Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Jun 22, 2014 2:15 am Hi all, New to this forum, and never build a house before. My wife and I consider to buy a home land package at Oran Park and decide to go with either New Living Homes or Eden Brae. On their website NLH mentioned that it is the "budget" division of masterton group. We visit their display home at Spring Farm and surprised how basic their display home is compared to the rest of the builders there. This make us very skeptical in using this builder. Their house prices definitely are not the cheapest, but we don't have any comparison on how standard package house will look like from Eden Brae. What we like about NLH display home is that we knew more or less what we gonna get with standard packages, while with Eden Brae, their display homes are ramped up so much that it might shock us to see our standard house once built. Did anyone has experience with NLH? I know lots of people had a good experience with Masterton, but I can't find any review about NLH. The sales reps at Spring Farms are very helpful, but I need to know how's their build quality and if anyone had good/bad experience with them in the past. Re: New Living Homes builder by Masterton 2Jun 22, 2014 11:14 am I am also building with new living homes. We are waiting for our land to register at spring farm so have not started construction yet but one of our main driving factors in going with NLH was that their display home was what we get minus the downlights (I'm an electrician so no worries there). My mate is building with eden brae and his partner and him fell in love with their display home but were in shock after hearing how much extra money it will take to actually make theirs look like that. Go to some display homes and ask them how much the standard is and how much the display home costs. You may find your answer there. I know I went to one builder at the hermitage display homes and they told me the standard for one home was $170 000 but if we wanted it to look exactly like the display home it was roughly $280 000. So there is a massive difference. In terms of build quality, we had a family friend who finished building with NLH about 6 months ago at harrington park and their home looks amazing. Great build quality and very happy with the service provided. Hope this helps. Re: New Living Homes builder by Masterton 3Jun 22, 2014 11:41 am Hi Ebs, thanks for the opinion. I'm leaning toward building the house with NLH too. My first impression was, they're an honest builder and very helpful, especially as I don't have any experience at all in building new house. For the pricing, my home&land package costs me about $560k and the land costs about $280k. When you said the display home at Hermitage cost roughly $280k, that would be the price I paid to NLH for a standard home. Did I get ripped off, or are there any extras on top of house prices displayed on the price lists? I saw house prices on other builders too, and most of them listed prices around $200k for similar house to what I planned to built with NLH. Unfortunately I don't have my own land, so I'm kinda stuck with home&land packages Re: New Living Homes builder by Masterton 4Jun 22, 2014 1:19 pm Hi, after reading my post to my wife she corrected me, the house I mentioned wasn't at the hermitage, she thinks it was one at either dapto or east village (spring farm). But anyway the house I mentioned was very very small and in my opinion of poor quality materials. I was only making the point that display homes for some builders give you a false impression of what you will receive with the standard home.
And $280 000 for the standard new living house seems reasonable. I'm paying $255 000 but have upgraded a fair few things which has increased that price to $270 000. I have spoken to many people and from what they tell me, NLH are very reasonable with their prices for upgrades. Re: New Living Homes builder by Masterton 5Jun 22, 2014 4:43 pm That's a relief. I thought we got the house overpriced. I realised too that the upgrades prices are very reasonable, and the sales reps are not trying to upsell the house as much as they could. Can't wait for the registration of the land by end of this year. Good luck with your build Re: New Living Homes builder by Masterton 7Jun 22, 2014 6:47 pm And also, sorry for not mentioning this earlier. When you go to a builder at a display home and ask them how much the house is, that price is including the house only! So when I said the house was $170 000 but the display home was $280 000 approx with every single upgrade they put on it. that price is the house only. But your price of $280 000 that you have for your house is part of a home and land package which includes not only the price of the house but the site costs, council requirements, essentials package (if your going with that) etc. So to break my package down. My house and land package was $480 000 The land price was $225 000. So from that, you would say my house is costing me $255 000. That sounds expensive when you go to a display home of similar size and their price lists say that house only cost $190 000. But when your buying a home and land package, that $255 000 includes the site costs ($40 000), the council requirements ($20 000) and the included options ($20 000) and a few other things. So if I went in to new living and asked how much my house was only, it's around $165 000. Now that seems much more comparable to other builders price lists. Hope you understand how I explained that. I'm not very clear in my writing lol. Re: New Living Homes builder by Masterton 8Jun 22, 2014 7:41 pm Wow that was very clear explanation. Thanks a lot. It does make sense now why big builders like Eden Brae quote me much lower price for comparable house. After reading fine prints on Eden Brae pricelist it does actually says the price is not including site costs, council, electrical/water/gas connection, etc. I'm building Boronia 4 with Evolution facade, and planning to upgrade: Raise ceiling to either 2.6m or 2.7m Add rear garage door Add concrete area at the back of the garage for 3rd car park or car wash area If budget permits, we would like to upgrade: full tile bathroom, downlight throughout the house, sliding wardrobe, security door for the living room doors. We tried to resist temptation of upgrading everything . It is really hard!!! As this is our first house build, we need to keep extra attention to our budget as we're still inexperienced and probably can blow our budget without realising it. For now we're focusing on upgrade that will add values to the house. I hope this is the right step to take Re: New Living Homes builder by Masterton 9Jun 22, 2014 9:11 pm Well that's a relief haha. Was hoping I wasn't just talking in riddles. As for the upgrades, we didn't like the standard 2.4m ceiling height and we upgraded to 2.6 for roughly $4500. We also upgraded the bathroom and ensuite to floor to ceiling tiles for around $2000 (for both) I think. Other upgrades we made, which you may or may not have thought of are - bulkhead above kitchen cupboards (the standard gap will be a dust trap) - waterfall ends on the stone benchtop (meaning the stone goes all the way down the side to the floor) - additional water tap on front of the house - cavity sliding door to media room - upgrade kitchen cupboards to the new high gloss looking ones (look very modern and in my opinion will retain value much longer) - added an entire walk in pantry - moved the microwave from the under bench spot (will get quite annoying) to where the cupboard pantry used to be - added shower niches (cut out, void thing where your shampoo etc can sit incase you don't know) to both showers. - I deleted the standard built in bath as I will provide our own cool looking free standing bath There may be a few more but those are the ones I can think of. And also with you talking about upgrading to LED downlights throughout, just keep in mind you can save a lot of money doing this yourself after handover. I'm an electrician myself and some of the prices I've heard builders are charging is very high. I know at least 2 builders who charge at least $130 per LED downlight. You can source your own good quality ones for approximately $25. John R Turks were selling reasonable ones for $25 a couple of weeks ago. And you could find a sparky who will charge about $30-$40 per downlight to install. So your already saving a bit of money. If you need approximate prices I paid for my upgrades just PM me. Good luck! Re: New Living Homes builder by Masterton 12Apr 01, 2015 3:35 pm Hello Mvv, Our Sales Representatives will be able to help you with any questions you have. Thank you New Living Homes http://www.newlivinghomes.com.au http://www.facebook.com/newlivinghomes Call now 1300 366 766 Re: New Living Homes builder by Masterton 13Jan 17, 2016 7:48 am Hello All, I am building my house with New Living Homes. We signed a house and land package. My land will register around May. I have signed the building contract as well. I have few questions, can someone please help me as I have not go much clarity about them: 1. Where can I do all the colour selection both internal and external colours? 2. Where can I select my door style? What if I want to upgrade from standard? 3. Where can I select colour of bricks and roof tiles? 4. Where can I do my tile selection? 5. Where can I do my carpet selection for upgrades? 6. What if I would like to change my taps? Where can I get it done? 7. Where do I need to go for my electricals? Requesting your help in his regard who have built with NLH or are in process of building with NLH. Regards Deb Re: New Living Homes builder by Masterton 14Jan 18, 2016 7:49 am Hello Deb, Our Sales Representatives will be able to help you with any questions you have. Thank you _________________ New Living Homes http://www.newlivinghomes.com.au http://www.facebook.com/newlivinghomes Call now 1300 366 766 New Living Homes http://www.newlivinghomes.com.au http://www.facebook.com/newlivinghomes Call now 1300 366 766 Re: New Living Homes builder by Masterton 15May 15, 2016 3:09 pm Hi I have made the deposit for an ivy 4 at heritage heights. We have already made signed our plans. Now started wandering how much it would take to install Dow lights to the living areas if we were to get it done through our own electrician Thanks Re: New Living Homes builder by Masterton 16Jul 19, 2016 7:14 am Hi Imasha , We wandered that for 7 months and just now we learned that it can be done after handover ( no planning required now except you want extra switch for down lights ) ... What's your electrician is going to charge you per downlight point ? Re: New Living Homes builder by Masterton 17May 30, 2017 11:36 am If we compare nlh upgrade cost with other builder, is it reasonable? And how flexible nlh is if wang to change specially floor tiles and bricks within similar price range? Is spending on polytec for kitchrn cabinet worth it and how much roughly nlh charge for that? 4 16550 I would be wary. Is you site demilished but nothing else done? Sounds like liquidity problems to me. Our builder did the same. Got hundreds of thousands of dollars of… 2 15346 Hi there! Putting the feelers out there for those who have (or almost) built with Arli homes! Interested in your experiences who've built from their stock home designs… 0 23196 |