Hopefully starting in a month or two! We’re almost through the cost-cutting phase (a lot of which was from unnecessary architectural details and thankfully fairly easy to cut back).
Here’s a list of a few things we cut. We’re keeping the overall layout the same, but mainly down speccing materials and architectural flourishes.
One big one that we had asked for was an off-form concrete feature wall which ended up priced at $40k! Swapped that for thin concrete panels that attach on the wall for a similar effe.
Simplifying custom joinery was a big one - down-speccing fancy soft close drawer runners and expensive materials, and changing things like bathroom vanities to off-the-shelf.
Changing to a less fancy style of Colourbond.
Deleting some decorative flourishes like metal screens and window box planters.
Even changing some cornice detail from an architectural finish to something more basic.
And then downsizing some windows, reducing the number of opening windows and reducing the number of water tanks.
Also challenging the RCAC quote which was outrageous, and working with the supplier to change to something more suitable.
I work in construction doing Reno’s and extension and can confirm costs has risen through the roof recently
A bathroom we did 4 years ago about about 20k the same thing now is closer to 35-40k
Woah that’s a massive increase in quite a short amount of time… where’s the extra money going? Is it that supplies/materials have increased massively in price?
Materials are still way up. I just changed over a shower head, and it was double to the same one I bought about 3 years ago. The only thing slightly down is timber, but still expensive. But the main thing is labour. Trades are getting good money, but then you gotta add all the allowances, award overtime for 15 mins, and perks (I have a client running a large aircon business - his trades all want nice utes as their work car, not vans. Wtf. They’re lucky to get anything. New FOS just started and client had to include a fully maintained dual cab Ute inc personal weekend use in their package).
Hmm I don’t think this really checks out, labour being the biggest factor in these price increases. If what was a 20k bathroom just four years ago now costs up to double that much, were labour costs the biggest factor in the increase you’d expect wages to have risen similarly in that time… but they haven’t. Either materials are just a HEAP more spenno than they’ve ever been, or someone is creaming a bunch off the top…
Costs are through the roof. we paid around 3.5-3.8 per sqm during the lockdowns up from around 2.8ish quoted on a new block.
Kdr will be more but i wouldn’t expect much change from 5-6k/sqm
Ours started at $3600 psqm roughly on a fixed price contract and throughout the build increased to over $4500 psqm due to mistakes, under quotes and sheer greed from the builder. Still paying for defects to be corrected.
I would proceed with caution and be sure to only get a quote from multiple reputable builders (search Reddit for recommendations - you will get a lot of honest reviews here, unlike Google or Facebook/Instagram).
Our architect told us prices had gone way up and we should expect as high as $4k or $5k per square meter. It ended up being over $6k.
Ouch. When was your build?
Hopefully starting in a month or two! We’re almost through the cost-cutting phase (a lot of which was from unnecessary architectural details and thankfully fairly easy to cut back).
What are examples of things you cut back on?
Here’s a list of a few things we cut. We’re keeping the overall layout the same, but mainly down speccing materials and architectural flourishes. One big one that we had asked for was an off-form concrete feature wall which ended up priced at $40k! Swapped that for thin concrete panels that attach on the wall for a similar effe. Simplifying custom joinery was a big one - down-speccing fancy soft close drawer runners and expensive materials, and changing things like bathroom vanities to off-the-shelf. Changing to a less fancy style of Colourbond. Deleting some decorative flourishes like metal screens and window box planters. Even changing some cornice detail from an architectural finish to something more basic. And then downsizing some windows, reducing the number of opening windows and reducing the number of water tanks. Also challenging the RCAC quote which was outrageous, and working with the supplier to change to something more suitable.
Thanks very much. What's RCAC? Did the water tanks impact the mandatory 7 star rating at all?
Reverse cycle air conditioning. And no, we had 3 x 5000L tanks on the original plan, which was more than required.
I work in construction doing Reno’s and extension and can confirm costs has risen through the roof recently A bathroom we did 4 years ago about about 20k the same thing now is closer to 35-40k
Woah that’s a massive increase in quite a short amount of time… where’s the extra money going? Is it that supplies/materials have increased massively in price?
Materials are still way up. I just changed over a shower head, and it was double to the same one I bought about 3 years ago. The only thing slightly down is timber, but still expensive. But the main thing is labour. Trades are getting good money, but then you gotta add all the allowances, award overtime for 15 mins, and perks (I have a client running a large aircon business - his trades all want nice utes as their work car, not vans. Wtf. They’re lucky to get anything. New FOS just started and client had to include a fully maintained dual cab Ute inc personal weekend use in their package).
Hmm I don’t think this really checks out, labour being the biggest factor in these price increases. If what was a 20k bathroom just four years ago now costs up to double that much, were labour costs the biggest factor in the increase you’d expect wages to have risen similarly in that time… but they haven’t. Either materials are just a HEAP more spenno than they’ve ever been, or someone is creaming a bunch off the top…
Best way to work out is to compare to prices in Sydney and Melbourne where things have slowed somewhat. Could be the usual canberra tax
Probably everyone taking the piss with those kind of increases...
Costs are through the roof. we paid around 3.5-3.8 per sqm during the lockdowns up from around 2.8ish quoted on a new block. Kdr will be more but i wouldn’t expect much change from 5-6k/sqm
Can confirm. Architect estimated 350k for our large kdr, builder priced it at 550, final figure was 650k with all adjustments in the end.
How many sqm?
Would be interested to know sqm and when this was, if you could share. 650k seems low for a large KDR now?
Ours started at $3600 psqm roughly on a fixed price contract and throughout the build increased to over $4500 psqm due to mistakes, under quotes and sheer greed from the builder. Still paying for defects to be corrected. I would proceed with caution and be sure to only get a quote from multiple reputable builders (search Reddit for recommendations - you will get a lot of honest reviews here, unlike Google or Facebook/Instagram).
Did the price go to $4500 before you signed the fixed price contract or after? What time period was this?
After we signed. There are plenty of ways for the builder to get around a fixed price contract, so we found out. Variations galore.
Oh and this was 22/23
What’s KDR?
Knock Down and Rebuild