Frequently Asked Questions
Every custom home journey is unique, but the questions are often similar. Find answers to what most homeowners want to know about building their dream home.
Custom Design vs Standard Plan
Paragon Homes has transitioned exclusively to custom design, moving away from the traditional standard plan model. Rather than selecting from pre-designed homes, clients work directly with our team to create bespoke solutions.
Standard plans typically address only a portion of a client’s requirements, often necessitating compromises in layout, functionality, or design preferences. Given the extensive range of contemporary materials and design possibilities available today, we begin each project with a comprehensive consultation to understand your specific lifestyle needs, aesthetic preferences, and functional requirements.
This approach delivers homes that are precisely tailored to individual client specifications, eliminating the need for compromise and ensuring optimal satisfaction with your investment.
Cost Per Square Metre
While square metre rates are commonly used in the building industry as rough benchmarks, we don’t rely on them for accurate pricing. Square metre rates are fraught with danger and often lead to unexpected cost blowouts during construction.
Instead, we provide detailed, line-item pricing that covers every material, selection, and contractor cost from scratch. This approach eliminates the vague “allowances” that typically appear in square metre contracts and cause budget surprises later.
We may use square metre rates retrospectively as a guide during the design phase, but when it comes to your actual quote, we believe in full transparency. You’ll know exactly what it costs to build your home before construction begins, with no hidden surprises or cost blowouts downstream.
This detailed pricing method protects you from budget uncertainty and ensures a better building experience overall.
Cost Overruns & Unexpected Expenses
Our approach is designed to eliminate unexpected expenses through comprehensive upfront planning. Most cost overruns in the building industry occur because insufficient work has been done in the initial stages to identify exact costs, materials, and client selections for all fixtures and finishes.
We invest heavily in detailed planning before construction begins, covering every aspect of your build. This means we identify and price everything upfront, so there are no surprises during construction. Our builds typically proceed without unexpected cost blowouts because we’ve done the work to understand exactly what’s required from day one.
Additional costs that can arise during construction are variations—these are client-initiated changes of mind or specification upgrades. When variations are requested, we provide detailed pricing and written approval before any work proceeds. You’ll know the exact cost and can decide whether to proceed or stick with the original plan.
Material Selections & Finishes
Material and finish selection is a crucial part of our process, and we don’t leave you to navigate it alone. After your preliminary pricing, we guide you through every selection with professional support.
Our interior design partner, Amy from Darling Interiors, works with you from top to bottom to select absolutely everything that goes into your home. We meet you at supplier showrooms, review colours samples, and discuss finishes. This hands-on approach ensures your vision comes to life while making the experience enjoyable rather than stressful.
Construction Timeframe
Your building journey involves several key phases. The preliminary work includes design development, finalising details, and preparing your contract-ready proposal – this typically takes around three months. Once you sign the contract, we handle professional services including engineering and energy efficiency reports, compiling and lodging everything to council for building approval – this is generally another three months. From there, the actual construction on site takes between six and nine months.
If you decided to build today, you would typically receive your keys between 12 to 15 months later, assuming your block is ready for construction.