A lot of the homes we build go up on land the client already owned — an established block, a slice of a family subdivision, a lot bought years ago and held while life happened. If that is you, this is simpler than a package in one respect and harder in another. There is no land to negotiate. But the block has already decided things you cannot change, and the sooner we look at it the better the outcome.
Send us the address before you choose a design
It is the wrong way round and we know it. Almost everyone falls for a floorplan first; the brochures are designed to make you. But the frontage, the fall, the orientation, the easements and the trees decide what can physically and legally go on that block, and we would rather show you the three designs that genuinely fit than spend two meetings talking you out of the one you had already chosen.
Within a day or two of seeing an address we can usually tell you which of our 28 designs fit, roughly how the home would sit, and which of the site factors below are likely to matter.
What the site assessment covers
Before anyone can give you a real price, six things get checked.
Frontage and depth against the design footprint. Including the side setbacks your council or covenant requires, which is where narrow blocks quietly rule designs out.
The fall across the building envelope — not across the whole block, which is the number people quote and the one that misleads. If there is meaningful fall, see sloping block builds.
Soil classification. Reactive clay behaves differently from sand, and it changes the slab and therefore the cost.
Where the services are. Power, water, sewer and gas, and critically how far they have to travel to reach the house. On an estate block this is a formality. On a rural or oddly shaped block it is not — see acreage and rural builds.
Easements, overlays and covenants on the title. A sewer easement running through the middle of the block is the single most common nasty surprise we see, and it is visible on the title before you buy.
Setbacks, if the block is established. Older lots were often subdivided under rules that no longer apply, which occasionally works in your favour and occasionally does not.
What we can tell you straight away, and what has to wait
Straight away: which designs fit, how they would sit, what the likely constraints are, and whether anything on the title should worry you.
Not until the soil test and survey are done: the site cost. Anyone who gives you that number before those are complete is guessing, and the guess is always low. Your fixed price is set once they are in — before you sign, not after.
If your block is not a standard rectangle
Three situations have their own pages because the answers are genuinely different: blocks with fall, acreage and rural land, and blocks with a house still on them. Battle-axe blocks, corner lots and unusually narrow frontages we handle regularly — they just need the conversation earlier.
What you get that is the same as any other build
The same standard inclusions, the same six-step process, the same fixed-price contract once site costs are known, the same 10-year structural guarantee, and the same Home Selection Studio day where every finish is chosen in one visit rather than across six appointments. Owning the land changes the first step, not the standard.
If you are still looking for a block
We also put together house and land packages, and through Davis Sanders Developments we subdivide land ourselves — so if your search has stalled, ask us what is coming up before you widen your budget.
