Melbourne - Builder Quote for Approved Plans

We are looking to buy a PPOR property - the lot has approved plans and permits for a two-lot subdivision. Its basically fixing and extending the period home in front and building a townhouse at the back. The already have power and sewerage already connected to the back lot.

We don't have any experience with building - and looking for community's guidance on what steps we need to take to best estimate the build costs.

The existing owner engaged the architect to create the plan to extend and fix the period home in front and squeeze a townhouse at the back. The plan looks good to us, but doesn't have any renders included. From my reading so far, anything involving customised architect plans for extending could be very expensive. My questions:

1. I will ring a few local builders to ask for a quote. But would they review the architect plans and provide estimates as it is ? How reliable are those (As these won't be quotes). Based on that cost, we will make a decision to buy or not to buy.
2. Lets say we plan to buy this. I presume the next steps is to get the Building Approval ? What are things we need to see to make sure we don't have problems with that. How long generally this process takes ?
3. When does the actual subdivision takes place ? Post building approval, pre build ? (As post subdivision, there will be two different addresses)
4. How does the mortgage process works in this case ? We first ask bank 80% of current purchase price. Then do subdivision and building approval and then ask for 80% of build cost ?
5. Last question. Assuming we can afford it - can we buy the house, work on the front renovation and then build the townhouse at the back later stage (I assume approvals don't expire)?

Apologies upfront for noob questions. Doing a lot of reading on this subject but wanted to confirm all this.

 

5 — I think the answer is yes but plans do expire. Your council will tell you, Darebin is 3 years to start and 5 years to finish from plans being approved.

 

Thanks!

 

Are the plans you mention the construction drawings with engineering etc?

if not, then the most a builder will do is give a ball park figure (and it could be too low or too high) based on general construction costs per square metre.

A proper quote takes time and also costs the builders time - getting quotes for the aspects they sub out etc.

 

Do you have DA plans or CC plans - best to get quotes from builders when you have CC plans as it will be more accurate than DA plans. You also need to give him/her the stormwater plans.

Also investigate the soft costs such as council contribution costs, LSL, etc.

 

No, it doesn't have the construction design. And understand that it will be a ball park estimate. Spoke to one of the builders yesterday and was surprised that he said it will cost around 700k to build a townhouse at the back subdivision (around 180sqm block size with construction on 110)

 

Depends on the specs. Often the person wanting to build has a different spec in mind to what the builder is ballparking on. Then later on when you change the specs the variations will cost an arm and two legs and a chunk of your sanity.

 

700k to build ONE townhouse? I have a similar quote to build 3

 

I know. I was surprised as well - as I was thinking it will. be more like 300k as its architect drawn and squeezed 3bedroom wit WIR on a small block.

 

Looking at doing a similar project, do you mind DM who that quote was from and if you ended up going with them as I'm looking for unit builders myself. Thank you

 

Depends on the spec of the house tbh.

Architects usually spec to $4000 m2.

If your townhouse is around 175m2 in floor space then $700,000 would fit that spec level.

 

Woww... how big is the actual townhouse itself? That's outrageously expensive. Based on Rawlinson Construction Cost Guide 2020 Victoria rates (which I find to be reasonably accurate), the range in townhouse costs per m2 are as per the attached screenshot (not $4000/m2 as someone else mentioned).

 

Architects can design to a budget, please don't say that an Architect's spec is $4,000/sqm - we design for $2,000 for a mid level bespoke house - depends on client's requirements and fittings etc. Please don't make architects sound more costly and expensive.

 

That certainly hasn't been my experience to what their usual spec is, I'm sure they can go lower but $2000 is far lower than any quote I've had. If you can guarantee those prices then I will certainly talk to you next time I need to do a build.

Do you have some examples and costs of some places I can see that are at $2000/sqm? Happy if you want to just PM.

 

Maybe you need to brief the architect more fully. We were too busy to undertake a construction documentation project recently and obtained fees from architects for our client. Fees ranged from around $6k to $35k. Same project, just different interpretations by different architects.

 

Hi Nimai, just curious about construction costs for Sydney based on the guide??