Know your real budget before you fall in love with a floor plan

The second-quickest way to get burnt on a new build is to fall in love with a plan before you've worked out what you can actually afford. (The first is hiring a cowboy builder, but we'll get to that another day.)

Here's the trap most people fall into: they sit down with their savings and their mortgage broker, work out a borrowing capacity, and assume that's their build budget. It isn't. That figure has to cover everything — and "everything" is a longer list than most folks realise.

The build itself is one line. Around it sit: site costs (which on a sloping or tricky block can lift the cost 5-10%), demolition or site prep if there's anything already there, council and certifier fees, consultants like surveyors and engineers, a connection allowance for power, water and sewer, GST on top of all of it, and a landscaping and fencing line nobody likes thinking about. Then there's a contingency, because there's always something.

A simple example. A 300sqm home at $2,500 + GST per square metre is $750k + GST for the build. Add 10% for site conditions, 5% for landscaping and fencing, 20-30k for consultants and fees, and you're suddenly closer to $1m than $750k — before any luxury inclusions. People walk in thinking they've got enough for the dream and walk out short by six figures. That's not the builder's fault, that's just the maths.

What I tell every client is: work out your absolute top-line figure first — what's in the bank plus the most you're prepared to borrow. Then back it down for all the bits above. What's left is your actual build budget. That's the number to design to.

And tell your builder. Don't keep it close to your chest. A decent builder uses your budget as a guardrail, not a target — we'd rather design something you can afford and love than something you can't and resent.

Want a straight answer on what your budget can really build? inh.com.au/bundaberg.