Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Nov 18, 2010 4:32 pm Hi Folks, Long time lurker, first time poster here on H1Forum. Anywho, we're building next year in the new Fairview Estate in Mernda. We've just found out that settlement has been delayed (again) until May(ish) next year. In the meantime, we have picked our chosen house to build -> Lexington Q2. We've picked our colours, fitout, etc etc and just had our tender appointment. There was no mention of site costs / fixed site costs until the tender (Which we were surprised), but not as surprised as when we saw the cost -> $14k... Now I asked them where they pulled that price from.. They gave me the usual "Oh the head office work those things out". This is higher than I anticipated especially as they have no idea what the land is like..(Literally 300mm fall from corner to corner so is fairly flat). I have since asked the land estate and they have had prelimenary soil results saying it's in good condition and has all come back as standard "M" class slabs. She said no rock had been encountered and so far so good.. So... My dilemma, do I go with their fixed site cost?? Or do I bite the bullet and wait until it's time to build and home that there are minimal costs involved? Does anyone have a rough idea of what "cheap" / "easy" to work with site costs come to? Assuming there is little / no rock / problems.. What would one expect in terms of cost otherwise?? I noticed the fixed site costs include on nearly every line (If required). Hence why I think they are trying to screw me with the site costs without looking at it. Should I get an independant inspection done to verify / justify the cost? Any help would be appreciated! Thanks folks! Re: Building With Henley - Site Costs 2Nov 18, 2010 4:42 pm We built with Henley in Doreen. We paid $15k for fixed site costs. They hit a lot of rock (yay) hehehe. We're still hitting rock when we're digging doing the landscaping. It also covered the temp fencing which we needed after we had a broken window, and the crossover protection, all that etc... Yet, people 6 houses away from us built with them too and paid $5.5k in site costs which weren't fixed Re: Building With Henley - Site Costs 3Nov 18, 2010 5:05 pm [quote="Aaron & Erin"] Yet, people 6 houses away from us built with them too and paid $5.5k in site costs which weren't fixed /quote] Thanks for that info. Yeah that's what I'm trying to weigh up. Am I likely to be one of the lucky ones who has minimal site costs or just cough up the $14k and not worry about? I was hoping for costs around $7k.. As the extra $7k in site costs have chewed up our allowance for front driveway / landscaping / decking.. Re: Building With Henley - Site Costs 4Nov 18, 2010 5:09 pm Hi, I am also a new H1 member although I have been following builds here for months now including Erin's. I am building with Henley in an established suburb of Melbourne (Vermont) hoping for site to be scraped next week. Mine almost 20k and that is with a 3000 provisional cost for rock, so praying for no rock and a refund at the end. My site looks flat but we discovered that the fall is almost 2 metres so had to pay 6000 just for retaining walls than cut and fill and extra deep footings ect ect it just goes on and on. I hope no more unexpected costs as we are already way over budget. Re: Building With Henley - Site Costs 5Nov 28, 2010 9:40 pm hi maz78, congrats on ur build. we are building with henley and have our tender in 2weeks. we are crossing our fingers our site costs won't be too high. What did you guys decide to do? fix or not. We will be faced with this decision soon. Re: Building With Henley - Site Costs 6Nov 29, 2010 12:55 am when we did the pre-lim, we fixed the site cost at $12k, but when the tender came out, it was $15.5k and Henley's like oh really..umm..ah... hang-on...oh... because your house is much bigger now than the standard plan. Re: Building With Henley - Site Costs 7Nov 29, 2010 4:32 am We got ours fixed at $8.5k (Beveridge) and I think that's going to be a steal for us. We get our land in a few weeks, but I'm curious to see what the scrape and so on brings up, because we've already got rocks on our land and we haven't even done anything lol. That said we went and looked at the area while civil works were being conducted on the stage before us and saw there was a LOT of rock coming out of that ground so we just locked it. As Erin said it can change almost literally house to house, but, If you're able to get down to your block (or a stage near yours) while the roads/drainage are being constructed, I find you can generally get a good read on what's under your block so that will dictate a bit what type of costing area you'd be in Land Deposit - 18/12/2009 Became a land Baron - 21/12/2010 Site Start - 27/1/2011 All moved in!! Re: Building With Henley - Site Costs 8Nov 30, 2010 8:00 pm I just received my fixed site costs from Henley - $17700, but what i am really confused is why at the very next point there is an allowance for rock for $25000 - Shouldn't the fixed site cost cover this? I am confused. Re: Building With Henley - Site Costs 10Dec 22, 2010 11:49 pm Quote: Now I asked them where they pulled that price from.. They gave me the usual "Oh the head office work those things out". They''re very good at this. "The head office work it out. so it must be correct." When I showed them the price list from Cosham about tile upgrade to ensuite, bathroom and powder room: En-suite - cat 3 in lieu of cat 1. = $252 (charged $762), Bathroom -cat 3 in lieu of cat 1 = $120 (charged $470) powder - cat 3 in lieu of cat 1 =$10 (charged $120) The lady said those price are per square metre. Then I said, "ok can I have that cat 3 $10sqm tile in my ensuite instead. The lady walked out and came back again and said, "oh, that price list is from september, it's too old and the price is indicative only. And the head office work out those price. so it's correct". I decided to stop arguing with her and move on. So I got over charged nearly a grand. Re: Building With Henley - Site Costs 11Jun 16, 2014 1:17 pm Hi All, I'm building my house at Craigieburn highlands estate. Henley quoted me $16,000 for the site cost, I think this price is fairly high, Instead of the fixed site price is it wise to go ahead with variable site cost? Please advise how much would be the normal site cost at Highlands estate if you have built your first home? After the soil test, i have been asked to upgrade the slab to H2 and what would be the cost for upgrade? Thank you. I am not sure whether Perth has its own way of doing things in regards to this. Most of Perth has class A (sandy soil), except for some areas near rivers or hills. 2 13104 Is anyone building with Mojo and have a recent site cost tender 0 15954 Henley should give you some indication of site costs. Too many variable to give you any reasonable accuracy 1 1891 |