Albury is where we started in 1991 and where everything still runs from. The office, the Home Selection Studio and the trade teams are all at 21 Bennu Circuit. If you are building in Albury you are not dealing with the regional branch of a Melbourne builder — you are dealing with the people who make the decisions, in the same town as your block.
Two quite different Alburys to build in
The design conversation is genuinely different depending on which one you are in, and it is worth working out early.
Growth-corridor Albury
Thurgoona, Hamilton Valley and the newer releases. Blocks are broadly rectangular, services are at the boundary, and an estate covenant sets rules on facade materials, minimum floor area, fencing and how soon you must start building. The work here is matching a design to a frontage and complying with the covenant, and both are quick once we have the lot number.
Established Albury
East Albury, North Albury, Glenroy and Lavington. Blocks here are frequently larger than anything in a current release, but they were subdivided under rules that no longer apply, the services come in from unexpected places, and today's setbacks are the ones that count — not the ones the existing house was built to. Most of our work in these suburbs is a knockdown rebuild, and we organise the demolition as part of it.
The New South Wales approval path
An Albury block is approved under the New South Wales system. For a straightforward build in a new estate, where the design complies with the applicable standards, that is generally a faster pathway than a full development application — which is one reason we check your covenant and your block dimensions against the design before anything is drawn.
Where a block or a design does not comply, it goes through council, and that is a longer road. We will tell you which one you are on at the start rather than in the middle. If your block is across the river, the sequence is different again — see building in Wodonga and our guide to building across the border.
Choose everything in one place, in one day
The Home Selection Studio is here in Albury, with working kitchen and bathroom displays rather than sample boards. Your Style Day happens in a single visit with a professional colour consultant, instead of six appointments at six suppliers across three weeks.
That is only possible because the cabinetry is made by Master Kitchens and Joinery — our own workshop, a short drive from the studio. When the people making your kitchen work for the same company as the person helping you choose it, the whole selection process collapses into a day.
Which designs suit Albury blocks
Estate frontages in Thurgoona and Hamilton Valley generally suit the Evolve and Elevate ranges — the Beau 27 on 25 by 15 metres, the Jackson 30 on 27 by 15.
Narrower new-release lots are where the Bella 23 earns its place, fitting an 11-metre frontage without giving up the butler's pantry.
Established blocks in East and North Albury are often deep enough for the Homestead range, which surprises people who assume acreage designs need acreage. And where the block shape defeats every catalogue plan — which happens on older subdivisions — a one-off custom design is frequently the better answer rather than the extravagant one.
Site costs on an Albury block
Two things decide it here more than anything else: the fall across the building envelope, and the soil classification. Neither is a reason to avoid a block. Both are established by survey and soil test before your price is fixed, and we will give you a view on which way a block is likely to go before you buy it — which is information most people only get afterwards. More on that in what it costs to build.
Start at our office, or at your block
Whichever suits. If you are buying in a new release, bring the lot number and the covenant. If you are rebuilding, we would rather come to the existing house and look at what is there, what the neighbours' windows see, and what is worth keeping.
