Frequently Asked Questions…

How long does it take to build?
Overall we would say 9 - 10months from identifying land to handover. This is divided in to 2 parts:

Pre-Construction:
Identifying a section and processing your purchase can take a number of weeks. At the same time, we can be working on the concept development phase and nailing down the exact pricing package of your build.
Once we have a completed conceptual design, where you’re 100% happy, then the design moves to working drawings which takes 2 weeks, then it goes to the truss designer which takes 1 weekk, then the engineer for 1 week before it goes to council for consenting. The Council Consent process is 4 weeks.

Construction Phase:
As soon as we get consent, we commence on site. Once we start on site, the buiild process is approximately 4.5 - 5 months. OR a maximum of 100 working days. Sometimes we can build faster than that if everything runs smoothly and we have all your colour choices in time :)

Can you price off plans?
Absolutely, if you have had full working drawings by someone else, we can provide a fixed price quotation for this. Send them through and we can give a timeframe to get a quote back to you, usually its within 1 week but more complex builds, may take longer.

How much is your m2 rate?
There are so many variables in a new build, the big factors are floor area / specifications / cladding area. Because of this, its too tricky to oversimplify a whole build package down to a m2 rate. I am confident we are competitive in the marketplace and our rates vary between $1550 - $2000 m2. There are so many fixed costs in a build, like bathrooms and kitchens and consent fee’s / drainage / plumbing. All variables, which don’t really change depending on house size, therefore, as a house gets larger, the m2 rate goes down. Likewise if the specifications are lower, then the m2 is cheaper. Beware of building companies promoting a cheaper m2 rate, as often they exclude items like carpet and consent fee’s, to make the m2 rate ‘appear’ cheaper than it really is.

Do you offer the 10 Year Masterbuilder’s Guarantee?
Absolutely, all our builds include this as standard.


Do you use Fixed Price Builders Contracts?
Yes, all of our contracts are ‘fixed price.’ Which means that Pacific Builds guarantee’s the price to build that home except for PC Sum items. This means that you and your bank have confidence that the contract price isn’t going to blow out and you can budget confidently for your build.

What is a PC Sum?
A ‘provisional cost’ sum means that there is an allowance made in the contract which is ‘variable’ and if the item costs less than the PC Sum, then you will get a credit for this. If the item costs more, then the homeowner pays the difference. We don’t have many of these however we would generally use a PC Sum for: Feature Light Fittings and Kitchen Supply. For the feature light fitting (pendants), we may allow a PC Sum of $350 in the contract. This means you can go and find a light fitting that you like. If you spend $250, you will get $100 credited back to you. Likewise if you find a upspec pendant for $500, then you pay the difference above the $350 PC Sum. For the kitchen, we allow enough money e.g. $12,000 to build a quality kitchen in your size house, some people spend less than this and get a credit, but you may want to upgrade your kitchen with many upspec features and therefore can pay the additional value above the $12,000 PC Sum. If you have any questions about this, feel free to have a chat with us.

Do you discount or price match?
Ultimately we put forward our best price to all our clients, to ensure that its fair to everyone. If you have seen a cheaper price elsewhere, please let us know as Im confident that if you compared both packages ‘apples for apples,’ that our offering would be more competitive. For example, another company may use ‘budget’ tap-ware and appliances, which if we matched these, our price would be lower. So while we don’t discount to keep it fair, we can adjust the specifications and inclusions / exclusions to fit a desired price target.

My friends or family are contractors, can we do some of the work ourselves?
Have a chat to us about this. There is opportunity to do some components of the job but we would generally hand the house over first to ensure our insurance is maintained and guarantees are in place. Because we run a very efficient operation, we’ve found that changing our core team for other contractors, often affects the flow of your job and in hindsight, hasn’t saved the client that much money. The other dynamic is that your 10 year guarantee excludes any work undertaken by yourself, which can be an issue if you sell your home and transfer the guarantee to the new owner.