McCarthy Homes Builder Review 2023

Overview

Whether you’re in the market for a builder that’s not afraid to take on unusual blocks, or love that Hamptons style, you’ve probably heard of McCarthy Homes. In this review we’re looking into McCarthy Homes, they were founded in 1999 as a family-owned and operated builder located in Brisbane and have been building houses in; Brisbane, Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast, and Northern New South Wales ever since.

McCarthy Homes label themselves as the specialists in the ever-popular Hampton home style, they offer custom Hampton facades on all of their home designs. McCarthy Homes pride themselves on offering a collaborative building experience, and with collaboration being such an important factor in realising the vision of your new home. We are here to help you decided if they are the right builder for you.

What People Think

McCarthy have operated in Brisbane for over 20 years, continuingly expanding throughout South East Queensland and Northern New South Wales. Therefore we’ve been able to compile a fair amount of feedback about their builds since the turn of the century.

On the surface, McCarthy have a brilliant track record of reviews. With their 5-star reviews more than double that of their mixed ones across the board for instance. Unfortunately, we found it difficult to find many recent reviews

The Good…

✅ Firstly, there seems to be much to praise about the ensured quality of a McCarthy home. McCarthy seem to critically inspect their constructions; taking pride in providing a consistent standard and finish to your home, despite the stage of construction. This review compliments this stable commitment to their build.

✅ This commitment is reflected in their attitude towards warranty; an area of your build that can sometimes turn into a bit of a blame game.

✅ Instead, McCarthy seems to happily maintain responsibility for the quality of your home after handover. Often you will find builders downplaying the importance of minor or even major cosmetic faults. This does not seem to be the case here as one customer wrote.

The Bad…

⛔️ A complaint we found a couple of times was that design adjustments were introduced after signing a contract; leaving people confused when they discovered a different house in their plans.

⛔️ As an example, a certain review explains that promises made in the contract stage were forgotten once the build commenced.

The most infuriating issue is the very size of the 4 windows and 1 sliding doors were reduced by at least 20% of the size, with a sliding door losing almost a metre in length. They snakily made the changes in the drawings, without informing us or offer a credit for the reduced size (they did- only very eventually offering this when we showed our disapproval).

Review of McCarthy Homes on Product Review

Issues such as these seem to be the only major complaint made against McCarthy Homes. Changes post-contract are uncommon amongst their reviews however, it is important to have a keen eye on your build as changes to plans can be missed without experience in reading technical drawings.

Consistancy in Reviews

As for the average experience people have with McCarty. The fact that their average score hasn’t seen any major fluctuations over the past decade is a good sign. As a result, this leads us to believe most reviews on the site are legitimate. Fraudulent behaviour on Product Review can often be diagnosed by finding spikes in the number of reviews posted. Often this denotes an attempt to rapidly increase a company’s average score by flooding the site with positive reviews.

Tips when Building with McCarthy Homes

Understand the limitations of your block

• While McCarthy are known to tackles difficult and unusual blocks you need to understand what your block is capable of before approaching them.
  
• Claiming to tackle difficult blocks doesn’t mean they claim anything is possible on any block.
  
• McCarthy will work with you to design something suited to your land but plans can be subject to change as more is learnt about where they are building.
  
• What you might perceive as a limitation of McCarthy could actually be a limitation of your block, and this can lead to butting heads when you and the builder disagree with what’s possible.

Keep an eye on your design (especially if your going custom)

• A certain degree of understanding of technical drawings will go a long way if you’ve chosen McCarthy for their adaptability in design.
  
• What your house sounds like in writing can be entirely different from what the plans set out to build.
  
• If you have a clear vision of what your dream home looks like your only means to ensure vision and reality are in line is by understanding the plans; plans that are sometimes subject to change!

A Perosonal Testimony

We went out and spoke directly to a couple who have just recently completed building their home in Moggil QLD with McCarthy Homes

This is what they had to say :

The positives:

• We really love our home, we originally stared this process with an idea in mind of having a home that is light and airy. McCarthy has certinly hit the brief
• We were nervious about the colours selection process but are plesntley suprised by the end product

The negatives

• Unfortunely, we had to change site supervisors throughout our build process, this was extremly stresfull and resulted in alot of miscommunication
• The floor we selected was actually not avaliable they ended up laying a different floor to the one we selected without consulting us. It wasnt until later in the process that we identified this.

Overall they were pleasant to deal with but have some elements that they could improve in

McCarthy Home Designs and Inclusions

Instead of dividing their designs into different ranges, McCarthy offers 3 collections of inclusions, these collections are Sandstone, Granite and Quartz. These collections claim to maintain the same build quality. But as you progress through them expect; the appliances to get more cutting edge, the ceilings to get higher, and the finishes more luxurious.

All 3 collections have mutual inclusions including a foundation up to M class. Most builders will offer you the bare minimum for a slab that almost always needs upgrading. When perusing their entire inclusions options we found a few differences between these collections that really stood out.

To view their full list of inclusions and a comparative breakdown view their inclusions brochure here.

Virtual tour of walk through and TIPS

Queensland Building Construction Commission Record

• McCarthy Homes have a completely clean record with the QBCC, with no disciplinary action taken against them in their 22 years of operation.
  
• This should absolutely give you some peace of mind if choosing to build with them.
  
• Therefore, this means that McCarthy Homes always either deliver the home without major structural integrity problems or if they ever do arise are efficient at fixing their mistakes.

? Awards ?

HIA 2018 Winner – Brisbane Display Home $300,001 – $500,000

HIA 2018 Gold Coast & Norther Rivers Winner

• Display home of the year & Display home over $750,000
• Kitchen of the year & Kitchen over $50,000
• Bathroom of the year & Bathroom over $40,000
• Steel frame project
• Outdoor project

Conclusions

• Whether your drawn to their designs or looking for a builder to take on a more complicated block of land, McCarthy may be the right choice for you.

• Over the past 23 years, they’ve proven that they understand the needs of Queensland home builders while offering some of the most stylish designs in the state. Their commitment to quality both during and after construction is sure to give you confidence that your home will stand the test of time. If building with them make sure you a weary of where your build is going.

• Once the ball starts rolling with McCarthy it rarely stops meaning any change of mind can seriously disrupt the building process and cost you a hefty price. So make sure the plans your shown are for the house you want and lock them in if you choose to build with McCarthy.

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