Regulations inspire new home designs

Dean McGuigan from Golden Homes shows us how the H1 Energy Efficiency changes present an exciting opportunity to design a home to suit your needs. 

Before the new H1 Energy Efficiency regulations in the Building Code came into play, many of our customers found financial merit in choosing a floorplan or house and land package that had previously been consented by us with the local councils. There was considerable savings to be had by using a design that had already gone through the council consent process. 

Now, the H1 changes mean a ‘wiping of the slate’, and you have an opportunity to create your own custom design for no more cost than if you had chosen a pre-designed house and land package. There is a window of opportunity whereby there are no pre-consented plans at the council anymore. All plans need to be redesigned and consented to meet the new regulations. So you have an opportunity with us to create your own custom design for no more cost than if you had chosen a pre-designed house and land package.

If you’re wondering where to start, pre-designed packs can help you gauge what size of home you are likely to get for a certain price in a certain location. As we have all seen, locations and section prices vary considerably, so where you want to live plays a big part in the end dollar value when you combine the house and land values.

Many customers also use the pre-designed brochure options to obtain a starting point towards a floorplan layout they like the look of that works for them. Others will look at the pre-designed pack in the brochure and feel it is a perfect fit for them with no changes required. 

Pre-designed packs have already had plenty of thought put into them around a dwelling size that fits covenants (rules) of the subdivision and sun orientation to give you a good base of a design that might suit the site.

You should then be encouraged by your building company of choice to give feedback on what you like and, in some cases, what you don’t like about the plans. What is important to one customer is often not what is important to the next.

At Golden Homes Christchurch, we have an in-house drafting team plus a library of hundreds of different floorplans. This makes for a faster turnaround on design while being an easy process to bring your ideas to fruition. In addition to this, we are able to cost your home design within 24 hours, so you will quickly gain traction towards your new home build getting underway.

The vast majority of Canterbury land is reasonably flat and straightforward, so an acceptable design and pricing turnaround time shouldn’t cause concern, even with the new regulations. All the runnings around can happen behind the scenes to provide you with a custom floor plan that suits your budget and your lifestyle.

0800 22 22 36 | goldenhomes.co.nz