Hallmark Homes Builder Review

Overview

Hallmark Homes are based in South East Queensland and build about 500 homes a year, with over 10,000 homes built since they started 39 years ago. In our Hallmark Homes Builder Review, we will take a look at what we like and don’t like, as well as give you some tips on what to expect when building with them.

Hallmark Homes are a builder focused on low-set homes and acreage properties with no double-storey designs. Building as far south as Burleigh Heads and as far north as Maroochydore, this family-owned business has built homes all around the state.

Hallmark Display Homes

Hallmark Homes have display homes all around the state and have 18 online virtual tours available on their website. Note: their Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and North Lakes Locations do not have display homes but do have representatives that oversee inquiries and operations in these areas.

34 Brook Cr, Burpengary East. QLD 4505
Thursday – Tuesday
10.00am – 5.00pm
By appointment Wednesday

23 & 25 Olive Ave
Greenbank
QLD 4124
Thursday – Monday
10.00am – 5.00pm

Ridgeview Display Village
27 Ridge Parade
Narangba 4504
10.00am – 5.00pm
Saturday – Wednesday

9 & 11 Cypress Street
Park Ridge
QLD 4125
Saturday – Wednesday
10:00am – 5:00pm

11-15 Townsvale Drive
Woodhill QLD 4285
Saturday – Wednesday
10:00am – 5:00pm

What People Think of Hallmark Homes

Hallmark Homes have a huge amount of glowing testimonies and reviews on their own website, but what do people have to say elsewhere online? They have a positive rating on ProductReview.com but outside of that site, there’s not much more to go off so we took a dive into what we could find.

The Good

✅ Of their online reviews, there seems to be a lot of praise for the team. In this review 2 years on from the completion of their build, they highlight the fact that even this long after their build Hallmark Homes were happy to help them make a claim on a fault found.

✅ This couple in their 60s had great things to say about Hallmark’s openness to change and collaboration when it came to redesigning their house plans. Note: this would have been in the pre-contract phase, these types of changes would cost you once you’re signed up.

Ron was always available by phone or email. He spent so much time explaining and discussing things especially our laundry which we changed the layout of 6 times. I have never had a “proper” laundry..It has always been in the garage or underneath an old queenslander. He constantly thinks about things and would say no that won’t work because the door is here or you need more bench space or a cupboard here….We changed our plans quite a few times and he had a myriad of suggestions and was so helpful.

He was always thinking of how it would work on a day to day basis to live in.

Nothing was too much trouble. We chose a house ,gutted the plan and with Rons help designed it the way we wanted it to be. 

ProductReviews.com Review 5 stars

The Bad

⛔️ In one instance a Hallmark Homes customer was unsatisfied with the quality of plumbing work in their new home. As you can see in this picture plywood has been used to fix piping in place.

⛔️ When they asked Hallmark to replace the work with a higher quality finish they were told to ‘stop looking for problems’ as it would all be fixed by the PCI (practical completion inspection). However, when PCI came around this is what the customer was told.

⛔️ This isn’t the only instance of self-certified work being defective with Hallmark Homes. Here it was discovered that light switches had not been isolated properly.

⛔️ The bottom line here is that if you’re building with Hallmark Homes make sure you have knowledgeable independent inspectors on your side to make sure their self-certified work isn’t being passed without being properly tested by someone with your interests in mind, not the builders.

⛔️ Another criticism of the Hallmark Homes process was that they can be pushy with their upgrades. In one review a Hallmark customer explained that they had a very present experience building with them.

Design centre was good, the staff there were so helpful. The electrical appointment was fine – we knew we wanted basic inclusions because we are doing our own upgrades now. But the sales person seemed intent on pushing her up sells and wouldn’t listen to what we wanted. It took quite a bit of effort and a mild panic attack to get her to design what we wanted, which was pretty disappointing considering it’s our house not Hers but we got there in the end.
Honestly probably the only negative experience we had through the whole build.

ProductReview.com User Review 4 Stars

When building within a budget or with a clear image of what you want your home to look like, remember to stand your ground. The job of salespeople at building companies is to upsell you on upgrades and their reasons to upgrade can sound very convincing but remember your budget and stick to the plan.

Tips When Building with Hallmark Homes ✍️

Understand their entry-level prices and entry-level inclusions

• Hallmark Homes offer some very appealing entry-level prices that are a key reason a lot of people consider them in the first place. These prices are however for their entry-level inclusions and designs.
• Where most people end up spending their money with Hallmark is on upgrades and the costs to change designs and features.

Hope you don’t have a change of mind

• Hallmark are not very flexible once the plans have been drawn up. So if your pondering over your floorplan, don’t lock it in just yet.
• This can be hard to do as even site preparation won’t begin until your design is finalised.
• If you do sign up and decided you’d like to make a change to the design expect it to come at a hefty change fee.
• With change fees added to even the smallest adjustments to your selections, these can add up and quickly put you over budget.

Make sure to have an expert independent inspect their work

• Hallmark Homes allow their contractors to self-certify their work.
• What you believe to be quality work and what Hallmark approves as quality work can be two vastly different things.
• If building with Hallmark Homes make sure you’ve got someone on your side that can make sure the work completed on your home is independently certified for quality.
• The issue with self-certified work is that these contractors are hired regularly so it’s in both the interests of Hallmark and the contractor to approve the work they’ve done. Or it will come out of their pockets to fix their mistakes.
• Without someone on your side who knows how to prove poor quality work isn’t up to standard, you won’t have a leg to stand on even with the QBCC. The QBCC only recognises defective work if it’s not working at the time of inspection; even if it looks like it could fall apart tomorrow!

Need an expert on your side?
We’ll make sure nothing slips through the cracks.
Contact us today for a free consultation.

Hallmark Home Designs

Hallmark homes focus solely on single-storey homes and divide their designs into suitability based on your block size. They offer specifically tailored designs for acreage properties and build on narrow plots. They also have a customisable range of floorplans in their LUMA range for people wanting more flexibility with their design.

Narrow Lot

• Hallmark’s narrow lot range is designed suitable for blocks between 10-12.5 m wide.
• This range spans 16 designs and as with all Hallmark, designs are all single-storey.
• They claim to help navigate common narrow block issues such as; privacy, soil profiles and fill requirements.

Acreage

• The acreage range offers sprawling single-storey homes suited for acreage properties large and small.
• 12 designs to choose from.
• Includes features such as; studies, media rooms, larger kitchens, and walk-in robes.
• Designed to suit the acreage lifestyle.

Luma

• Hallmark’s Luma range is their customisable designs.
• Choose a base floorplan and then customise it with interchangeable rooms they call custom modules.
• 20 based designs to choose from.
• No acreage designs are only suitable for single-storey and narrow lot.

Standard Single Storey

Hallmark also offers a range of standard single-storey homes for block sizes in between narrow and acreage.

Inclusions

Hallmark Homes offer 2 levels of standard inclusions; Luma and Trend. There are both quite similar however their Trend range includes a few more luxury inclusions and ends up being the more expensive choice. On top of their standard inclusions, Hallmark offers a luxury upgrade option on top of their standard inclusions called the Luma Luxury upgrade package.

Luma Inclusion

Hallmark Homes’ Luma inclusions are aimed towards first-home buyers, aiming to be their affordable option.

Trend Inclusions

Hallmark Homes’ Trend inclusions offer some of their more luxury upgrades as well as a higher-grade slab.

Luma Luxury Upgrade Package

The Luma Luxury Upgrade Package costs $1999 and offers some across-the-board upgrades to all of their Luma range designs. Some of these upgrades include:

• Premium Italian appliances
• Stone benchtops
• Black tapware
• Overhead cupboards
• Painted bulkheads to ceilings

Things you may still have to pay for:

• Their Luma inclusions afford an S classification slab that will almost always need to upgraded to at least M classification.
• Additional Council requirements,
• Slab/ footing piers,
• Retaining walls,
• Soil stabilization and retention,
• Rock excavation,
• Tree removal,
• Acoustic requirements,
• Bushfire requirements,
• A.H.D. requirements,
• Sand/metal pipe bedding (if required by local authority).

QBCC Record

Hallmark Homes have not had any recorded disciplinary actions taken against them by the QBCC and have a completely clean record. This means that Hallmark Homes always either build their homes up to their standard or are consistent in fixing issues during the 12-month defect liability period.

Conclusions

• Hallmark Homes offer well-priced entry-level designs but their affordable prices can begin to rise when you want to make design changes or add upgrades.
• There have been issues with the quality of their builds. Often their contractors will self-certify the quality of their work which in turn is good enough for Hallmark to approve it. Make sure to get an expert involved to independently certify that the work done on your home is up to your standards.
• Their speciality in low-set homes on both narrow and acreage-sized properties is rare, especially their acerage-specific homes that not many builders offer.

Want to compare more builders?
We’ve done the research for you.
Check out our list of builders we’ve reviewed here.