Homeowners Steve and
Sharleen paid around $200,000 all-up for their two-bedroom Bunnings
DIY Dexter house, which is 101 square metres.
Steve and his partner Sharleen from Te Horo, near Otaki, bought a
Bunnings Clever Living DIY two-bedroom house, and they say it's a
"great house – just fantastic".
"It is, surprisingly, really good value for money. It is warm and
it has been built very well," Steve says. "We've lived in it now
for eight months and have not even had any cracks – we haven't had
to call the builder back for anything."
Steve says the couple decluttered "a lot" before they moved in, and
haven't found the house too small. They were also able to make some
changes to customise the house.
This is Steve and
Sharleen's Bunnings DIY house. They paid around $200,000 all-up,
including all services.
"We sat down with Bunnings and told them we wanted cedar on
the front for example. It was an easy process and very quick. I
also wanted this house built on site, rather than in the yard," he
says. "It was pre-framed, and when the framing arrived on a
truck and the whole thing was put together really easily."
Steve says the all-up cost, including plumbing, sewerage
and electrical services for their 101 square-metre Dexter
Clever Living house was approximately $200,000.
SUPPLIED
The couple have been
in the house for eight months and are starting to make it feel like
home - they requested cedar on part of the exterior.
The house was built by Simon Hinds of Hinds Builder, Waikanae, a
team Steve says is "at the top of their game".
KEEPING UP WITH DEMAND
Simon Hinds says Bunnings DIY house building has gone "viral"
– he is the builder with 32 people on his waiting list.
He
says one of his staff spoke to Bunnings early on Friday afternoon
following Nikole mitchell facebook, and was told they had already had 100
requests for houses in a matter of hours. Stuff has asked
Bunnings for numbers.
The couple say they
decluttered before moving into the house, and say they just love
it, and have not had to get the builder back for any follow-up
work.
"We have always had two to three people making enquiries in
our office every day," Hinds says. "We have completed or are
working on 20 Bunnings houses. Most of these have been the 100
square-metre Angus design, but we have done two to three of the
small, 60 square-metre Oxford.
"Some of the houses are used as baches, some are first homes, and
some are rentals. We have often put two or three units on large
sections over in Wainui(omata), and they are for rentals"
Hinds, who also has other building projects on the go, puts
the popularity of the Bunnings houses and the waiting list down to
"value for money". "It's a good product; the end home is a really
good quality."
The houses in the
Clever Living range include Kaboodle kitchens with
appliances.
With 32 jobs on the waiting list, Hinds says he is running out of
room in the yard. "I knew it would be quite busy, but nothing like
the interest we have had."
Richard Trent of Trent Building in Christchurch, has been
advertising the Bunnings homes through the rural sector in the
South Island, and also in Auckland, where the firm promotes the
"affordable housing" angle.
The company builds the houses in its yard, then transports them to
the site. So far, Trent says, they have trucked Bunnings houses to
Oamaru, Gore, Tekapo and Temuka.
BUNNINGS
This is the floorplan
of the couple's Dexter, two-bedroom home.
"It takes seven weeks to complete one of the smaller houses in the
yard, and it's about nine weeks to have it up and running on site.
If we get a large influx of orders, that might change, because we
like to work on one at a time."
Trent says he finds the whole concept "really exciting". "We've
always kept an eye on the market and we realised we would have
to adapt. We can do a smart, quick build to a very high standard.
And the fact that these houses are nationally consented is a real
benefit for the homeowner."
All the houses built by the company in the South Island have been
for rural locations. "Sometimes a landowner will have his own
contacts and will want to take that over. But one corporate farmer
asked us to complete everything.
Sunday morning in
Otaki at Steve and Sharleen's place. The open-plan living area has
several doors opening up to the outside.
"He pointed to where the cows were in the paddock and said, 'That's
where I want my house. Let me know when you're done'. We even had
to organise the power connection. That house was for one of their
farm workers' families."
Trent says his company gets a constant stream of enquiries and is
currently working with a number of people wanting a Bunnings house.
Another recently completed house went on a section in Onehunga.
Simon Hinds Builder
makes Bunnings houses in his yard, then transports them to their
sites. However, the Otaki house was built on site using pre-framed
timbers at the owner's request.
THERE'S COMPETITION
The Stuff story also prompted other builders to get in
touch, including Laing Properties in Christchurch, which says
it can build a 98 square-metre house for the same price as a
Bunnings 60 square-metre home ($64,700 + GST).
There is plenty of
competition for Bunnings. Laing Properties in Christchurch is one
of many companies providing similar transportable homes. These
houses are being built in the company's yard.
"If you take the "Value 98m2" from our range, we can have that
built and delivered on site, on a foundation, fully consented for
$206,000 Incl GST," says Duncan McFarlane, Laing Properties
surveyor.
And Marc Hunter of Latitude Homes in Pukekohe says the company's
two-bedroom 60 square-metre kitset, which is a high-quality product
with similar specs to Bunnings/Clever Living, costs $58,190
including GST. He also says the kitsets are not flatpacked, so are
therefore easier for a homeowner or builder to construct.
"We are also a 100 per cent New Zealand-owned company, unlike
Bunnings (an Australian company)."
Hunter believes the "10-day consent process" is
misleading."You still need to go through the planning process which
could take three to four weeks minimum and that's if a Resource
Consent is not required. In Auckland 95 per cent of build
projects require a Resource Consent.
LATITUDE HOMES
This is the Hauraki
three-bedroom, 99.9 square-metre house from Latitude Homes.
"You may be able to get the Building Consent through a little
quicker with a pre-approved plan (still to be proven) but you still
need to go through the planning requirements for the particular
building site where the home is going to be located."
Hunter also queries the waiting lists: "Bunnings are, a "big
box" company but why can't they deliver? We don't have any waiting
lists."
Another South Islander says he has imported six flat-pack
mini homes from Europe, which he believes are "far superior to the
Bunnings models – half the price and double the fittings and
quality".
He
has put the houses on land outside Oamaru, and says they are an
alternative to a conventional holiday home. "They are simply
brilliant. If I had to live in one for an extended period one would
be perfect for two of us."
