Macarthur’s Bespoke Custom Home Builders

Only if it has no allowances, provisional sums or prime costs in it. Those are guessed figures that can rise after you sign, and the risk of the increase sits with you, not the builder. Ask the builder to show you every one and tell you who pays if the real cost is higher. A contract with none of them is genuinely fixed, because everything in it has been properly priced before signing. A contract full of them is really an estimate, no matter what the cover page says.

Highwater Homes builds custom homes across Macarthur, Camden, the Illawarra and the Southern Highlands in New South Wales. Because we build where we work, we know the local estates, their design rules and the site conditions to watch for, including which developer guidelines are stricter than council. If you are still choosing a block anywhere in these areas, talk to us before you buy and we will tell you what the land will mean for your build.

Custom homes are priced to your design and block, so there is no single base price and we would not quote one over the phone, because any number given without a contour survey, soil test and real selections would be a guess. What we promise is a genuine fixed price once your selections and site reports are done, with no allowances hiding future increases. 

Check five things. Does the contract contain allowances, provisional sums or prime costs that can push the price up after you sign? How many homes does the builder run at once, and will you deal with the owner? How quickly do they respond during the build, and how quickly are they responding to you right now? Have they done a contour survey and soil test so the site cost is real, not a guess? And can they show you in writing what you will pay if you change nothing? Vague answers are the warning sign.

Fewer is usually better. A builder who caps their builds can keep the same trades on every site, which protects quality and timelines, and can stay personally across every job rather than handing clients between staff. Highwater Homes builds up to ten homes a year, spaced about four to six weeks apart, and gives each client direct access to the owner and the same team throughout. Ask any builder how many jobs they are running right now and who you will actually deal with.