them and note down any questions and concerns you have. Also expect some extra costs here on top of your sales quote.

12. You should receive your complete documents set in post few days in advance for Contract appointment. It's best to go through this as many times as you can. But no need to be panic. Your contract presenter will take you through most of these documents.

Cosham Gallary:


Bricks range:

Category 1:
Austral Bricks

Access chestnut
Access cream
Access ruby
Homestead buff
Homestead red
Homestead red gum

Category 2
Austral bricks

Access fawn
Access Ash
Homestead tan
Homestead black wood
Harvest buckwheat
Harvest linseed
Harvest cotton

Category 3
Austral bricks

Settlers Parchment

Category 4
Austral bricks

Melbourne hawksburn
Melbourne hawthorn
Canterbury
Auburn

Category 8
Austral bricks

Yarra parkville
Yarra Richmond

Category 9
Austral bricks

Elements graphite

Category 10
Austral bricks

Elements zinc





















Fixtures

















































Few splash back colours







Carpet underplays

Category 1



Category 2



Category 3

Don't assume anything !!!! If you see the display houses - don't assume this is what you get. Much of it may be upgrades.

Any base price can increase quite a bit the minute you start to talk change. I'd estimate 50% is a good point to think about.

AND - really think about everything before signing. Check your plans thoroughly, think about electrical needs. Look at the bathrooms and toilets - are they what you want.

Plans are not easy to "read" by all - so blow them up and look at them room by room. The layout - design - inclusions etc.

Write down your thoughts AND ask questions. Get any advice and answers in writing - eg email.

Take your time - DO NOT rush into anything. A day or even a week at the start might mean a happier buy and conclusion.

I'd like to point out that if with Plantation Homes the electrical is done separately by Your Home Consulting, who will ring and book you in for an appointment after contract signing (we are at present waiting on this stage).

ahh plantation homes.

They are not cheap.... but their display homes are nice

Crystal gloss doors cost us $45 per door using theid standard range.

Concreting to alfresco, porch were standard only driveway was additional which is costing us about $3750 or something.

If you are having tiles between benchtop to mirror then double check ur drawings for the height in between that area. As we are both short we moved the height down so we could make better use of the mirror.

if you are thinking of doing a walk in robe fitout it's cheaper after hand over but you can request Henley to leave the robe as a shell and do not forget to get your credit back- learnt the hard way ourselves.

No - as I said - adding 50% to the base price is a good indication ...

how important are the carpet underlays?
i don't think i even picked it, i just chose the most basic carpet for our build.

Yes, I'd say the same. I've built with both Henley and Mainvue and added 100k+ each time. Darn my love of eaves, high ceilings and timber windows.

Prices are up but nothing much on special from Henley in Victoria ATM.

Not sure if they are pre-booked for coming months or it's norm for winters.

There is a new promotion going to start from tomorrow, stay tuned with local sales specialist.

Source: email from henley

$4624.00 to upgrade kitchen appliances from technika to Bosch (rangehood, cooktop, double wall oven and dishwasher). Is this a fair price?

Depends on Bosch range. If ovens are triple glazed with pirocleaning, then it's a good deal but for lower range Bosch it's bit excessive.

I better take it then, it has quadruple glazed with pyrocleaning and more. but that's after refund for our standard range. checked them online as well.

would you mind asking where did you find details of this promotion? could not find on Henley's website.

there is a major price drop in Henley houses:

http://www.henley.com.au/clendonvale-pricing

Sahara Q3 dropped by $32,000

The upgrades are not part of the promotion, just me upgrading my appliances

Wow they have dropped their peices quite significantly for some designs! The one I really like palace is down $23k lol I wonder why this is the case? It went up not long ago!

i reckon they were keep pushing prices up for last one year and market didn't respond that well.

other builders did not increased their prices that much.

our Sahara Q1 is down by $22k, which makes sense now according to our bank valuation.