The Problem With Building a Home in Tasmania
A large amount of new build plans drawn in Tasmania never get built.
Not because people change their minds. Because they design first, find out the cost second, and discover the two don’t meet. By then they’ve spent $30,000 to $70,000 on drawings for a home they can’t afford, so they redesign, smaller and plainer, and by the time that’s done costs have risen again and they’re back where they started. We know people who have been through three sets of plans across five years and still haven’t broken ground on their own block.
Most builders won’t speak to you until you arrive with a complete set of plans. We think that’s backwards, and it’s the single biggest reason people’s building dreams quietly die in Tasmania.
We Get Involved Before You Spend the Money
Before you buy land. Before you engage a designer. Before anything is locked in.
Tell us you want a three-bedroom home on a particular block and we can work through it with you: the build itself, the design costs, what overlays apply to that land, whether it carries a bushfire rating, whether it needs firefighting infrastructure or a specific wastewater system. All of it adds up, and none of it appears on a plan.
You end up with a realistic total before you’re committed to anything, which means you either proceed with confidence or walk away having spent almost nothing.
The Feasibility Study
When we do move forward, you get a Feasibility Study before construction: the expected cost of the project including all external consultants, plus our pre-build service proposal setting out exactly how we charge and why.
It exists so that we start from a shared understanding of the scope and a budget that’s actually achievable. It is deliberately detailed, and our specification process asks more questions than most clients expect. Every wall, handle, tap and fixture gets decided early rather than mid-build.
That front-loading is demanding. It’s also why our projects don’t derail. When selections get left until the plasterer is waiting, people make rushed decisions under pressure and pay for them for the next thirty years.
It’s also why we can commit to a number. Our estimates are built to come within plus or minus 10% of the final contracted cost, subject to your selections and final scope. Then, at contract stage, the price becomes fixed. You choose your own items from a Preferred Suppliers Brochure, so you control the budget through the part of the process where costs usually get away from people.
On Time and On Budget Isn’t a Slogan Here
Our Mountain River project was delivered under a cost-plus contract. The project was completed under the contracted figure, delivered on time, on a build where we handcrafted cabinetry on site and poured concrete benchtops in place to hit a tight budget without compromising the finish.
Our Hakea renovation at Tolmans Hill was contracted for a February handover and completed in mid-December, getting the family out of a short-term lease before Christmas.
Our Snug was brought to completion on time and within budget, on plans the owners had drawn up three years earlier and had to postpone.
And our award-winning Lenah Valley home was built through the worst of the COVID material price escalations, when costs were rising weekly. As those clients put it: clear communication, complete transparency on cost changes, high-end finishes preserved, project on time, major budget blowouts avoided.
15000
Under the contracted figure
Mountain River · Cost-plus contract · Delivered on time
Three Licensed Builders, Not One
CBC is directed by three licensed builders, one still working on the tools. Large building companies frequently struggle to maintain a single builder’s licence between them. We are, deliberately, very top-heavy. Three directors who each hold a licence keep each other’s standards high, and it means whoever is making decisions on your site is qualified to make them.
Recognised by the Industry, and by Clients
CBC has been named a Master Builders Tasmania finalist or winner every year since 2021, across new home construction, renovations and Small Builder of the Year. In 2022 one of our directors won Young Builder of the Year.
The one we’re proudest of is the 2024 People’s Choice Award, because that one isn’t decided by judges. It’s decided by the people who lived through our builds.
We Build It Like It’s Ours
“It might as well be my home. That’s what we do with all our homes.” That’s our Construction Manager Chris Magnussen, and it isn’t marketing.
It shows up in ordinary ways. Our sites are conspicuously clean, secure and well-signed. On one build we picked up new clients purely because people driving the street looking for inspiration noticed the difference between our site and everything else going up around it.
Let’s Have the Honest Conversation
If you’re thinking about building in Southern Tasmania, talk to us before you spend money on anything. Even if you’re twelve to twenty-four months away.
FEATURED PROJECTS
Homes We’ve Built in Southern Tasmania
APOLLINE – HOBART
Master Builders Tasmania 2024 Finalist
A 350m² family home across three levels, built for a large family. With no room on the block for a shed, the lower level was designed to work as garage, garden shed and retreat all at once. Every room carries multiple customisations, and the material choices were made carefully to deliver a genuine sense of luxury inside the budget the family had.
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MOUNTAIN RIVER
Master Builders Tasmania 2025 Finalist
A 60m² dwelling that proves a tight budget doesn’t mean a compromised home: hand-built cabinetry, concrete benchtops formed and poured in place with waterfall ends, micro-cement and natural timber in the bathroom, in-slab heating under exposed concrete, and Tasmanian oak shiplap cladding outside. Delivered under budget with the clients thrilled.
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ADVOCATE – KINGSTON
A 310m² family home in one of Tasmania’s fastest-growing suburbs. Five bedrooms, two living areas, ensuite plus two powder rooms, and a substantial alfresco entertaining area. Clad in a mix of James Hardie Axon Smooth and 325mm Stria weatherboards. Built for a family who wanted room to grow without leaving an easy Hobart commute.
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LAONA – GRANTON
226m² across two levels with water views to the front and a covered entertaining deck at the rear. Two ground-floor bedrooms and a large modern bathroom below, a colossal open-plan living space above with Caesarstone benchtops, a substantial island and Smeg appliances, and a main bedroom positioned for privacy and outlook.
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“Building your first home is an important milestone and to say that we were satisfied with our first build is a complete understatement. Brad, Chris, Cahill and Seb were brilliant and fantastic people to work with. We can honestly say that we’ve never before dealt with such an honest, professional and knowledgeable team, which truly made for an incredible experience. We genuinely felt like part of the team.”
Wellbore
SNUG
“Chris, Brad and Cahill put us at ease from the very beginning, ensuring we knew exactly what the process was and where they were at, every step of the way. We could not be happier with the entire process from planning to building to turning the key on our final product. Their accuracy, professionalism, communication and attention to detail is highly commendable and a rarity in today’s market.”
Wellbore
SNUG
Frequently Asked Questions About Building a Home in Hobart
We’re not a house and land package builder — what does that mean for us?
It means we build custom homes, designed for you and your block, rather than selecting from a catalogue of standard designs. It costs more than a package build and it takes longer. What you get is a home that suits how you actually live and a site that’s been properly assessed rather than assumed.
If a package home is genuinely the right answer for your budget, we’ll tell you that too.
Should we talk to you before we buy land?
Yes, and this is where we save clients the most money. We’ll assess a block before you buy it: whether it suits what you want to build, what the site will demand in foundations and services, what overlays and ratings apply, and what it’s all likely to cost.
Hobart’s best views come on Hobart’s hardest blocks. A steep site with a spectacular outlook can carry substantially more cost in excavation, retaining and drainage than a flat one, and that’s much better to know before settlement than after.
How long does it take to build a home in Hobart?
Most new homes run between seven to twelve months from breaking ground, depending on size, site complexity and how much custom fabrication is involved. Our award-winning Lenah Valley project took twelve months, including two months on foundations alone because of the site.
We set a realistic timeline during planning and we work to it. Where we can bring a handover forward, we do.
What’s a cost-plus contract, and do you offer one?
Under a fixed-price contract you agree a total up front. Under a cost-plus contract you pay the actual cost of the works plus an agreed margin, which suits projects where the scope is genuinely open or the client wants full visibility of every dollar.
We’ve delivered both. Our Mountain River project ran cost-plus and came in $15,000 under the contracted figure. Which structure suits you is something we work through during the Feasibility Study.
What makes CBC different from other builders in Hobart?
Three licensed builders as directors, one of them still on the tools, where most companies have one licence between them and some struggle to hold that.
We engage before plans exist, when we can still save you money, rather than waiting for you to arrive with drawings we then have to price.
The Master Builders record backs it up, but the 2024 People’s Choice Award is the one that says most about what it’s actually like to build with us.
Do you build on difficult or steep blocks?
Yes, and it’s one of our strengths. We’ve built three-level homes on hillside sites, constructed a 35-metre retaining wall directly on a boundary, and delivered homes on blocks other builders wouldn’t take on.
Steep sites demand extensive waterproofing, and we go well beyond the minimum: waterproof additives in concrete, blocks and mortar, multiple membrane coats, geo-fabric and comprehensive drainage. Water is the thing that ruins houses on hillsides, and it’s the thing we’re most careful about.
What areas do you build in?
Throughout Southern Tasmania. Recent homes in Kingston, Granton, Snug, Penna, Blackmans Bay, Bellerive, Lindisfarne, Mountain River and across Hobart’s suburbs.
What’s the first step?
Call Brad Goodwin on 0408 999 291 or use the contact form below. The first conversation there’s no pressure. Tell us what you’re thinking about, and we’ll tell you honestly whether it’s realistic, roughly what it costs, and whether we’re the right builder for it.
Even if you’re two years away, this is the conversation worth having first.
Find Out What Your Home Will Actually Cost
Before the plans. Before the land. Before you’re committed to anything.
Brad Goodwin, General Manager
info@cbccustombuilding.com.au
MASTER BUILDERS AWARD WINNERS | THREE LICENSED BUILDERS
