Alex

Hi,
We recently moved to Northland, and love it.
Currently we are renting a house, which we love as it is in a really lovely location.The landlord is planning on subdividing, and my OH and I are looking at the idea of building our own home.
Does anyone have any experience of this, what do people think???
Thanks in anticipation,
Alex

beaudixon

Hi,
We are in the process of buying a section and building.
We are planning to use Stonewood homes - they have approx. 25/30 house plans at set price and you just choose which one you want, they do all the rest, planning, building etc they even guarantee completion date.
There are other companies that work on the same principle to.
Hope it helps!
Neil.

sky

We're just at the very start of getting a house up on some land we bought. We aren't using a company we've decided to get plans drawn up and do it all from scratch :scared: The reason being we have to keep to a really tight budget and I want to be the one in control rather than getting frustrated waiting for building companies to get contractors in etc.

Alex

Thanks for your replies... I hope your builds go well, from what I can see around here they can put a house up in around 6-9 weeks after all the consents etc.It does seem quick.
We went to see a company called Sovereign,they came reccommended by on of OH colleagues the houses looked lovely, with good layouts and I thought they were reasonably priced for an all inclusive option.(I know there will always be hidden extras....)
All we have to do now is speak nicely to our landlord.......
Regards,
Alex

shanedowd

Hi,

Reading this with much interest. You mention reasonably priced - could you let me know the sort of price ranges your referring to? I guess reasonable would be in comparison to the UK? One thing that interests me is whether these building companies offer central heating systems - seems like the NZ's don't make much use of this common luxury :-) Not that we're nesh or anything, but all the talk of dampness makes me wonder how long a timber framed house would actually last.

BR Shane

Alex

Sovereign homes are brick and tile, they have a budget range that start at $151000-206000, these are 3 and 4 bedroomed homes, and include everything from the kitchen sink to the ovens and carpets....alot cheaper than in the UK.
HOWEVER...This does not include any heating, only 1 socket per room...etc etc....so you can probably add on around 20% for all the xtras.
I personally fancy the "hot air system" which ducts warm air around the house, but I have no experience of it.
Hope this answers your question, although I am not an expert, by any means.

lapsed kiwi

It costs $7-10k to retrofit gas air heating to a 3-4 bedroom house, so you should be looking at less than this if you fit in build

shanedowd

Thanks for the reply, certainly sounds very competative in terms of price even with the additional 20%. If your interested in heating systems with additional benfits of alternative power you should have a look at these guys...

http://www.whispergen.com/

New Zealand based and the technology is great. Personally I'd stay cl;ear of ducted hot air systems - they'll leave your home climate very low in humidity levels (not a good idea).

BR Shane

Alex

Thank you for the link, I guess I'll leave the technical stuff to my OH as I don't have a clue.
I am more interested in what colour to paint the walls.....(and we don't even have the land yet)

Sophie_Wellington

Hi Alex,

I've recently saw a programme on pre-fabricated houses that are simply put together and built on-site. In terms of the cost it's a lot lower than going the whole hog for a self-build. You would think they looked a bit naff given the way they are built, but nooooo, the one we saw was absolutely stunning, like an exec mansion, and for a heck of a lot less than you can do a self build. You can choose from a list of designs to fit your plot, or have them design their own for you. I think this is the cheapest option for self build, but don't really know until we get out there.

Please can you let me know how you get on, as me and my OH want to look into buying a section and doing this when we arrive in September.

Thanks