The ultimate guide to building a new house

Building a new house is one of the most exciting things you will ever do. Here is the full journey, from your first budget conversation to the day you get the keys.

Key takeaways

• Building a new house runs through nine stages: budget and finance, land, design, builder, contract, colour selections, approvals, construction, and handover.
• In NSW, any residential building work over $5,000 including GST needs a written contract, and your builder cannot ask for a deposit of more than 10 per cent of the contract price.
• New NSW homes must meet a 7-star average NatHERS thermal performance standard under BASIX.
• Eligible first home buyers pay no stamp duty on a new home valued at or below $800,000, and the First Home Owner (New Home) Grant is worth $10,000.
• The construction period for a brick single-storey home is generally around 5 to 6 months, though your total timeline starts well before the slab is poured.

What does building a new house actually involve?

Building a new house entails choosing a design, securing land to put it on, appointing a builder, getting your plans approved, and then watching your home go up stage by stage until it is handed over to you.

Most people picture the construction part. In reality, roughly half the journey happens before a single truck arrives on site. Here is the order it unfolds in:

1. Set your budget and sort your finance
2. Choose your land, or use the land you already own
3. Choose a home design that suits your block
4. Choose your builder
5. Sign your building contract
6. Choose your colours and finishes
7. Get your approvals
8. Construction
9. Handover

Two terms are worth knowing before you start. A volume builder like Mojo builds a range of proven home designs across many sites, which keeps quality consistent and pricing transparent. A turnkey home is one that arrives finished and ready to live in, with everything from flooring to driveways included rather than left for you to organise afterwards.

Step 1: Set your budget and sort your finance

Your budget is not just the price on the home design. It is the design price plus your land, plus site costs, plus the things that sit outside a standard inclusions list.

A couple of terms will come up constantly, so it pays to understand them early:

• Site costs cover preparing your particular block for a house, including excavation, drainage and piering. Every block is different, so these vary.
• Provisional allowances are estimates for work that cannot be priced exactly until it starts.

At Mojo, our policy is to give you all known costs, including optional ones, before you pay a deposit or sign your building agreement. You know exactly what you are getting, and the only surprise is how much you love the finished home.

Finance for a new build works differently to buying an established home. A construction loan draws down in stages as your build hits each milestone, so you only pay interest on what has been drawn so far. Our team at MyChoice Home Loans specialises in exactly this, and can walk you through what your repayments look like at each stage.

Step 2: Choose your land, or build on the land you already own

There are three ways to get to a block.

Buy land and a home together. A house and land package pairs a block in a new estate with a design that suits it, and the two are priced as one. It is the simplest path, and it removes the risk of falling in love with a design that will not fit your land.

Buy land on its own. This gives you more choice of location, but check whether the land is registered. Unregistered land has not yet been formally created as a separate title, so you cannot start building until registration comes through, and those dates can move. Our guide to buying unregistered land explains what to watch for.

Build on land you already own. If you love your street but not your house, a knockdown rebuild lets you keep the location and start fresh. You demolish the existing home and build a brand-new one in its place.

Step 3: Choose a home design that suits your block

Your block decides more about your design than you might expect. Frontage width, which way the block faces, whether it slopes, and where the easements sit all shape what will work.

A 10 metre frontage calls for a very different layout to a 20 metre one. Orientation matters too, because a living area facing north will feel warmer and brighter through winter, which is exactly what the energy rules reward.

Mojo designs are architecturally considered and then personalised to you. You start from a proven design and make it yours, rather than starting from a blank page, which is what keeps the pricing clear and the timeline predictable. Have a look through our house designs, or visit a display home and walk through one in person. There is no substitute for standing in the actual kitchen.

Step 4: Choose your builder

This is the decision that determines everything after it. Before you commit, check:

• Licence and track record. How long have they been building, and where?
• What is actually included. Compare inclusions lists side by side. Some builders list steel frames, stone benchtops and COLORBOND roofing as upgrades. At Mojo they are standard, which is why our quoted price tends to hold.
• The guarantee. Ours is a 25 year structural guarantee, and it transfers to the next owner.
• Their homes in the flesh. Display homes tell you more than any brochure.
• Who you will actually deal with. Ask who your point of contact is at each stage.

If you are weighing up a volume builder against a custom one, our comparison of volume builders and custom builders breaks down the trade-offs.

Step 5: Sign your building contract

In NSW, residential building work over $5,000 including GST must be covered by a written contract, and work over $20,000 requires a more extensive large-job contract, according to the NSW Government.

Two protections are worth knowing before you sign anything:

• Your deposit is capped. The maximum deposit you can be asked for in NSW is 10 per cent of the contract price.
• Insurance comes first. For contracts over $20,000, your builder must take out cover under the Home Building Compensation Scheme and give you the certificate. They cannot take your money until that is done. The scheme protects you if the builder cannot finish the work.

Before you sign, read the inclusions list, the provisional allowances, the progress payment schedule and the timeline clauses. Ask about anything you do not understand. A good builder will happily walk you through it.

Step 6: Choose your colours and finishes

This is the fun part. You will work with your own interior designer at our MyChoice Design Studio, choosing everything from flooring and tiles to tapware, benchtops and power point placement across three appointments: internal, external and electrical.

One piece of advice: come with a rough idea of the look you want, and lock your selections in as early as you can. Late changes are the single most common cause of avoidable delays.

Step 7: Get your approvals

Once your contract is signed, your builder takes over the paperwork. There are two approval pathways in NSW.

A Complying Development Certificate (CDC) is a fast-tracked approval for simple homes that meet a set list of standards. If your plans tick every box, a private certifier can issue it without going to council. Our explainer on what a CDC is covers the criteria.

A Development Application (DA) goes to your local council and is required when your plans fall outside the CDC standards, for example on a heritage-listed street or an unusual block.

Your plans also need a BASIX certificate, which proves your home meets NSW sustainability standards for water, energy and thermal comfort. Since 1 October 2023, new homes must reach a 7-star average on the Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme, up from an average of 5.5 to 6 stars. In practice that means better insulation, better glazing and smarter orientation, and a home that costs less to heat and cool. Our guide to BASIX and your 7 star energy rating goes deeper.

Depending on your block, approvals may also be needed from the land developer, the water authority and the Mines Subsidence Board.

Step 8: Construction, stage by stage

This is where it gets real. Your site supervisor meets you at every major milestone, and progress photos land in your MyHome Customer Portal along the way.

You can read more about each milestone on our building process page.

Step 9: Handover, and what happens after you move in

Handover is the moment you have been waiting for, but it is not the end of our involvement.

Your home comes with a defect liability period, during which we come back and fix anything that needs attention as the home settles in. Behind that sits our 25 year structural guarantee, which transfers to the next owner if you ever sell. Keep your paperwork, warranties and appliance manuals together somewhere safe, and note down anything you spot in the first few weeks so it can be dealt with in one go.

How long does it take to build a new house?

The construction period for a brick single-storey home is generally around 5 to 6 months, according to Your Home, the Australian Government’s guide regarding sustainable homes.

That is just the on-site portion. Your full timeline also includes finance approval, land settlement or registration, design selections and council or certifier approval, which together often add several months. Two storeys, a sloping block, wet weather and late variations all stretch it further.

How much does it cost to build a new house?

The honest answer is that it depends on your design, your block and your inclusions, and any builder who quotes a single number without seeing your land is guessing.

What matters more is knowing what sits inside the price and what sits outside it. Your build price should cover the home itself and its standard inclusions. Outside it usually sit the land, site costs specific to your block, landscaping, driveways, fencing, window furnishings and any upgrades you choose.

Our in-depth breakdown of what it costs to build a house works through each of these, and the Build and Price tool on each of our home designs will give you a real figure for the design you are looking at.

What grants and stamp duty savings apply to a new build in NSW?

If this is your first home, two schemes are worth checking.

The First Home Owner (New Home) Grant is a $10,000 grant for eligible first home buyers building or buying a new home, with a cap of $750,000 for a house, per the NSW Government.

The First Home Buyers Assistance Scheme removes or reduces transfer duty. Eligible first home buyers pay no duty on a new or existing home valued at or below $800,000, with a concessional rate applying above that and up to $1,000,000. On vacant land you intend to build on, the full exemption applies at or below $350,000, with a concession up to $450,000, according to Revenue NSW.

Our guide to stamp duty in NSW explains when you pay it and how it is calculated on a new build.

Five mistakes to avoid when building a new house

1. Budgeting for the house but not the block. Site costs, landscaping, driveways and fencing are real numbers. Leave room for them.
2. Choosing a design before you have the land. Frontage and orientation rule out more designs than most people expect.
3. Comparing quotes without comparing inclusions. A cheaper headline price with a shorter inclusions list is not cheaper.
4. Changing your mind after selections are locked in. Variations cost money and time, and they compound.
5. Skimming the contract. Read the provisional sums, the payment schedule and the timeline clauses properly, and ask about anything unclear.

Ready to build your new home?

You now know what the journey looks like, what you will sign, what you will pay and when. The next step is the fun one.

Browse our home designs and use Build and Price to get a real figure, or visit a display home and see the quality for yourself. If you would rather talk it through, get in touch or call us on 1300 006 656 and one of our new home consultants will take it from there.