You’ve decided you want to build a new home in the Toowoomba region, but now you’re wondering what builders are there in the area and, most importantly, who is the best for you? Should you go with a smaller, local Toowoomba Builder or one of the larger bulk builders? Today, we’re taking a look at who’s who in the Toowoomba building game, providing a quick rundown of the names to keep on your radar. Due to there being so many Bespoke builders in Toowoomba, we’re also going to give some quick tips on custom homes, including the pros and cons of building a bespoke design.
Home Building Services
Bespoke New Homes
Pros:
The Choice is Yours
Choice. It’s the very reason you’re considering a bespoke home in the first place. It’s the trump card every custom home builder will play as to why you should pick them, and it’s true. With most pre-designed floorplans, customisations are limited if available at all, and your choices are restricted to what the builder offers you. If you decide to go off the grid, it’ll cost you extra.
Functionality
Everything in a bespoke home comes down to your choice, including the floorplan. This is a great opportunity to create the perfect layout for your lifestyle, making the most of every space as you see fit. Open plan or clearly defined rooms? It’s up to you. You can also add more unusual features like custom bookcases, spiral staircases, or rooms for whatever you can dream up.
However, you don’t necessarily need to want something unusual to gain an advantage from a custom floorplan. Do you love cooking? Your dream kitchen can be created along with a large alfresco area for entertaining. The number of living spaces, bedrooms, and bathrooms are entirely up to you as well as how they look.
Personalised Style
A misconception about bespoke homes is that you have to be especially creative to build one. This isn’t necessarily the case. The main purpose is to create the perfect home for you. Whereas with an existing home design you’re tailoring someone else’s vision to fit your lifestyle, with a custom home you can bring your dream home to life exactly as you want to.
Material Quality
Buying a pre-existent home or building from a set design doesn’t leave you with much say in the building materials. This can be an issue beyond the look, as you won’t have much input into the quality of the material being used to build your dream home. A good custom builder will strive to work with trustworthy tradespeople and seek exceptional quality material to build your home with. They’ll also accept input from you should you have some ideas on the matter. With a bespoke home, you can choose superior quality materials.
More Flexibility with Budget
The standard belief is that custom homes are more expensive, but this doesn’t have to be the case. With a little planning, some savvy, and a little bit of guidance, you may actually be able to save money. At the very least, you can tailor the build to suit your budget.
Choice of material features and everything in between doesn’t have to mean a more expensive final cost if you don’t wish for it to be. A better way to look at it is that even if isn’t ”cheaper”, it’s a great opportunity to get value for money. With you calling the shots, you have the chance to pick fixtures, features and materials that will provide both short and long term value.
Ideal for Unique or Difficult Lots
If you’re building on a sloping lot, many bulk builders won’t give you the time of day. However, with a bespoke builder, you can design a home that not only works with your block but actually turns its features into a strength. Some builders even promote their split home building experience, often specialising in unusual blocks. For example, a slanting block often comes with a spectacular view, and your design can make the most of this priceless asset.
Chance to create Eco-Friendly designs
Nowadays, environmental awareness is a hotter topic than ever, with everyone looking at ways to become eco-friendly. There are two main benefits of creating a self-sustainable home. First, you’ll lower your carbon footprint. The second is through careful design choices, you can create a home that maintains a comfortable living environment, with a comfortable temperature more often. This means less need to use air-con or heating and lower energy bills.
Cons:
It’s More Time Consuming
When you do the maths it just makes sense: designing a home from scratch is going to take longer than using a pre-existing design. Construction-wise, it’ll also take longer for a builder to put together a unique home design with specific materials than a home that’s pretty similar to a dozen others they’ve done before. Whereas a regular home will take between 4-8 months to build, a custom home can take up to a year or more. The way we recommend looking at it is while you may have to wait a little longer, you’ll be rewarded with the dream home you envisioned.
It’s more expensive with lots of extra costs
More often than not, a custom home will cost more than a standard home design. How much more is difficult to say without specific examples, but a general rule of thumb in building is, that whenever you deviate from the standard – be it fixtures or changes to the floorplan – it’ll cost you. While an individual choice in material, floorplan changes, or a specific fixture may not seem a lot on its own, remember these things will add up. Having an idea of your budget, and carefully planning your expenses early on can really help your costs from spirally out of control during the building process.
However, this may be just an initial cost, depending on the choices you make. For example, if some of your customisations help make your new home self-sustainable and eco-friendly, you may actually end up saving money in the long run. For more information, have a look at our guide to eco-friendly homes.
Smaller Contractors
Typically, custom home builders are smaller, which can have pros, but it means a higher risk of insolvency. If you’re not careful, you could get stuck with a large amount of debt and an empty plot of land! If you’re unsure about a builder, contact us before signing any contracts, and we’ll help you weigh up your potential builder.
Not all Builders are equal
Perhaps even more than on a pre-designed home, the success of your custom home depends on the expertise, skill and integrity of your builder. Open communication is vital in any building project, but it is paramount that you are all on the same page with a bespoke home. It’s not hard to find horror stories of blown budgets or poor workmanship due to poor relationships between builder and client. Ideally, a builder will be respectful but also straight with you even if the news is something you’re not going to enjoy hearing. You’ll also want a builder who is upfront with what is doable. There are few things more disillusioning than someone promising the sky only to fall well short of delivering.
Labour of Love
A bespoke home can be an incredible, rewarding experience, but let’s move away from the love part and focus on the ‘labour’. For most people, a new house is the biggest, most expensive purchase they’ll ever make. There’s a lot of hard work that’ll go into the building process, and there will be issues that arise and you will get stressed and overwhelmed at some point. And that’s okay. What’s important is that it all pays off in the end. If your builder is communicative, and you have experts and tradespeople on your side to make sure everything is running smoothly, you can avoid your project becoming too much trouble and allow it to be overall, an enjoyable experience. Get in contact with us to chat about how we can help you through the building process.
With all this in mind, it’s probably clear a custom home tends to be better for those building a forever home rather than an investment property.
Single-Storey design
With most builders, their most extensive range will be their collection of single storey house plans. They tend to have more flexibility in their designs due to fewer structural concerns than found in homes with multiple stories.
Double-Storey design
Most (but not all) builders offer at least some double-storey designs as part of their collection. Ideal for a family or those wanting to build a larger home on a smaller block of land.
Split level design
A split level home design is a multi-level design, specifically created to make the most of uneven or sloping blocks. While some larger builders do offer split-level home designs, it’s worth at least investigating some bespoke builders for a project like this. Working with a sloping block is a more challenging build than working with a flat piece of land, so you want to be confident in the engineering abilities of the builder you choose to go with.
House and Land Packages
House and land packages are often promoted as a streamlined home building experience that will lead to a less stressful building process. However, it’s worth considering what this means for you. Odds are, however long the building process may take, you’ll live in your home for a lot longer. Is it worth giving up your choice and giving all power to the builder to avoid some headaches along the way? This will depend on your specific situation, but it’s definitely something worth considering.
With House and land packages, any change in detail means extra costs. You’ll also have a limited range of designs to choose from.
Display Homes
The Avenues of Highfields
The Avenues of Highfields is the Toowoomba region’s first major development estate and features a display home from nearly every local Toowoomba Builder. At the time of publishing this article, the display village was still being built, so there are more display homes in the pipeline, with most expected to be finished in late 2022 to early 2023. We’ll update both this and the Toowoomba Display Home article as progress is made.
Need help finding the right design and builder for you?
At Buildi, we help you find the right builder, save time, reduce stress and stay on budget.
How We Can Help You
Building a home is one of the biggest decisions you’ll ever make. At Buildi, we’ll be there throughout the entire building process, guiding you step by step so you can avoid any pitfalls. We will help you by following these steps.
- Free Consultation – We will sit with you to understand what you are looking to accomplish.
- Due Diligence – We work with you to ensure you’re buying the right block of land at the right price without hidden problems.
- Builders tender – We will take your requirements out to the market of builders and they will bid to win your business.
- Present solutions – We will compile the top 3 options and present you with a comprehensive proposal on builders’ strengths & weaknesses along with prices and specifications.
- Contract Signing – We will work with you and your selected builder to ensure there is full transparency in what you are entering into.
- Building your home – We work closely with the builder to ensure all service levels are met and your project is on schedule.
New Home Builders Toowoomba
Stroud Homes Toowoomba
Stroud Homes was founded by James Stroud in 2005, and have 16 years of design and building experience. They now build all over Australia including locations throughout Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria.
Gordon Burke Constructions
One of Toowoomba’s most experienced and longest established builders, having been in business since 1959. They’ve built over 3500 homes in the Toowoomba region.
Hontondo Homes Toowoomba
Hotondo Homes has one display home to visit in Toowoomba. You’ll need to book an appointment if you’d like to visit the house. They’ve won a Master Builders Association award for their work on sloping sites, so are worth looking into if you’re working with slanted land.
G.J. Gardner Homes Toowoomba
G.J. Gardner Homes is one of the biggest builders in the country and have operated in Brisbane for over 37 years.
- One of the biggest builders in the country, with over 36,000 builds to their name.
- Lots of variety in home designs.
- They’re a franchised business, meaning different locations will offer completely different experiences
- Upgraded display homes can be misleading
- Prices can vary depending on where you’re building
Top of the Range Builders
Formed in 2007, by two local builders joining forces, Top of the Range Builders promises to pass savings onto their clients. They have a combined experience of over 50 years and offer custom designs.
Kev Morris Builder
An award-winning local builder who specialise in adaptable living, so if you or a loved one are elderly, disabled or have some special requirements for your day to day living, Kev Morris Builders should be able to accommodate this in your home design.
Arden Vale Homes
An award-winning local builder who specialises in large family homes. They have display homes in The Avenues of Highlands
Paragon Homes Toowoomba
Paragon Homes is a custom home builder who offers professional service in knock-down rebuilds (KDR), new home builds, custom builds, single & double-storey homes, split level homes, luxury homes, duplexes, acreage homes, small homes & dual occupancy homes.
Dixon Homes Toowoomba
Founded in 1959, Dixon Homes is a franchised builder with locations across the East Coast of Australia. As their ‘More For Less’ motto suggests, Dixon Homes heavily market themselves on their affordability.
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