Distinctive Homes
46 reviews
- Pre-Construction
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- Mid-Construction
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- Post-Construction
Worse people ever. They asking money first. but after that supervisor not answering calls / messages/ emails. They just passing the ball each other. no one takes responsibility. Don't choose these people. Too many Defects. Show details
We had an excellent experience with Distinctive Homes from start to finish. The entire process was smooth, transparent and extremely well-managed. Their team communicated clearly, followed through on every commitment and consistently demonstrated a high level of professionalism. What stood out most was their attention to detail and genuine care… Read more
for delivering quality, not just building a house but building confidence and trust with their clients. The final result exceeded our expectations and we felt supported at every stage of the journey.
We would absolutely recommend Distinctive Homes to anyone looking for a reliable, capable, and customer-focused builder.
I did a post prior to construction (see below) — now that we’ve moved in and the dust has settled, I wanted to share our experience in the hope it helps others understand what to expect in terms of the build timeline. This was our very first build. We had no prior experience in the construction industry, but we knew exactly what we wanted from… Read more
the start. Distinctive Homes delivered exactly that — they built according to the plans and the contract, and they delivered on every front.
More importantly, we had a strict budget, and they stayed within it — which, for me, was the single most important aspect of the project. In fact, I even received a credit for the footing costs (to be fair, I’d asked them to overestimate initially, just to be safe until the engineer’s report came back).
Overall, our experience was excellent — truly a dream run. Whether it was luck or just good communication, I’m not sure, but whenever an issue came up, a quick email was all it took to have it resolved.
My advice: Build a good relationship with your site supervisor and look after your tradespeople — it makes a world of difference.
Single-storey: ~7 months (from slab pour)
Double-storey: ~1 year (from slab pour)
Total duration: ~2 years
It’s been a long journey, but we’re thrilled with the final result. Big thanks to Distinctive Homes and all the trades who made it happen!
Reviews with attachments
A shout out to Distinctive Builder – We are at Stage 3 of construction and want to appreciate Distinctive builder for Footing / Frame up / Brick work that have been completed successfully with clean trade work at site. A special thanks to our site manager (IAN) for explaining technical terms in simplified method which makes easy to understand the building process and (Kellie)… Read more
Selections Co-Ordinator who is much co-operative in discussing variety of options that comes along in construction process. Hoping to see construction finishing soon as can't wait to move in to new house.
Our Dream Family Home – This is our 2nd Build with Distinctive Homes and we couldn’t be more happy with the end product. The first build was 8 years ago close to the beach and this one was our dream family homes in the Hills. We found the whole process great … from the first stages of sitting with the team and bringing our ideas to life on our plans. Selections at each… Read more
organisation was easy and well mapped out step by step. Our site supervisor was great at taking our calls and keeping us in the loop on each step.
Final product - AMAZING!! We couldn’t be happier in our brand new home. I would definitely recommend Distinctive Homes to build your home.
There will always be hiccups along the way when you’re building a home, but when you have a team like Distinctive Homes, navigating these challenges is made so much easier!
In-depth reviews
Disappointing and Frustrating – Our building journey with Distinctive Homes has been disappointing and frustrating. I like our house because we designed it and because of our selections, but the quality of finishes is particularly poor. Lots of rough patches on the woodwork, poor paint job, damage throughout the house and definitely not cleaned after before handover. … Read more
Communication is terrible. The occasions where Distinctive Homes has contacted me, it is to ask for payments or for a matter they must urgently speak to me about. I have had to initiate contact on every other front and have kept a record of this. They lied about when things would be done in an attempt to keep us happy when I was quite clear that I wanted to be updated with the truth, understanding that the industry was having a hard time with prices rising and resources and trades in high demand. Emails and text messages from our site supervisor were very unprofessional.
The house was clearly not ready to be shown to us when we had our walk through. Our site supervisor could tell I was very unhappy and offered a second walk through. It still left much to be desired. 7 months now after moving in we are still waiting for work to be done which should have been done before handover. There is grout all over our floor and wall tiles throughout the house and we have been told by the maintenance guy who came to fix some other problems that it would need to be acid washed. This in a big inconvenience as it means we will need to be out of the house for this to occur (especially with children who nap during the day) and we will need to move our furniture for it to be done properly.
They also did not do a site clean with rubbish strewn everywhere including long lengths of gutter left in our backyard and a big pile of dirt and rubbish left out the front of our house and imposing on our neighbours property which then had ramifications for our joining fence being put up. We ended up having to hire an excavator to remove said dirt and rubbish ourselves which required breaking up concrete by hand and also dealing with a wasp nest that had been created in there!
It takes a number of emails and phone calls every time to resolve a matter and they have not been at all easy to deal with. Its taken a lot of our time and energy (much more than is reasonable when you are paying someone to build a house!) to rectify lots of situations and keep things running smoothly.
Our dream house become reality with Distinctive Homes – Firstly, I am so thankful to the sales consultant Chirag Mistry who was very supportive, friendly and cooperative. Right from the start, we had great service from Chirag. He has some really great ideas which has helped us to create a perfect home design for our family. His support throughout the construction period was really incredible, only one… Read more
phone call, and problem was fixed . He was so transparent through out the process and has valued our budget . Distinctive homes fixed contract has really benefitted us during pandemic. Our dream house project was not delays even their was shortages of labor and materials. They have best places for selection like Supreme Kitchen, Routely, Beaumont, Clipsal and many more which gives great satisfaction in quality of product. I am also thankful to David our Supervisor who was so pro-active and flexible regarding any requests for changes or modifications during construction period. He has very well looked after finishes of house and also used good quality materials so in future we don't have any complains. We are so happy with the final out come and our dream house has become reality for my family. Without Distinctive homes it was not possible. Thank you so much and I definitely recommend to my family and friends.
A great experience from start to finish – We have been in our new Distinctive Home for just over a year and we are more than happy. We built at the height of the Homebuilder Grant frenzy so it took a little longer than expected but the build time compared well with other builders at the time. Marion our Sales Consultant went above and beyond to deliver the plan we wanted while answering… Read more
all questions promptly and making a couple of brilliant design suggestions. Our Supervisor Brian was also fantastic and kept us in the loop at all stages. Distinctive Homes have a selection process which involves visiting directly with most suppliers enabling you to deal directly with companies with particular expertise (ie kitchen, plumbing fittings etc) - this allows for you to think about one group of selections at a time instead of rushing everything in one builder based appointment. Overall we would highly recommend the experience of building with Distinctive and are more than happy with the final result.
Positive reviews
Rumman Taimur, the Sales Consultant has been pleasent and very helpful at this early stage. Has explained all the processes so they are easily understood. He is not pushy or insistent. Show details
I built my house with Distinctive Homes in Norwood; it was completed at the end of 2025. I'm extremely happy with the quality and service of Distinctive Homes. If I was to build again, I would use them again. All staff were extremely helpful and simplified the process. Dave the site supervisor was extremely helpful and always communicated when… Read more
needed through the build. The build was completed in a timely manner with very limited delays between each stage. I'm very grateful to Distinctive Homes to have helped me build my dream home.
Great Service! – Lucas Anderson has been helping us with a custom design, and we must say we are very pleased with his help so far, he is very attentive to your needs and his design skills are next level. He has made the beginning of this process very welcoming and helpful, looking forward to working more in the furture. Show details
Negative reviews
11 month delay on bricks – We are building with Distinctive Homes and are shattered by the way we have been treated. We want the CEO or owner to call is because it’s becoming a joke. Slab done March, Timber August and now now brickies until Feb so looking at a 80+ week process. U can’t tell me that there is an 11 month wait for a bricklayer. They won’t give us proper… Read more
answers. Won’t respond to emails, won’t call us back. This is becoming a horrible experience and we want answers.
The Worst builders – Worst experience with the builder because they only want money and they don’t care about the customer. We have some issues in our house. We contacted them about our issues and they said construction team will contact us back but it’s already been a two months no one contact us . Really bad service Show details
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Apparently I am a “knob” according to email from sales rep – We are building with Distinctive (for the moment) however after sending 4 emails and making phone calls to try to get out signed documents sent out to us, the sales representative [name removed] accidentally sent me an email instead of his boss saying that my wife and I are “pains in the neck” and I am a “knob”. We just want our copies of pricing… Read more
schedule and pre-work agreement. In his defence though he had a bad day in the golf course and had too many beers... apparently that is a perfectly good reason for slandering his client. Additionally, when we did get the pricing schedule we were accidentally sent the internal only copy which included $1000 fee for larger than normal windows, which we do not have and we weren’t told about the fee! Waiting to see what Distinctive want to do to make it right.
Recent reviews
Thank you Lucas – Thank you to Lucas Anderson, our first home with Distinctive Homes. This young man always helpful, always happy and smiling. Did not push us to sign at all and made sure I was 100% happy before going ahead. This is the reason we signed with to build our new home with Lucas Anderson. Show details
Our dream has turned into reality :) – Working with Lucas has been an absolute delight; we recently finalized a contract for a two-story house. It's not an exaggeration to say that he has turned our dreams into reality. Lucas has consistently been there to lend an ear, comprehend our needs, and even enhance our ideas for the better. His recommendations have proven to be exceptionally… Read more
valuable. The architectural layout he designed was exceptional, and he skillfully navigated the setback limitations, resulting in a magnificent outcome. What truly distinguishes him from other salespeople is his exceptional ability to translate a customer's vision onto paper. Whenever an issue arose, Lucas was quick to provide a practical solution. I wholeheartedly rate him 10 out of 10 for the countless hours he dedicated to our project and the unwavering efforts he put in to ensure our satisfaction. Remarkable job, Lucas!"
Almost finished , happy and excited – So far pretty good , selections was great , time consuming though as choices at each supplier were almost overwhelming but we got there , our site supervisor is really good and we text often , painting stage atm and then we are in ! edit . just noticed this review while looking up something - anyway I've been house for a while now and its perfect. we are very happy with distinctive Show details
5 years on, very happy to have chosen Distinctive Homes as our builder – As this was our 5th family home build we had pretty much worked out what we wanted for our new home, we had bought an odd shaped block so needed a non-standard floor plan to suit it, the Distinctive Homes consultant was very professional and patient in creating a design which perfectly suited our needs and ideas. The actual process went smoothly… Read more
and the time from signing contract to hand over of keys was quicker than expected. Site manager responded promptly to any messages we left for him, and addressed any concerns satisfactorily. The trades people we met on site were very pleasant and performed their work well, so we have had a very good experience, feeling value and standard inclusions met our needs perfectly. Looking forward to our next build with Distinctive Homes!
The worst builder I have ever used – This is the third time I've built and Distinctive are by far the worst builder I've dealt with. Everything from their appalling customer service to their crappy workmanship. Our upper story floors were so crooked that we couldn’t install floorboards without some serious repair work, as the surface was so uneven. Even now there are still large dips… Read more
in the floors which are noticeable just by walking on them. They also scratched up our kitchen cupboards and refused to pay for repairs. They even broke my neighbor's stormwater pipe and claim it’s not their problem. Stay away. They are cheaper than other builders for a reason.
Best Mid range home builders – 1. Currently living in a ‘Distinctive Home’ - approx 8 months. Second home, first one was constructed by different builder. 2. Most important part of Distinctive Homes was their word - Promise to deliver the house within a very tight but promised timeframe. 3. Use of good quality material - Doors, showers screens, cement, timber, termimesh...… Read more
being our second built, we were very much on a vigil to check what value we were getting for our buck and Distinctive was on it. They are not high end market but certainly used good quality and reputable brand names within local construction industry. The first and second fix carpentry workmanship was decent compared to what we looked around on streets these days. Minimal rubbish was leftover onsite after a days work also. 4. Sales staff, Chirag, Selections lady, Kelly and Site Supervisor Peter Hann; very polite, considerate of our requests and went out of their way to accommodate our requests like wanting to get our own vanity and kitchen bench tops, worked so professionally and were very accommodating to external contractors such as bench top and fire place installers. It was lovely. Peter gave us some great lifetime tips with the pool and stormwater connections and the house in general. Very respectful and knowledgeable man indeed!! We couldn’t thank Chirag enough for his patience in dealing with us! Again, very polite, accommodating and was always available over the phone throughout the time of construction and handover. 5. Only minuses were perhaps the paint could have been done better, the rush of delivering in time got the job a bit too rushed. And, their sub-contracted Electrician could do much better in reading simple switchboard plans!! No major issues otherwise. 6. The 3-6 month complimentary fixes occurred at the 7th month and they were all minor and completed very swiftly and, great job done again!
To all those in the Adelaide market for a new home in a budget friendly range, I would suggest spend your buck on the quality of work rather than builders that promise flashy looks with use of poor quality and workmanship and those big-time Freebie deals... Distinctive were not the least expensive but with good negotiation they did certainly come equal (just below!!) to their competitors on the quote and, we believe we got the value for our money so it was a win-win!! What felt amusing was that some of the higher end builders’ economy/budget friendly ranges could not even meet near what we got for the value of our money from Distinctive.
This one was a really stress free project and we find ourselves in the rare group of people that are happy and satisfied with their builders at the end of their project! Overall, thanks Distinctive Homes for our beautiful home!
CHRIS Roberts was fantastic!!!! – Chris Roberts from Distinctive homes is the best sales person we have met when we dealt with him for building our first home. We really loved his professionalism, patience, communication, commitment and investment in our project. People who are so committed into their work are hard to find and none of the other builders sales consultants were… Read more
half as patient and committed he was. It is people like him who raise the bar for others in the market and set them apart from others.
Terrible service! Rude staff! Poor quality build! – Staff members from clerical through to supervisors all rude and abrupt and don't reply to phone messages or emails. Happy to take your money but very poor service. Should be a maintenance period but nothing was repaired. House now 8 years old and my alfresco ceiling and front render is falling off. Have raised these issues and they have completely dismissed me. Now seeking legal advice. Complete disregard for helping paying customers. Show details
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They must be paying people – ...to write these good reviews to counteract the negative ones. I would not recommend Distinctive Homes AT ALL!!! Workmanship - disgraceful. Customer service and support - practically non-existent. The building manager was a bully. The previous sales manager now owns another company which gets good reviews. Shame he couldn't have been as… Read more
particular when he worked for Distinctive. Building a house with them was so stressful we nearly got a divorce. We built with them quite a while ago but the experience still leaves me angry. Read the older reviews. They tell a truer story.
Satisfactory Build – Built very nicely. Feels great building a house with Distinctive Homes. The Sales consultant Ben was very supportive and cooperative. Minor issues which has been fixed. Few things are there which I have been told will happen due to the movement of the house and will settle down eventually like cracks on the ceiling. I have asked to keep an eye on it and if it expands more then need to inform them.
Well worth the wait! we are so happy! – We chose to build our home through Distinctive Homes and they were absolutely fantastic through the whole process! The quality of the build is unbeatable and the staff were friendly and easy to deal with. We would absolutely recommend Distinctive Homes to anyone looking to build. What can be a very stressful time was just easy and stress free! We cannot thank them enough! Great quality and great value!
Great house, great service, great company – We are thrilled with our new home. The finish of the house is high in quality. Distinctive Homes are an excellent company and I would definitely build with them again and recommend to family and friends.The customer service we received was exceptional. Our housing consultant went above and beyond to ensure we built the home of our dreams. Advice… Read more
and suggestions were offered and we were told of all the ins and outs of the building process. Our Housing consultant ensured the building process to be of ease and communicated with us through the whole process. The whole process of building our home with Distinctive was enjoyable from the selection process until our home was complete and we received hand-over. The Manager of Distinctive Homes is extremely passionate about Distinctive and always ensures clients are happy. We are very happy with the process and exceptional customer service we were given throughout building with Distinctive.
Dream Home – At Distinctive homes, we were introduced to a designer - [name removed] - who took our ideas and brought them together to finally create our dream home. We must have changed the plans at least 5 times but it was never a problem. [name removed] was very patient and professional. The contract price was cost-effective as it included most of the… Read more
extras we wanted. There was an excellent range available for materials and fittings without extra charges. The supervision was smooth from beginning to hand-over. We were very happy with the quality of finish.
My first home – I found Distinctive to be extremely helpful in the selection process and signing up went smoothly also. The house was very good value for money compared to other builders. I found there was a good choice of finishes, tiles etc. It went up quickly and the quality was excellent. I would definitely build with Distinctive again. The house turned out just as I wanted
Love our new home! – We found dealing with Distinctive to be a positive experience. They did the build in a timely fashion and we were pleased with the quality of the finished product. The selection process was easy and there was a good range of products to choose from. We were always kept up to date with the progress of the build and the communication from… Read more
Distinctive and our site supervisor was excellent. The project flowed really well, there were no long gaps waiting for trades. I would have liked help from an Interior Designer - perhaps they can add to their package?
Our Own Plans – We had our own plans drawn up by our own Architects and had Distinctive build the two homes for us. Distinctive's were very accommodating in allowing us to put our own thoughts into the designs. Even though they were investment properties, we wanted it to be a challenge for us to build two beautiful homes in a well sought after area. They kept us… Read more
up to date through out the build, giving us realistic time frames. I would like to congratulate George and with his team at Distinctive Homes for their all their effort & expertise for the completed product that we were able to sell without any drawbacks. We definitely will be building with Distinctive's again in very near future. Reliable, efficient & friendly
Future Retirement – We built our first investment home 8 years ago with Distinctive after we went to one of their Display homes and met with outstanding sales rep Regan, who helped us throughout the planning process.It was great to have a wonderful team of tradesmen who did an excellent job with their efficiency and superb skills .We had no hesitation when building… Read more
our second house to employ Distinctive once again as there were no hassles when we wanted modifications done.The site supervisors were always available to address any issues which were dealt with promptly ensuing the houses were built to a very high standard. reasonably priced for high work standards
Outstanding service, couldn't be happier – We built with Distinctive Homes less than 12 months ago. Our large, open plan home was built to a really high standard. Planning and building the home was a breeze, thanks to the advice and support of a wonderful consultancy team. Our building supervisor is really well regarded in the building industry and was wonderful to deal with. He was… Read more
always available to address any minor concerns we had, and bought with him a wonderful team of tradesmen. The tradesmen were efficient and very skilled, and worked well to deliver a superb and beautiful home.
We chose to build with Distinctive Homes, as they have a fantastic reputation in the South Australian building industry. They have a reputation of being honest and reliable, and that was extremely important to us when selecting a builder.
I always recommend Distinctive Homes to people who are thinking of building. The staff provided exceptional service every step of the way. We hired an independent building supervisor prior to building, who too was unable to find fault with our entire build. He was very impressed by the quality of the workmanship. Honest, reliable, high specification, energy efficient,
Dream Home – We had a fabulous experience building with Distinctive Homes. We modified quite a bit to the original plan and our sales lady was only too happy to assist and promptly got back to us with updated plans and costing's. Then during the building process was had a wonderful supervisor who would meet us almost the very next day if we had any questions… Read more
or wanted to inspect the home with him. We would thoroughly recommend Distinctive Homes to anyone wanting to build their dream home. Reliable, quality, efficient, positive experience
Excellent, love our new home! – We had a great experience building with Distinctive Homes, they helped us to sub-divide our land and drew up custom house plans to suit the new block at the back and dealt with all the council applications etc for us. The build went quite smoothly, we had a few small issues but very minor such as a light in the wrong position, we told our building… Read more
supervisor about them and it got fixed easily enough. In general we found the service friendly, the prices were competitive for the home and even when upgrading things in the selections it was quite reasonable compared to some other builders we spoke to previously. Overall we are very pleased with the quality of the finished home, it looks really lovely and we've had a lot of compliments from our neighbours and visitors. We have recommended our close friends to use Distinctive Homes, they are part way through their build but also happy with no problems so far. I would have no hesitation to build with them again if we want another new home in the future. Easy process, well priced for the quality you get.
Slow / unresponsive after contract was signed – The sales staff were really responsive and explained a lot - up to the point where I signed the contract. I transferred the money for the deposit and communication stopped. My mortgage broker tried to contact them to get some fixed price figures (especially for footings). She reported to me that they were rude on the phone ("you get the… Read more
figures when you get it"). I also tried to contact their head office a couple of times and either no one answered (lunch time) or I got a answering machine with "You're calling outside out business hours ..." (around 4pm).
After 2 months I received the soil report and got a variation for the footings). Distinctive Homes didn't supply the figures to the bank and the set date in the contract for getting bank approval elapsed.
I cancelled my building contract - lost my deposit - but I guess it was the right decision to avoid further delays / problems during the building process.
I definitely can't recommend Distinctive Homes at all. sales staff up to the point where you sign the contract slow, unresponsive / unfriendly after signing contract
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It seems we are too difficult! After their sales manager laughed off the slander by their sales… Read more