Looking for reputable and reasonable builders for apartment building in Melbourne (VIC)

Hi there,
Doing a feaso - feasibility study on an apartment building with basement carpark
Caculated the GRV - Gross Realization Value, now looking for TDC -Total Development Costs
Had some crazy ones given by a developer turned agent yesterday
He quoted me 900k for a basement carpark amongst some other costs so I am a but wary.

Appreciate if anybody could recommend reputable and reasonable builders in the Melbourne area.
Hopefully the types that don't rip you off and rob you blind, many thanks.

Beanie

 

Basement parking construction is actually pretty pricey. How many square metres is the car park? And how many levels?

 

3 stories apartment block
Car Park size which includes some stackers is 822.8m (one level basement carparking)
which includes the exit/entry ramp which is 101.2m
(which is actually part of the carpark but it goes from ground to basement)

 

@LukeR might be able to help you with guidance on your costings

 

Have you engaged a QS @BMT Tax Depreciation or @Depreciator to throw numbers at a dartboard for you?

 

Hi Scott, thanks! You mean website like these about typical construction and build costs?

Construction Cost | Building Cost | Cost of Construction | BMT

 

Has @LukeR done apartments with a basement carpark, lixas?
Thank you for the recommendation, lixas, much appreciated

 

No, use the services of a QS for cost planning.

 

How many car spaces will that provide and therefore how many $/spot?

 

Havent seen him post for a little bit, but i think he works for a developer/big builder and does their feasibilities for apartment projects. If you look at some of his older posts he has provided guidance for multi story feasibilities for other pc members.

 

which parts of Melbourne?
are you doing stackers to fit in more bedrooms in your units?

 

Hi Hamish, I have 23 car park spaces, some in stackers - Klaus multibase
The car park also has to have space for other things like
Storage area - (126 sqm)
Waste and Recycling Bin enclosure (16.5 sqm)
Cleaners room (10.4 sqm)
Bike Parking (4.5 sqm)

The swept paths were certified by one of the best traffic consultants and company in Melbourne

 

Thanks lixas4, will look @LukeR up
The developer turned agent used Rawlinson's for his building costs and Total Development Cost for the feaso, Like $3000 per sqm X building sqm. Just rough guides
350k for Development Costs like Structural/Services Engineering, Working Drawings (Building Permit Stage), Soil Testing, Energy Rating report, Tree and Fire, Legal point of discharge etc
but no breakdown for each individual item, just a rough total figure of 350k for other development costs
And $248, 050 (I'm reeling) for selling fees, marketing fees and legal fees
Total GRV is between 10-11 m is my estimate so far
So I think I need other builder's estimates.

 

Hi Melbournian,

It got Council approved and signed last week, so am happy.
The development is within 15km of the city
No, didn't do stackers to fit in more bedrooms.
1 and 2 bedrooms and even 2 bedrooms + study only require 1 carpark under Victorian statutory requirement
3 bedders require 2 carpark spaces
If I had a bigger carpark to work with, I definitely would not have needed the stackers.
Total land size is 1351m
But you got to give a lot of communal open space (front garden) which I did at 91.4 sqm
I think the Better Apartment Guidelines suggest 100 sqm

We put in the DA/planning perrmit before the Better Apartment Guidelines came into force on 27 Mar 2017
so our development is not subject to any Better Apartment Guidelines (e.g. 2.7m height of floor to ceiling rather than 2.4m (reduces construction cost), balcony widths of 1.8-2 metres and adding a airconditioning condenser unit on your balcony means you must allow even more space for your balcony over and above the Better Apartment Guideline). Councils are given the liberty to choose to apply all, some or none of the better apartment guidelines to your development, it's all up to them but because we applied before 27 Mar 2017, we come under what in planning terminology is known as 'transitional provisions'

Nonetheless, we have 38% garden space which exceeds the statutory 35% garden space and have 22 canopy trees surrounding the development as well as other shrubs and smaller plants according to a landscape design by a well known landscape consultant in Melbourne. He is revered by Council and VCAT and whatever he says is relied upon like Gospel truth. He was quite happy to work on our development as he seldom had that much land area and garden space to work with to put in that many canopy trees. So pretty proud of our landscape design.

 

Its good news that you finally get the DA. I remember reading your thread about this project. Must have been more than a year.
How long exactly till you get the DA?

How are you going to fund the development now that banks have tightened the lending?

I am sorry for not being helpful to your questions. You are a year or two ahead of me.

Really keen to see the design if you don't mind sharing

 

Will your architect manage a tender for you? it might be the easiest way to get a grip on the prices.
How did the pricing from this developer stack up against your feasibility?

 

Interesting thanks - i'm doing a couple of planning permits one slightly smaller than yours - but have steered away from apartments atm but have a semi-recessed basement. yeah i know about the parking req for dwelling but you must have a more dwellings than car parking spaces required to be putting in stackers or is it for the guest carparking.

 

Every developer or agent I've shown the design too has just been blown away by it. They've never seen anything like it in the market so far. We haven't been greedy, large apartments, lots of amenities, balconies, courtyards, juliette balconies, large gardens for the ground floor apartments. No 2 apartments are alike. No cookie cutter apartments.

Some 2 bedders have 2 bathrooms, some have studies or powder rooms. I even have a 83m 1 bedder + study that I'm seriously thinking of converting back to a 2 bedder. I've got 2 x 3 bedders. They're huge - 100m and 97m with humongous garden sizes and terraces as they are on the ground floor

 

I already liking the design by the sound of it

 

I've got complete reduction of visitor carparking.
I've got 93 angled public carparks beside the development (I kid you not)
and 200+ public carparks behind the development
but the 4 visitor carparking can easily be accommodated in front of the development
as we are going to remove one crossover.

A semi-recessed basement is a pain. My Council does not like semi-recessed basement carparks and will make us get acoustic engineers to come out and do tests and what not. Residents will complain about noise from semi-recessed basement carparks and hence Council orders the acoustic engineer to come out and test the noise. in a fully underground carpark, it is well know and well accepted by all the VCAT members that there will be NO sound from an underground carpark and residents complaints about noise from underground carparks will fall on deaf ears.

It's just that I have to fit so many other things in my carpark - 6 square meter storage space for each apartment, Waste and Recycling Bin storage, Bike Rack space, Cleaner's room.
And the lift lobby and staircase that goes all the way to basement. That takes up a lot of space.

If I didn't have to it so many things in the carpark, I wouldn't have required the car stackers