Before site works: three to nine months
Design and documentation typically take eight to sixteen weeks. A building permit alone can be issued in two to four weeks once documentation is complete. Where a planning permit is required, add three to six months, and longer again if the application is advertised and attracts objections.
This is the stage most timelines understate, and it is the stage over which a builder has the least control.
On site: five to eighteen months
- Site set-out and footings: two to four weeks.
- Slab and frame: six to ten weeks.
- Lock-up — roof, windows, external cladding: six to ten weeks.
- Fixing — internal linings, joinery, tiling: ten to sixteen weeks.
- Fit-off, finishes and practical completion: six to ten weeks.
A single-storey home on a straightforward block usually runs five to seven months on site. A double-storey custom home runs eight to eleven. An architectural build on a difficult site can reach eighteen.
What actually causes delays
In order: approvals, weather during the slab and frame stages, late client selections, and long-lead items such as imported tapware or bespoke joinery. Only one of those four is genuinely outside anyone’s control.
We publish a stage-by-stage programme at contract signing and update it weekly with photographs, so you always know which of those four you are looking at.
