To fund an addition or extension on your home, you may find yourself applying for a Construction Loan with your lender. This is all well and good, however you may find that the lender will not formally approve and release funds until plans, Council approval and a Contract is in place outlining the progress stage payments of the build. So, to get to this point, how much should you expect to outlay? The short answer is that we find for most of our clients it’s around $20K to complete the preliminary stage.

Here at 32 Degrees Building we break it down into two manageable costs for our clients and below is an explanation of the preliminary process to help you as a client understand what happens before we can issue contracts and start your build:

Preliminary Phase 1: Design and development of your architectural plans

This is the start of your building journey with us. This starts from $7,500 to have a draftsperson come out and meet with you, talk you through your ideas, then design your initial concept plan. Usually, a few tweaks may be required and then you can sign off your concept plan and the full architectural drawings can be created and a 3D visual can be prepared.

Once your plans are complete (sitemap, elevations, shadow diagrams, floor plans etc..) the documents required to support your plans and lodgement to Council application are prepared, these include your;

• Statement of Environmental Effects – Details the potential environment impacts the proposed build will have.
• Waste Management Plan – Applies to all homes across Australia and explains how waste generated onsite will be managed, maintained and disposed of.
• BASIX – The Building Sustainability Index applies to all residential homes across NSW and is part of the Development Application process.

There may be additional supporting documents required (e.g. Bushfire Report, Flood Report, Acoustic Report etc…)

Preliminary Phase 2: Council Lodgement – Development Application & Construction Certificate OR Complying Development Consent

This next step is where we will lodge your plans to Council either as a Complying Development Consent OR as a Development Application and Construction Certificate

CDC or DA/CC fees will be advised once plans are developed and a Council fee quote can be provided. The preparation of the lodgement for either CDC or DA/CC starts from $7,500. Here we obtain the additional relevant documentation needed in order for your build to be ready to start and this includes;

• Engineering plans and if a first floor addition a first floor certification to confirm your existing home will support the addition
• Sydney Water check – To confirm that your build will not impact any of Sydney Waters assets
• Sewer Service Diagram – We obtain this for the plumber to see where the existing connections to the home are
• Long Service Levy – Applies to all residential works over $20K
• Home Warranty Insurance – Applies to all residential works over $20K
• and any other supporting documents as required

How long does it this process take? Well, this all depends on the Council, the service providers and you as the client. We find that from planning to Council approval to issuing you with contracts can take around 3/4 months. Once your build cost and inclusions have been finalised and your HIA fixed price contract has been issued you can then provide these to your lender in order to finalise your finance approval.

If you haven’t built before or have no knowledge of the building and construction industry then preparing all of these documents can seem quite daunting. That’s why with us, you would have us as your main point of contact to do all of the hard work for you. We even liaise between yourself and the draftsperson to help you stay within your budget when developing your plans and address any of the questions you have about the build along the way.

To get started on your building journey with us, we ask you to complete our pre-quote enquiry form and tell us what you would like to build, from there one of our team members will be in touch with you.