Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Aug 28, 2019 8:13 pm Hi, we are looking to knock down and rebuild our home as per our requirements. We are looking for a home with good quality fixtures and finish, around 40 squares in size. Is it better to go with custom home builder or a builder like Carlisle and Boutique homes? Does anyone know if the price they say on the website is anywhere close to actual price. Is it better to go through custom builder, are they way more expensive or roughly the same? Re: Realistic budget for building a good quality home in Mel 2Aug 29, 2019 9:05 am There are people who claim a custom builder isn't always more expensive, but our experience in Sydney was that they are. We payed more for our options/extras than we did for the base price of our volume-builder house, had a lot of higher-spec finishes & features built in (more features than finishes really), and yet we still paid about 2/3 the cheapest custom builder we were quoted by. The price in the volume-builder website probably needs around $50k-$100k added to just get it built & liveable, and if you want extras they can add-up quickly depending on what you want. I don't know Carlisle or Boutique (suspect they don't operate in Sydney), if they're at the upper end of the volume builder spectrum then they will already have reasonable finishes as standard included in the price. You have to check of course, but the base price of ours included stuff like Caesarstone benchtops & the more expensive kitchen cabinet facings & Hettich cabinet hardware, budget for decent quality carpet & tiles, the aircon was a good brand, stuff like that; the reason we paid extra was mostly for features that weren't included like extra kitchen & bathroom cabinetry, tiling throughout, OdourVac (Google it) for all bathrooms, a 2nd detached double garage, modifications to the façade for heat/light management reasons, double-glazed thermally-broken commercial-grade aluminium windows/doors, radiant heaters for the alfresco, induction cooktop, stuff like that. In short - we found that the volume builders that play in the "higher quality" end of the volume-builder space already use higher spec finishes & fittings. However, their designs are still compromised - you'll get very nice looking bathroom cabinetry, but you'll still have to store your toothbrush next to the sink because there's nowhere proper to store it, the wardrobe will look very nice & maybe even have soft-close drawers, but there'll only be one hang-rail & one set of 4 drawers per bedroom (which is hardly enough) … there won't be enough storage, you'll have to park one car on the driveway because half the double-garage will be full of stuff which you should've been able to store elsewhere if the house were properly designed, and every design will require customisation to work optimally with the facing/orientation of your block of land. That's where the extra cost comes in. If you're building to sell shortly after, there's every chance most potential buyers won't notice all these shortcomings because frankly most houses are built with the same shortcomings. Re: Realistic budget for building a good quality home in Mel 3Aug 29, 2019 7:43 pm Forg There are people who claim a custom builder isn't always more expensive, but our experience in Sydney was that they are. We payed more for our options/extras than we did for the base price of our volume-builder house, had a lot of higher-spec finishes & features built in (more features than finishes really), and yet we still paid about 2/3 the cheapest custom builder we were quoted by. The price in the volume-builder website probably needs around $50k-$100k added to just get it built & liveable, and if you want extras they can add-up quickly depending on what you want. I don't know Carlisle or Boutique (suspect they don't operate in Sydney), if they're at the upper end of the volume builder spectrum then they will already have reasonable finishes as standard included in the price. You have to check of course, but the base price of ours included stuff like Caesarstone benchtops & the more expensive kitchen cabinet facings & Hettich cabinet hardware, budget for decent quality carpet & tiles, the aircon was a good brand, stuff like that; the reason we paid extra was mostly for features that weren't included like extra kitchen & bathroom cabinetry, tiling throughout, OdourVac (Google it) for all bathrooms, a 2nd detached double garage, modifications to the façade for heat/light management reasons, double-glazed thermally-broken commercial-grade aluminium windows/doors, radiant heaters for the alfresco, induction cooktop, stuff like that. In short - we found that the volume builders that play in the "higher quality" end of the volume-builder space already use higher spec finishes & fittings. However, their designs are still compromised - you'll get very nice looking bathroom cabinetry, but you'll still have to store your toothbrush next to the sink because there's nowhere proper to store it, the wardrobe will look very nice & maybe even have soft-close drawers, but there'll only be one hang-rail & one set of 4 drawers per bedroom (which is hardly enough) … there won't be enough storage, you'll have to park one car on the driveway because half the double-garage will be full of stuff which you should've been able to store elsewhere if the house were properly designed, and every design will require customisation to work optimally with the facing/orientation of your block of land. That's where the extra cost comes in. If you're building to sell shortly after, there's every chance most potential buyers won't notice all these shortcomings because frankly most houses are built with the same shortcomings. Thank you so much for your feedback and advice. Bit more about our home, we have a 40 year old which looks like it’s falling apart. We spent about half a million to purchase it 5 years ago and were initially thinking of renovating it. After much discussion we decided it’s not worth renovating and extending cause it might still have structural issues later on. So having spent half a million already just for the land, we don’t want to spend any more than 400k for building our new home (including all extras and landscaping) Things that are really important to us are: Good quality structure Sustainable to some extent Floor plan of our liking Reasonable quality fixtures and interiors (I really wanted high quality interiors but I know we probably can’t afford this for our budget) We are thinking of approaching an architect for design help and also understand the cost around using their help for completing construction. Alternatively, we will also approach a volume builder for the same thing. My concern with Volume builder is quality of construction; would you know if these homes really last for 25 years as they claim? I’m worried that we may have to spend extra to renovate again in 10 years, that it may have structural issues in the long run. I’m also thinking with our budget we may not be able to afford an architect, but if we do would you know if it’s worth hiring an architect or is it only for people who want extra fancy homes? Any advice would help, thank you for your time. Re: Realistic budget for building a good quality home in Mel 4Aug 29, 2019 9:37 pm I wouldn’t be going to a architect with your budget. Allow 10% of your budget for the architect, you said you want high end finishes, 40 sq house, with a $400k budget all inclusive of landscaping. Sorry that budget for that size home will be lucky to give you a basic house, without landscaping etc. I think you need to talk to a few volume builders and get a realistic indication of price. Don’t forget you have 20k to demolish house as well... Re: Realistic budget for building a good quality home in Mel 5Aug 29, 2019 9:55 pm 400k budget for a KDR custom built 40 square home designed and overseen during construction by an architect. You won’t even get anything decent in that price bracket with the cheapest volume builder out there. Try doubling your budget then adding 100-150k for contingencies. Re: Realistic budget for building a good quality home in Mel 6Aug 30, 2019 5:53 am gogo65 I wouldn’t be going to a architect with your budget. Allow 10% of your budget for the architect, you said you want high end finishes, 40 sq house, with a $400k budget all inclusive of landscaping. Sorry that budget for that size home will be lucky to give you a basic house, without landscaping etc. I think you need to talk to a few volume builders and get a realistic indication of price. Don’t forget you have 20k to demolish house as well... Thank you for that, that’s very helpful Re: Realistic budget for building a good quality home in Mel 7Aug 30, 2019 5:56 am gillybean 400k budget for a KDR custom built 40 square home designed and overseen during construction by an architect. You won’t even get anything decent in that price bracket with the cheapest volume builder out there. Try doubling your budget then adding 100-150k for contingencies. I kind of knew it would be expensive but didn’t really know how expensive. Thank you for your advice! Re: Realistic budget for building a good quality home in Mel 8Sep 01, 2019 7:32 pm In the same boat and the going price is about $550k with volume builder and some customisations. A custom build in Melbourne with 40 to 41 sq home expect $650+. Re: Realistic budget for building a good quality home in Mel 9Sep 01, 2019 9:28 pm Preeti.jat Hi, we are looking to knock down and rebuild our home as per our requirements. We are looking for a home with good quality fixtures and finish, around 40 squares in size. Is it better to go with custom home builder or a builder like Carlisle and Boutique homes? Does anyone know if the price they say on the website is anywhere close to actual price. Is it better to go through custom builder, are they way more expensive or roughly the same? Hi Are you just looking at the cost of the house? Or total build cost etc? What area are you looking at building, is the site flat and ready to build on? We are in the process of using a builder for a custom home in SE/Bayside area. Got a horrendous quote for nearly 900k, albeit for a bigger end product at 47 sq. Cutting it back down to 42 made little inroads on the cost though, as each "raw" square was around 5k, more for garage, balconies etc. We were upgrading a lot, but I was still unhappy with that cost. I get it's full custom, but we have since swapped builder and more than happy with the lower cost. https://thomasarcherbuild.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html - Thomas Archer Homes - Custom Nouveau 41 Re: Realistic budget for building a good quality home in Mel 10Sep 01, 2019 10:07 pm Blacktea2sugars Preeti.jat Hi, we are looking to knock down and rebuild our home as per our requirements. We are looking for a home with good quality fixtures and finish, around 40 squares in size. Is it better to go with custom home builder or a builder like Carlisle and Boutique homes? Does anyone know if the price they say on the website is anywhere close to actual price. Is it better to go through custom builder, are they way more expensive or roughly the same? Hi Are you just looking at the cost of the house? Or total build cost etc? What area are you looking at building, is the site flat and ready to build on? We are in the process of using a builder for a custom home in SE/Bayside area. Got a horrendous quote for nearly 900k, albeit for a bigger end product at 47 sq. Cutting it back down to 42 made little inroads on the cost though, as each "raw" square was around 5k, more for garage, balconies etc. We were upgrading a lot, but I was still unhappy with that cost. I get it's full custom, but we have since swapped builder and more than happy with the lower cost. Hi thanks for that, yeah I was asking about total build cost. We are actually thinking of using boutique homes for our build, I don’t think we can afford a custom home, it’s way out of our budget. Can I ask if you are going with a volume builder or custom and the ball park cost per square meter? Re: Realistic budget for building a good quality home in Mel 11Sep 01, 2019 10:20 pm Preeti.jat Blacktea2sugars Preeti.jat Hi, we are looking to knock down and rebuild our home as per our requirements. We are looking for a home with good quality fixtures and finish, around 40 squares in size. Is it better to go with custom home builder or a builder like Carlisle and Boutique homes? Does anyone know if the price they say on the website is anywhere close to actual price. Is it better to go through custom builder, are they way more expensive or roughly the same? Hi Are you just looking at the cost of the house? Or total build cost etc? What area are you looking at building, is the site flat and ready to build on? We are in the process of using a builder for a custom home in SE/Bayside area. Got a horrendous quote for nearly 900k, albeit for a bigger end product at 47 sq. Cutting it back down to 42 made little inroads on the cost though, as each "raw" square was around 5k, more for garage, balconies etc. We were upgrading a lot, but I was still unhappy with that cost. I get it's full custom, but we have since swapped builder and more than happy with the lower cost. Hi thanks for that, yeah I was asking about total build cost. We are actually thinking of using boutique homes for our build, I don’t think we can afford a custom home, it’s way out of our budget. Can I ask if you are going with a volume builder or custom and the ball park cost per square meter? We have chosen custom. cost is now circa 650k for 41 sq, we have upgraded what was vital, made informed decisions on other items, and "provision" for the rest (solar, fireplace etc). Certainly an eye opener for us. How far along are you with short list, plans etc? https://thomasarcherbuild.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html - Thomas Archer Homes - Custom Nouveau 41 Re: Realistic budget for building a good quality home in Mel 12Sep 01, 2019 10:32 pm Oh that’s great, I think for a 41 sq custom built home, the cost is pretty reasonable. We are at the initial stages of planning and budgeting therefore trying to understand what size house we can get at what price. We were initially thinking 40 squares, but now 30 sq would be just enough for our family and budget. When is the construction scheduled to start? Re: Realistic budget for building a good quality home in Mel 13Sep 02, 2019 5:31 am Blacktea2sugars Preeti.jat Hi, we are looking to knock down and rebuild our home as per our requirements. We are looking for a home with good quality fixtures and finish, around 40 squares in size. Is it better to go with custom home builder or a builder like Carlisle and Boutique homes? Does anyone know if the price they say on the website is anywhere close to actual price. Is it better to go through custom builder, are they way more expensive or roughly the same? Hi Are you just looking at the cost of the house? Or total build cost etc? What area are you looking at building, is the site flat and ready to build on? We are in the process of using a builder for a custom home in SE/Bayside area. Got a horrendous quote for nearly 900k, albeit for a bigger end product at 47 sq. Cutting it back down to 42 made little inroads on the cost though, as each "raw" square was around 5k, more for garage, balconies etc. We were upgrading a lot, but I was still unhappy with that cost. I get it's full custom, but we have since swapped builder and more than happy with the lower cost. Hi thanks for that, yeah I was asking about total build cost. We are actually thinking of using boutique homes for our build, I don’t think we can afford a custom home, it’s way out of our budget. Can I ask if you are going with a volume builder or custom and the ball park cost per square meter?[/quote] We have chosen custom. cost is now circa 650k for 41 sq, we have upgraded what was vital, made informed decisions on other items, and "provision" for the rest (solar, fireplace etc). Certainly an eye opener for us. How far along are you with short list, plans etc?[/quote] Oh that’s great, I think for a 41 sq custom built home, the cost is pretty reasonable. We are at the initial stages of planning and budgeting therefore trying to understand what size house we can get at what price. We were initially thinking 40 squares, but now 30 sq would be just enough for our family and budget. When is the construction scheduled to start? Re: Realistic budget for building a good quality home in Mel 14Sep 02, 2019 12:00 pm Preeti.jat Blacktea2sugars Preeti.jat Hi, we are looking to knock down and rebuild our home as per our requirements. We are looking for a home with good quality fixtures and finish, around 40 squares in size. Is it better to go with custom home builder or a builder like Carlisle and Boutique homes? Does anyone know if the price they say on the website is anywhere close to actual price. Is it better to go through custom builder, are they way more expensive or roughly the same? Hi Are you just looking at the cost of the house? Or total build cost etc? What area are you looking at building, is the site flat and ready to build on? We are in the process of using a builder for a custom home in SE/Bayside area. Got a horrendous quote for nearly 900k, albeit for a bigger end product at 47 sq. Cutting it back down to 42 made little inroads on the cost though, as each "raw" square was around 5k, more for garage, balconies etc. We were upgrading a lot, but I was still unhappy with that cost. I get it's full custom, but we have since swapped builder and more than happy with the lower cost. Hi thanks for that, yeah I was asking about total build cost. We are actually thinking of using boutique homes for our build, I don’t think we can afford a custom home, it’s way out of our budget. Can I ask if you are going with a volume builder or custom and the ball park cost per square meter? I know a few in this forum were/are building with Inspired/Como Homes as a custom build option. Think ben888 had a blog going about a corner block build. I think $1700 per sqm is fair and reasonable for a quality build, just knowing what to spend the $$$ on, and where to opt for standard is the tricky part. Our site start is Dec. https://thomasarcherbuild.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html - Thomas Archer Homes - Custom Nouveau 41 Re: Realistic budget for building a good quality home in Mel 15Sep 02, 2019 8:47 pm Blacktea2sugars Preeti.jat I know a few in this forum were/are building with Inspired/Como Homes as a custom build option. Think ben888 had a blog going about a corner block build. I think $1700 per sqm is fair and reasonable for a quality build, just knowing what to spend the $$$ on, and where to opt for standard is the tricky part. Our site start is Dec. That’s so true, we are looking at several websites every day trying to find a suitable floor plan with a good builder, hopefully we will figure something out by end of this year. All the best with your build, you must be excited!! Coming back to your old stomping grounds, huh? Renovations on a budget can be quite the journey. It's like giving your house a new lease on life. The twist of not knowing… 1 3456 9 24637 Thank you. Do I use timber floorboards for stairs or do people use timber treads? Or is both the same? 6 7236 |