Dealings with Fowler Homes in Christchurch

[just hoping]

Hi All

we are in the final stage of PR application and should have an answer in the next few weeks, i intend to be there by easter and the wife to follow later.

As an architect i have designed a house approx 4000sqft and have rough build costs of 450k and have some ideas on land. looking at the hills above Rangiora,

Has anyone used Fowler Homes for new build? they seem to be on the ball and their MD Ivan seems to be keen to stay in touch, theyt did the rough costings for me and as a result may lead to a job as well?

thanks

Si

[benandclare]

They were in the frame for us,had good designs , listened to what we wanted and pretty up front with the price. Having said all that we decided to go with independent in the end .
Ivan, good chap, came and looked at our plot and very helpful and have did a section clearance for one of his customers .

Chap we bought our first house off moved to s hew home built by Fowlers and has since had another one built by them.

[just hoping]

thanks for the response Ben and Clare

just need to sort the visa out and then finish the plot hunting, just a quick question..

is the process easier than over here, as a manager for a housing firm i only deal with sites of 300+ and the politics and ******** seem to take for ever (maybe the planners just dont like my boss).

i have been studying the building codes (earthquake resistant design) and they are quite similar to ours.

i would be grateful if i could talk to you at some point about the purchase and morgage process as i have had various methods from banks and agents.

thanks

si

[benandclare]

Yeah fire away Si, glad to help.

We had never built before but found the whole process pretty easy, our builder dealt with the council and they can be picky for the consents to go through but still no great hassles

[just hoping]

Thanks

just wondering about the morgage process, as you may know that here if you build a house for say 200k inc land then at the final iinspection stage you can remorgage for the completed value meaning that you borrow 90% of the final value and dont have to find a huge deposit ( sounds crazy but in my line of work it happens a lot)

can the land purchase be included in the overall build cost as well so the stage payments aren't huge at the start

thanks
si

[Super_BQ]

Has anyone used Fowler Homes for new build? they seem to be on the ball and their MD Ivan seems to be keen to stay in touch, theyt did the rough costings for me and as a result may lead to a job as well?

I've talked to Ivan during or initial hunting stage for building our house. He seems like a nice guy (I think all of them are when they want your business). The initial stage with him was just a few figures written on paper. If we wanted any more details (including pricings), we would have to pay for the drawings $3K with their architect. I was not prepared to go that far in thinking that my requirements would be compromised later in the building stage. There's already too many high volume building companies that will do all the drawings and layouts with NO obligation or payment.

Fowler has built a house 4 houses down from where we are building. I did manage to sneak peek during it's construction stage. The thing that impressed me the most was the electrical work. But then that would have nothing to do with Fowler as electrical work is sub-contracted out. The house did use metal ceiling battens (Rondo brand) which is normally an extra cost. The advantage with their metal battens is the Gib (drywall) is finished flat as possible giving a better painted finish look. However in recent Chch earthquakes, an EQC inspector told my uncle that this metal batten system had failed in a commercial housing complex and advised not to use it. I think the problem with using metal is it's too rigid and when something like an earthquake hits, it doesn't have the flex that timber does.

I'm not saying Fowler is a bad builder. The issue is that regardless who you pick to build your house, none of them can built a 'perfect, flawless, home' and if you intend to build above the standard, expect problems to compound like I have.

can the land purchase be included in the overall build cost as well so the stage payments aren't huge at the start

I think you will find that a loan is a loan no matter how many ways you split it. So if you choose to finance the land separately or together with the house project, the banks will still assess you the same either way.

[benandclare]

Cant answer re mortgages as we had enough equity to build without one