Hi, My partner and I are looking at doing a house and land package with either...

Don’t know about key2, but be careful as G J way under quote the actual costs. Their “standard kitchen” doesn’t even have soft close drawers. They quote without checking covenants, so often adding gables etc. into their plan just to be able to meet the covenants will already add about $10,000. I would recommend going with a private builder. If you can, pay an architect to draw what you want up for you first then get quotes from a few different builders. Make sure you know the specifics in your quotes of everything included and brand of appliances etc.

did you move forwards with Key2? I am trying to get a little more info on them but I cant seem to find much

did you move forward with key2 trying to get info on them, not much around considering the have been in the market

Hi Brie, All good advice. In connection with builders putting in ‘standard’ provisions (or alternatively PC or Provisional Sums) which are unlikely to give you what you want in the finished build, please see my post yesterday on PC and Prov. Sums. But regarding my other comment, about how many people in NZ seem to get involved in building a house, when they have limited or no experience of building or building contracts, I have to ask, ‘Who on earth would employ a builder to design and build a house on their land, without first checking themselves to see whether there are any covenants, and making sure the builder is aware of them and has complied with them in the design, or priced to comply with them during construction?’.

Absolutely on same page as Brie. We had a customer who got a price from GJ’s and they came to us for a quote. We told them we would be $30K cheaper easily. They said when I put the quote to them that we were the same price as GJ’s. So I happily asked them to go back and ask specific questions and get it in writing about site excavation, fill, blockwork etc and yip, they had a pc sum of $1500 in the contract, no fill, no blockwork and yup, we were around $30K under the GJ price. Don’t be fooled people. Do your due diligence and tie up the contract for fixed price. Everyone out there is presenting contracts on pc sum which is a joke. It is unethical and works in favour of the company charging you huge variations. When you have to add something they charge like wounded bulls and you signed the contract allowing them to do this. Also make sure when you go to an architect you advise him what your build budget is and be realistic. We had a couple come to us wanting a beautiful house built out of Hinuera Stone and the cost from 2 other builders was around 850K to 1m and we came in at $760K. Their budget was $600K. They had to sell the land and move on destroying their dreams. We get this all the time, people wanting to build something designed by an architect and then expecting us to build for a ridulously low price. Its not fair on the customer and its not fair on the builder. We also do a huge amount of renovation work and find all the time that designers have designed something ridiculously costly for the application and coming to a reputable builder first and foremost, we can put you onto our contacts and work with them to design exactly what you need (ie: saving cost on the build). People think process is design, costing, choosing builder then build. Its not, its builder/designer working together, coming up with the right price for the build, tailoring specification to suit, making sure the wish list is accommodated for and then building with happy parties from go to whoa. Otherwise be careful what you wish for.