What owners ask before they sign
25 questions on registration, cost, contracts and program — answered the way we would answer them in a first meeting. Where Victorian law is mid-reform, the answer says so and gives the date, because a confident answer about a rule that changed in July is worse than no answer at all.
Registration and due diligence
Everything here is checkable in about ten minutes, and worth checking before you send anyone a deposit.
How do I check if a builder is registered in Victoria?
Search the public register of building practitioners at the Building and Plumbing Commission, using either the builder’s name or their registration number. The register tells you the class of registration, whether it is current, and whether any disciplinary action has been recorded. A company and an individual are registered separately, so check both — the entity on your contract must itself be registered, not merely employ someone who is. If a builder cannot give you a registration number on request, that is the end of the conversation, not the start of a negotiation.
What is the difference between Domestic Builder Unlimited and Domestic Builder Limited?
Unlimited registration covers carrying out, managing and arranging all components of domestic building work; Limited registration covers only the specific components named on the certificate. The difference is the scope of work, not the contract value. For a custom home, Unlimited is the class that matters — a Limited registration holder cannot lawfully contract to build your whole house. The register states the class explicitly. Crave Build holds Registered Domestic Builder – Unlimited at both company level (CDB-U 102006) and individual level (DB-U 102065).
What insurance is a builder required to have in Victoria?
From 1 July 2026, eligible domestic building work valued above $20,000 must be covered by Home Warranty, which replaced Domestic Building Insurance. The threshold used to be $16,000 under DBI. The change matters for more than the number: DBI only responded if the builder died, disappeared or became insolvent, while Home Warranty may also respond where work is incomplete, defective or non-compliant and the builder fails or refuses to fix it. Maximum assistance is $400,000 per home, up from $300,000 under DBI, subject to eligibility, limits and exclusions. Ask to see the certificate for your specific project — not a generic letter saying the builder is eligible.
What questions should I ask a luxury home builder before signing?
Ask the four that are hard to answer with marketing language. First: who is actually on site every week, and is that the person quoting me? Second: how many projects are you running right now, and what stage is each at? Third: show me the cost report format I will receive, on a real project, with the numbers redacted. Fourth: walk me through the last variation you issued — what triggered it, what did it cost, and when did the client find out? A builder with systems answers all four in a few minutes. A builder without them changes the subject to finishes.
Does the builder who quotes my project actually run it?
Often not, and it is worth asking directly. In many companies the person who prices your job and the person who runs it are different people with different incentives, and the handover between them is where assumptions get lost. At Crave Build the two roles sit with the two principals: Kim runs site and trades directly, Abby runs contracts, cost reporting and the client relationship. Nobody is handed to a project manager after the contract is signed. This is the main reason we cap the number of concurrent projects.
Cost
The questions where a vague answer costs you the most.
What does it cost per square metre to build a custom home in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs?
A square-metre rate is the wrong unit for a custom home, and any builder who gives you one without seeing the site is guessing. The rate varies with site conditions, the number of storeys, structural spans, glazing proportion, and the level of joinery and stone — on the same floor area, two architect-designed houses can differ by more than fifty per cent. A meaningful number comes from pricing the actual drawings, or from an elemental estimate built stage by stage during design. If you need a planning figure before drawings exist, ask for a range with the assumptions written next to it, and treat the assumptions as the important part.
How much does a knockdown rebuild cost in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs?
The build contract is only part of it, and the gap between the two numbers is where most budgets fail. Beyond construction you are funding demolition, asbestos removal if present, service disconnections and reconnections, soil and survey reports, planning and building permits, council and authority fees, energy rating, landscaping, driveways, fencing, and often a period of rent elsewhere. On an eastern-suburbs rebuild these items routinely add a six-figure sum that never appears in a builder’s quote. Build the budget from both lists before you commit to a block.
What costs are not included in a builder’s quote?
Anything the contract does not name is your cost, not the builder’s. The usual omissions are planning and building permit fees, authority and council charges, soil and survey reports, energy and structural consultants, demolition and site clearing, service connections, landscaping, driveways, fencing, window furnishings, and the loose items that make a house liveable. None of this is dishonest — a build contract covers construction, not the project. The problem is that owners read a build quote as a project budget. Ask every builder for their exclusions list in writing, and compare exclusions before you compare prices.
What is a provisional sum and what is a prime cost item?
Both are placeholders for something not yet decided, and both are where budgets quietly move. A provisional sum is an allowance for work whose scope is not yet defined — for example, a rock allowance in excavation. A prime cost item is an allowance for a product not yet selected, such as tapware or appliances. Under Victorian law these allowances must be estimated on reasonable grounds. When the real cost lands, the difference adjusts the contract price up or down. A contract carrying many large allowances is not a fixed price; it is a fixed-price-shaped document with variable contents.
Why do two builders quote the same drawings so differently?
Usually because they are not quoting the same scope, not because one is cheaper. The common causes are different exclusions, different allowances for provisional sums and prime cost items, different assumptions about site conditions, and different levels of preliminaries and supervision. A quote that is fifteen per cent lower is often the quote that left something out, and the gap reappears later as variations. Compare the exclusions list, the allowances schedule and the preliminaries line before comparing the totals. If a builder will not give you those, you cannot compare the quotes at all.
How much contingency should I hold on a custom home?
Hold a contingency outside the contract price, not inside it, and do not tell yourself the contract price is the whole number. The right amount depends on how well documented the project is at the time of signing: a fully documented set with a complete site investigation carries less risk than a set signed while selections are still open. What matters more than the percentage is that the money sits somewhere you can reach without refinancing, and that you know which decisions are still capable of moving it. Every open selection and every provisional sum is a live line item.
Contracts and payments
Victorian domestic building law is mid-reform. These answers are dated so you can tell what is current.
Fixed price or cost plus — which is better for a high-end custom home in Victoria?
Fixed price transfers risk to the builder and costs you a premium for it; cost plus keeps the risk with you and requires you to police the process. Neither is inherently safer. Fixed price works when documentation is complete and selections are closed, because the builder can price what is actually drawn. Cost plus can work on a complex or heavily bespoke project, but only with open-book reporting, agreed margins, and a client with the time and appetite to read a monthly cost report. The dangerous combination is a fixed price signed over incomplete drawings — it turns into cost plus by variation, without any of the transparency.
How much deposit can a builder ask for in Victoria?
Deposits on domestic building contracts are capped by law, and the cap is currently being moved into regulations. Under the Domestic Building Contracts Act 1995 as it has stood, the limit is 10% where the contract price is under $20,000 and 5% where it is $20,000 or more. The Domestic Building Contracts Amendment reforms, taking effect by 1 December 2026, allow deposit limits and progress payment stages to be set in regulations instead. Before you pay anything, check the current cap rather than accepting a figure because it appears in the contract. Any builder asking for a large upfront payment on a major project is asking you to fund their cash flow.
What is changing in Victorian domestic building contract law in 2026?
Two reforms matter to anyone signing in 2026. From 1 July 2026, Home Warranty replaced Domestic Building Insurance: the threshold moved from work over $16,000 to work over $20,000, maximum assistance rose from $300,000 to $400,000, and cover is no longer limited to the builder dying, disappearing or becoming insolvent. Separately, the Domestic Building Contracts Amendment reforms take effect by 1 December 2026 — basic document requirements extend to all domestic building contracts rather than only major ones, payments for completed work become subject to a proportionality requirement, and on contracts of $1 million or more a cost escalation clause can add no more than 5% to the price. If your builder is still describing the old rules, ask why.
What happens if I want to change something after the contract is signed?
It becomes a variation, and under Victorian law the paperwork has to come before the work. A builder is required to give you written notice of a variation setting out what is changing, what it costs and what it does to the program, and to obtain your agreement, before carrying it out. Skipping that sequence is common and it hurts both sides: the owner loses the chance to say no at a price they can see, and the builder can find the cost unrecoverable. Expect a written variation for every change, including the ones that sound small on site.
Can a builder charge me for a variation I never approved in writing?
Generally no, and in Victoria the risk of trying sits with the builder. The Domestic Building Contracts Act requires notice and consent before varying the works, with narrow exceptions — for example where a variation is required to comply with the law and the builder follows the prescribed process. A builder who does the work first and issues the paperwork afterwards is usually unable to recover the money. The practical reading for an owner is simple: if it is not in a signed variation, it is not in the contract price, and you should not be paying for it.
Program, approvals and site
Where the calendar actually goes.
How long does a custom home take to build in Melbourne?
Construction is usually the shorter half of the timeline. For an architect-designed home in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs, the construction program typically runs well over a year, and the design, documentation and approvals that precede it can run just as long. A realistic program is counted from the first design meeting, not from site start. The variables that move it most are planning approval, the completeness of documentation at tender, how quickly the owner makes selections, and whether the site has heritage, easement or overlay constraints. Ask any builder to show you a stage-by-stage program rather than a single number.
When should a builder be involved in the design stage of a custom home?
Early — before the drawings are finished, not after. Most of the cost of a custom home is locked in by decisions made during design: structural spans, floor-to-floor heights, glazing proportions, the shape of the roof, how the house meets the ground. A builder who arrives after documentation is complete can price those decisions but can no longer influence them. Early involvement is not about compromising the architecture; it is about knowing which parts of it cost what, while there is still time to choose.
What approvals do I need before construction can start?
Two different things, in sequence: a planning permit from council where one is required, and a building permit from a building surveyor before any work begins. A planning permit deals with what council allows on that land — overlays, neighbourhood character, setbacks, overshadowing — and can take months, with third-party objection rights. A building permit deals with compliance and is issued against a complete documentation set. They are not interchangeable, and a planning permit alone does not let anyone start work. Depending on the site you may also need consents from water, power and road authorities.
How does a heritage overlay affect cost and program in Boroondara?
It adds time at the front of the project and constrains what you can do to the parts of the building that are visible. A heritage overlay means council assessment of the impact on the heritage place, which usually means a heritage consultant, a longer planning timeline and design revisions. The cost impact concentrates in retained fabric, matching materials and details, and the sequencing needed to protect what stays. None of it is a reason to avoid a heritage property — but it belongs in the budget and the program from the first week, not discovered at permit stage.
What happens if my build is delayed?
It depends entirely on the cause, which is why delay needs to be documented as it happens rather than argued at the end. Some causes entitle a builder to an extension of time — inclement weather, late owner decisions, authority delays, variations. Others do not. A well-run project records the cause and the days lost at the time, in writing, so the program can be reconciled later without a dispute. Ask your builder how delay is recorded on their projects. If the answer is a verbal update at the next site meeting, you are being set up for an argument.
Working with Crave Build
What size projects does Crave Build take on?
Architect-led custom homes and knockdown rebuilds from around $2 million, in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs. We run a small number of projects at a time so both principals stay across every one, which means we say no more often than we say yes. If a project is not a fit — wrong scale, wrong stage, wrong expectations about how it will be run — we would rather say so in the first conversation than discover it at contract.
Which suburbs does Crave Build work in?
Boroondara and the surrounding inner east: Balwyn, Balwyn North, Kew, Canterbury, Camberwell, Hawthorn and Surrey Hills, extending to Box Hill, Doncaster and Glen Waverley, and into Stonnington for Toorak, Malvern and Armadale. The concentration is deliberate. Working repeatedly in the same councils means we know the planning officers, the surveyors, the soil, and how long each council actually takes — which is not what the published timeframes say.
Do you work with our architect, or do you have your own designer?
We work with your architect. Crave Build is a builder, not a design-and-construct firm, and the projects we do best are ones where the architect is engaged directly by the owner and stays engaged through construction. We prefer to come in during design so buildability and cost feedback arrive while the drawings can still absorb them. If you do not yet have an architect, we can suggest practices we have worked with, but the appointment is yours and the relationship should be yours.
Do you work with Mandarin-speaking clients?
Yes — we work in English and Mandarin. Abby is a native Mandarin speaker, so contracts, cost reports and site discussions can happen in either language without a third party in the middle. For clients building in Australia for the first time, the harder part is usually not the language but the system: how Victorian contracts allocate risk, what a progress claim actually means, why a variation has to be approved before the work starts. We explain that in whichever language makes it clearest.
Still have a question we have not answered?
Ask it directly. We would rather answer it before a contract than after one.
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