Article from Northcroft Australia office
How do you build 7 high-end townhouses (with parking) on a 650m2 site and still achieve council’s mandatory 35% garden area requirement? Learn how it was achieved within a 5% final cost variance.
The client asked Northcroft to assist them in cost planning a new development comprising 7 townhouses. In the early design stage, it was proposed each dwelling would have 3 bedrooms and 1 car space. The client had a preference for modular construction, However this was challenged by the cost planner due to the quality/cost required to achieve the desired margins.
Accurate costing a key component in determining success
During the design process, Northcroft provided the client with traditional elemental cost estimates to assist in understanding the cost distribution and establish the development’s total market price. The elemental costs covered:
- Individual floor levels
- Individual apartment costs and
- Common carparking areas
Northcroft’s unique approach looks at costs from an elemental level. As a result, we are able to present clients with different functional cost centres to provide a better understanding of a project’s cost distribution. This approach also assists with value management in the early phase of any project.
This costing methodology is a standard service provided by Northcroft thanks to the expertise of our Melbourne team – Peter Watt and Mei Lew, the newly appointed Melbourne office manager.
Northcroft provides this service to assist our clients in understanding the cost implications of design decisions in the early stages of the design phase. In addition, it highlights other elements which should be included but have not been considered by the design team. Part of our service also includes a review of alternative materials and construction methodologies proposed by the design team.
The results
Construction of this bayside Melbourne project commenced in early 2020 and was completed in early 2021 within a variance of 5% of our final cost estimate. We think this is an outstanding achievement given the costing was performed pre-COVID.
We have a unique technique and approach to cost planning. Peter Watt has been a director of Northcroft Melbourne since 2016 and has over 30 years’ experience in quantity surveying. Mei Lew joined the Melbourne team in April 2021 after obtaining experience working on some of Australia’s most iconic and complex projects. She holds accreditation with AIQS and RICS and is on the interview panel for the RICS APC assessment.
If you require more certainty in your construction costing, contact the team at Northcroft.