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- New homes on vacant land
New home design on vacant land
A home shaped by your block, your budget and your family, in that order. The land decides more than most people expect.
The short version
Building a new home provides a unique opportunity to create something truly tailored to your family. From site planning through to detailed design, we work closely with clients to create homes that respond to their block, budget and lifestyle requirements while delivering enduring quality.
There is no existing house arguing with you, which sounds like freedom and is actually the hard part. Every decision is open, so the discipline has to come from the site and from how you want to live.
Before the first sketch
What the block
is telling you
Which way is north
Australian houses live or die on orientation. Where the sun falls in June decides where the living areas go, and no amount of glazing fixes a house pointed the wrong way. This is settled first, before anything else is drawn.
What the ground is made of
Rock, reactive clay, fill, a steep fall across the site. Each one changes what the footings cost and sometimes changes the shape of the house itself. Worth knowing before you commit to a design, not after.
What the controls allow
Setbacks, height limits, floor space ratio, how much of the block must stay as garden, and whether it can use the fast approval pathway. These set the envelope your house has to fit inside, and they vary between councils.
What you actually want to spend
A budget set at the start makes every later decision easier. A budget discovered at tender makes every later decision painful. We would rather have the uncomfortable conversation early.
Trees, easements and the neighbours
A protected tree, a sewer main across the corner, an overshadowing rule that protects the block next door. None of these stop a good house. All of them shape it.
Common questions
New homes
- I have not bought the land yet. Is it too early to talk?
- No, and this is the best time. A block that looks identical to the one next door can be far more expensive to build on, and the planning controls decide how much house you can fit. A short conversation before you bid is worth more than a long one afterwards.
- How long does the design take before we can build?
- It depends on the scale of the home and on the approval pathway. Complying development is considerably faster than a development application through council. We work out which one your block can use early, because it affects the timeline more than anything else.
- Do you design to a fixed budget?
- Yes, and we would rather know the number at the start. Designing without one produces a beautiful house you cannot build, and then a redesign nobody enjoys.
- What does the design service cost?
- For a complete service, fees typically commence from 10% plus GST of the construction value, with the final figure set by the scale and complexity of the project. Fees are invoiced progressively against work completed. Full detail is on the process page.
- Do you arrange the engineers and consultants?
- We coordinate them. Structural, hydraulic, surveyors, energy assessment and certifiers all feed into the documentation, and keeping that coordinated is part of the service rather than something you project manage yourself.
- Can you help me choose a builder?
- Yes. The documentation is prepared so you can tender the project properly and compare what comes back on the same drawings, rather than comparing three quotes that each assume something different.
Next step
Send us
the address
Bought, or still deciding. Either way we can tell you what the block will and will not allow.