Hi, I’m planning to build a house in Christchurch

Hi JJ – you could always try our Building Guide website to find a builder. Go here for Canterbury builders – cheers Mark http://www.buildingguide.co.nz/builders/canterbury/

Hi JJ, when you say $500K “for everything” do you mean build/landscaping or do you mean including the section in there? If just for the build then great but if you are including a section then that would be very tight, even if you are buying in Rolly or somewhere. However, in the meantime some great builders with good ethics are Peter Ray Homes (have built twice with them), Greenland Homes (excellent pricing for the spec) and Paul McStay Builders. 🙂

Avoid Stonewood like the plaque. Good sales teams, appear to build nice homes but the actual end result and painful process are not worth it. Just look at the Hamilton and Marlborough branches going under and SW Chch aren’t doing a thing to help those poor people complete. I would recommend GJs, Classic and Signature however.

Hello. We’ve built with Generation Homes last year. No hassle at all. Our agent is really wonderful. She’s with us the entire journey and still checks up on us if we have any issues or concern. I am more than happy to share our experience with you regarding Generation Homes.

Looked at Stonewood here in Auckland. Suffice to say, did not proceed.

Stay clear of Platinum Canterbury worst mistatke i have made They are Trouble and not worth the effort Try anyone else but stay clear of this company we are going through legal steps

Don’t go near Stonewood Homes in Christchurch. I went there and have rued that decision for the last 3 years. The quality of workmanship is appalling, the customer service non existent, the build time took twice as long as my previous build leaving me out of pocket many $$$$’s. Fixing the problems with the build will take years and if not fixed during Stonewood’s warranty period will have to get done under the Master Build Guarantee . I see they are restructuring and have brought in some heavy hitters but that will not change anything. They got greedy, took on too much work, employed below par sub contractors and instead of protecting a reputation with good customer service and a quality product ended up alienating a lot of people and lost a lot of potential clients.

Hi, just a point about Stonewoods – maybe an interaction with them should been viewed through rose coloured glasses. Asking them wether they have enough money to pay their subbies to finish the job would be a good placd to start! Then the house buyer wouldnt be disappointed & the subbies would be able yo pay their staff.

Thank you so much for your suggestions. I’m trying to include section and home only. I saw some sections in Rolleston under 180K. So my actual budget for building house is around 320K only.

Thank you Mark

Same as us. Do not engage with Stonewood Tauranga. Similar story poor poor poor quality from a sub that ended up walking after stuffing up framing to the degree its now not fixable. Stonewoods QA is non existent and although coming to an agreement with their GM the branch owner has reneged on that deal which leaves us in the position of them thinking they will get all of their final payment and walk away scot free. Unfortunately, they have struck the wrong people to battle.

I agree whole heartedly. They are rubbish. The CEO is full of it, talks the talk, but dosent walk the walk. They will take for ever to do anything, promise you the world – and deliver nothing short of pathetic. The CEO is driven by greed, with no thought to the multitude of staff he has gone through and he definately does not regard his clients as his business. Dont even walk in the door of Canterbury, Southland, Wellington, Manawhatu or Wairarapa, which are all owned by the same person and based on the Kapiti Coast. All the licenses are run remotely from there so the support is nothing, they virtually have no competent sales persons left or supervisors to manager your project. You will always be asked ahead of contract to pay each progress payment – but I hope you have time to wait if you are asking for a credit or variation request, absolutley no rush in this department. If you dont believe the numerous blog sites and very poor reviews this man/company has reveived – ask for some references from them, they won’t be able to give you any positive feedback from past clients. Good luck with any building project that anyone is undertaking – just walk right past Platinum Homes and this man.

Hi which branch of Generation Homes did you build with? We are currently building with Generation Homes in Hamilton and although there have been some teething issues overall we are happy so far.

I’m looking at building this year and from everything I’ve read $2000 per m2 seems like a realistic budget you should be looking at. If you’re looking at 240m2 you’re likely going to need to up your budget substantially or decrease your house size (maybe 200m2 is achievable at that price?).

Fairly naïve response. Just asking them to be honest wont work. They lied on their disclosure statement to us. So why would they be honest about paying their subs. Eyes wide open. Run the contract past a lawyer, school yourself on the minimum information to be provided in the contract. I’m in the business and still got caught out. If the information that is supposed to be provided was correct, we wouldn’t have gone with them. But you don’t know until you know and now we know. This will form the basis of our court case against them.

Also keep away from Platinum Homes Karaka (Auckland) and Pukekohe. There are comments on this blog about the way they have treated clients. The same franchise owner owns both branches .and I had to take him to court to get some action. I would not recommend Platinum Homes to anyone at all

Hi Sarah! We built with Generation Homes Christchurch. It’s been four months since we moved in and our impression with Generation Homes has not changed. They have the 90-day build guarantee to repair defects and all. We can barely find issues with the workmanship.

This is so true treats staff like they are dirt he has little man but thinks he has a big head I know what he has done to clients and staff and he should not be able to employ staff ,Total rude and puts them down ,does the big spill about going to pay you ex amount for the houses you sell and then doesn’t pay you shame on you ,one day this will come back to you when your not looking

Yep, totally agree with dw. Was just about to type the same thing. 🙂

Hi DW/Sally That $2000 m2 is a pretty basic, standard house. If you want an architect involved then you’re looking at starting at $2500-3000 and going up. The size doesn’t generally affect the $m2 price but obviously will to the overall cost of the build. There’s more information here…http://www.buildingguide.co.nz/planning/building-costs/

Planning to go and see couple of show homes this weekend and meet more builders to see the possibilities.. Will update you the outcome soon. Thank you so much for your suggestions.

Hello JJ – One option to reduce the cash outlay is to do some of the work yourself. Especially valid if you are not pressed for time. There are specialist jobs that require meeting standards, but a lot of finishing work can be done yourself with some simple tools. there are a few websites to get these off too – intex.co.nz, buildonline.nz to name some

Any experience with the company online design & build?

What happened with the court case? did you win?

Exactly Mark, couldn’t agree more. Its getting pretty ridiculous for pricing down here lately. Have been doing a few house developments lately and we pay about $1800 ourselves (that’s for a fairly high spec – tiled showers, smart kitchen etc) but that’s developer prices, not “consumer” prices. Its way higher if you go to a housing company. Some are particularly expensive. JJ – There are some housing companies that build off-site now and seem a bit cheaper (saw one on a TV show recently) but it looks like they are mostly in the North Island and not sure if they “ship” them down here. Worth googling though??. 🙂

I disagree. $2k a m2 is actually pretty high spec. Your basic GJs is approx. $1400 a m2. At 150m2 house that’s $205k. Which is what we paid a couple of years ago. Rates haven’t gone up much and I think it this house is now $1450 a m2 but you get a lot more built into the price. $2k is a Stone wood or A1 at a higher spec or high spec GJ.

James is correct – you can elect to do some finishing work yourself, like painting. I wouldn’t recommend plastering unless you know what you’re doing as a high level of finish can be difficult to achieve. Just remember that there’s a time commitment here and exterior painting of timber weatherboards is needed for CCC. Of course, you can buy the tools James refers to at most building merchants, too.