Not only is it becoming more expensive to build a home in New Zealand, but building on a budget can be a massive test, not only through cost restrictions, but also with the many unexpected challenges that most new builds face.
When getting a new build home priced up, many companies quote for the best-case scenario. But what about the additional costs that creep in during the build process? Ask anyone who has built a new home and we’re sure all have suffered from the typical pitfalls in one way or another.
In this article, we explore the hidden costs of building a new kitset home.
Weather can play a massive part in dictating the cost overruns of a standard home building project. Cold weather can result in concrete not setting, and wet weather can delay access to the site and stop tradespeople or builders from completing their tasks. While high wind can put a further stopper on progress.
Project management can be its own worst nightmare as well. Done well, and by a professional, your site will have contingencies in place for most eventualities. However if not done properly, and with a single piece of the puzzle out of whack, the whole precession can easily come to a grinding halt.
"But wait!" I hear you cry, "isn't my builder the project manager?". In some cases, yes, in others, probably not. Project management is like an HR manager, someone in marketing or operations might be able to do a little HR 101 thanks to a module at university but doing it well, and getting the best outcome for you, is best coming from a specialist.
If you require a builder or project manager, you can look on sites like Builders Crack. It's always good to do background checks on anyone before you hire them either way.
How much will these building delays cost? It’s very much in the old 'how long is a piece of string' category of questions. Some building contracts will have clauses that outline what an 'excused delay' quantifies as. These are usually events that cannot be foreseen or predicted (otherwise known as force majeure). Sometimes these forces will have a stipulated cost impact, after all, a builder that can't work on your site due to weather or their materials not arriving on time could have worked on another site that day so you're causing them to lose income. How much that cost will likely be will be stipulated in the contract.
Some contracts go into even more detail with 'owner caused' delays. These are realised when the owner changes the project or plan and that has an impact on the project causing delays.
So even though it's relatively easy to find a standard costing model for determining how much it will cost to build your new home the realities of cost are likely to be much different. Also, don't forget to add consents and inspection costs into the mix.
Of course, you could avoid these headaches very easily and still benefit from the joys of moving into a brand new home of your own.
We're sure the next question you have is, is there any way to avoid these additional costs but still get the home of my dreams? Absolutely! Prefab homes offer the perfect, modern solution to excess costs and building delays. Prefabricated homes are built in a factory, so weather delays are very difficult to come by, and the ease of having your home delivered straight to your site means there are far fewer on-site disruptions and impacts to roads/driveways than kitset homes.
Genius Homes also includes consents, inspections and site costs in the initial price of the home, meaning that a quote from Genius Homes is much closer to a set price than many other building projects.
Thinking of building a home? Check out our range of prefab homes by downloading our latest product brochure. We have a range of self-contained units, 2-bedroom, 3-bedroom and 4-bedroom homes to choose from, along with designs perfect for farm accommodation, holiday homes and granny flats. We are also happy to discuss any custom options with you directly.
