Panelwood's Building Costs
"When choosing a builder for your new transportable home, make sure you compare apples with apples..."
Panelwood Homes build the best value-for-money homes in New Zealand! But, with so many home building companies in the market place - each with different pricing policies, how do you assess the total cost when deciding which builder to approach?
First, we have to define "value-for-money". For us, it means that you love your new home and feel it's worth every cent you paid for it and more.
In simple terms there are three broad categories of home building companies in New Zealand:
Panelwood Homes have pioneered a new category; we call ourselves "client builders" - because we listen, we understand, we care and we build warm, comfortable, low-maintenance houses. Best of all, there won't be any unexpected (unpleasant) surprises!
Typically each of these categories has different pricing policies
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Owner/operators tend to give approximate square metre rates and then quote each job by obtaining prices from suppliers and sub contractors. It is possible to get excellent homes built at good value using owner/operators. However, it is also possible that you will get no customer service, a "she'll be right, mate" attitude and cost over runs.
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Mass home builders provide indicative prices, usually excluding floor coverings and site services from the site boundary to the house. They will select a cost effective design, typically with a double garage and a floor plan with large rooms in order to quote you a low square metre rate for the home. Because of this clients are attracted to them, enter into the well planned and thought out process, which draws the client into the relationship. Then they add costs for floor coverings, site connections, extra power points, kitchen upgrade etc... all resulting in a higher cost than originally expected.
The end product provided by these companies varies greatly depending on the franchisee and sub contractor builder you happen to get for your home. Some results are wonderful, some are terrible, and most are somewhere in between.
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Architectural home builders usually work in with well-known architects and cater to exacting top end clients for whom money is no object. The architect will quote the client with an expensive high specification square metre rate (typically around $4000 to $5000 per square metre.) without doubt the house can cost this much and the builder will go to great lengths to accommodate the client with high expectations and typically build one or two houses a year.
A note on the "dangers" of working on square metre rates:
Be very clear about what is included and excluded from the rate quoted - specifications and inclusion lists differ widely.
The floor plan affects the square metre rate; for example, both shapes below have an area of 16 square metres, but the square shape has a wall length of 16 metres, the rectangular shape has a wall length of 20 metres - the extra 25% of walls would clearly add to the building cost.
It is also worth noting that smaller houses will always cost more per square metre because the bathroom, kitchen, site connections etc. all cost about the same for most houses, irrespective of size.