Getting value from your new home
What makes up the cost of a new home? It’s made of a number of items some are easy to identify, and some are a bit harder.
Size of the home
The larger the home, generally the more economical its ends up being, based on a dollar per m2 rate , this is because the expensive parts of the home are generally made up of the wet areas, balconies and the kitchens, mainly driven by the cabinets and the tiles, to give you an example the cabinets in a home will make up over 10% of the value of the home.
Because the larger home will still generally only have one kitchen, ( and a few kitchenettes) and two or three bath rooms ( Ensuites) this is generally that same as a smaller home, in saying that if the wet areas and kitchens are larger, then the home will be more expensive.
Perimeter walls
The most economical way to build a home is to build a square box, this will give you the maximum square meters of home per linear meter of perimeter walls.
The perimeter walls on the home is one of the most expensive components in the build of the home, a large c shape home will be a lot more expensive than a box home, in saying that the home with more perimeter wall will probably be a lot nicer home to live in and will function a lot be from the benefit of more light, more aspect to the site and landscaping, more separation for family members, and will feel bigger and more prestigious.
You will notice that a lot of the project style builders will use a box on box approach to give the illusion of value in their display homes.
Other things that affect the price of your home
inclusions
Heights of the ceilings
Amount of upper floor area (trade rates and scaffold)
Under croft areas,
Complexity of the site and site access
Specification
Site conditions such as costal and fire prone areas
Complexity of the design
Type of roof and elevation
These will all influence the end cost of your home in Perth.
Inclusions
Generally, most builders will be under pressure by the client to demonstrate the best possible value by way of the things that they include as a standard in the quoted price of their homes.
Most builders will run through a list of things that they include as a standard like appliances, tiles, taps, cupboards etc., it’s my experience that it’s not the things that are included but the things that are not included that generally form a problem, it’s the things that you don’t know or will find out a lot further down the process that will end up in cost overruns.
A lot of these are site associated items like site works, services, site associated cost, storm-water shire conditions etc., but can extend to the quality of the fixtures and fitting.
Clever Home Designs as a standard specification would include things, over height doors and windows, lighting including fittings, air conditioning, stone tops throughout, Miele appliances, vitrified tiling with but joints, full painting using dulux paint, 6 star rating, linea drains, high ceilings, skirtings, nosing, exposed aggregate, cross overs, soak wells, run ins, letter boxes, clothes lines, set outs, repegs, etc. as a base.
Specification
Specification is relatively easy to understand, but sometimes expensive to change, this is because of lot of the project builders may have relationships or contracts with certain suppliers, who in turn offer their product at a discounted rate.
Sometime the issue arises when you wish to nominate a brand which was not in the builder’s standard range and the cost difference is substantial.
Specification is not to be confused with quality; the quality is how the specified item is included in your new home.
To demonstrate this, imagine you have included in your new home a quality 40mm honed stone top, for the kitchen island bench, if I have joined in in the wrong spot and used the wrong glue and the cleaner scratched it, then you have a good specification but a bad quality item.
Any builder can specify quality fixtures and fittings, its more about the trade quality and implementation of the specified items.
Quality
The quality of the home is one of the most important items in our homes, the quality starts with the right documentation, then comes down to the quality of the trades used and the supervision of the trades.
Generally we tend to pay a bit more for the right trades to build your home, its not that we are really nice people it’s just that, an investment in quality trades is reflected in the overall quality of finished home, and not only will the finished home look and feel better it will last longer and be less problems when its constructed right the first time.
In some instances a builder may have a number of different building companies under different brands and sharing trades and supervision in order to save costs, this is like having your BMW built in a Kia factory, it can’t be done and the same can be said for building the Kia in a BMW factory.
This is not the case with Clever Home Designs, as we only build quality homes 800 and above.
In selecting a builder the builder should be doing the type of homes that you wish to build, in value, quality and design.
Value
The value of the home is based on your own values and what is important for you in your new home, Clever Home Designs Custom Homes, offer incredible value, in the potion of the market that we operate in (850K +) and we limit homes to that section of the market, as opposed to some builders will take on everything from a chook run to a multi story apartment block in order to keep the wheels turning.
We also limit the amount of commissions we take on each year to ensure a quality offering.
Clever Home Designs inclusions, as a standard are a lot higher that 80% of the builders in the Perth market, this along with the quality and stability of the company makes it an educated fit for someone building a home in the upper end of the market.
Clever Home Designs offer an honest fixed estimate at the concept stage, and in an easy to follow strait forward process, this will give you the confidence in moving forward, whilst some builders will represent an initial proposal that looks great value, it may be that they are buying the business, then using the opportunity to increase the pricing through the planning, pre start selection and construction variations as they endeavour to claw back their margin or they may look at decreasing the trades rates to ensure that the project is viable and in doing so it diminishes the quality of your new home.
Value added
In lieu of trying to be the cheapest builder, Clever Home Designs adds values to your new home in things like in-house design service to design and elevate your new home access to interior architects to go through the finishes to add a professional and value finish, one person to take you through the total build including during construction,.
Design on the home
The design or the experience of the person designing your new home will have a big impact on the cost, an experienced designer will have regard to slab extensions outside walls, perimeter walls, load bearing, engineering, internal walls, amount of cabinetry, size of wet areas etc. This is one of the main pre requisites for getting the right design is the price.
Discounts
I not sure if anyone, except maybe the very young, believe in “ buy now and we will include $40,000 of extras for $10” or “sign up now before summer and we will include a free swimming pool” or to get the project “my sales manager has given me xyz to give away” it’s all built into the base price of the home or if it’s not, they will find it in variations and trade rates, there are no Father Christmas’ out there, if it seems too good to be true… chances are...
With the recent grants both federal and state you may also see that a lot of builders may with draw the incentives that they were previously offering in a manner to buy the work.
You generally get what you pay for, no builder buys exceptionally well or has trades that work for less and if a builder is offering huge discounts you would expect that it’s not sustainable and they may not have the ability to complete your home.
For more information contact me directly, I look forward to being able to help.
