G.J. Gardner Homes NSW

I personally worked with Tinashe, Cindy & Mitchell through the Pre-Construction Phase of my home in Sydney. They were each a pleasure to work with and ensured a really smooth process in what can be very difficult as someone who is building a house for their first time. The Team was very responsive to any queries I had & went above and beyond to… Read more ·  1

assist during the process.

I would highly recommend GJ Gardner for anyone looking to build their own house.

GJ Gardner Inner West Builder Recommendation – GJ Gardners (Liverpool) have designed and built two (2) custom homes for me in the Leichhardt area. the custom design process was highly professional and collaborative with Mitchell and his team working everything we wanted into the design. He was… Read more ·  1

also able to navigate the notorious inner west council process with relative ease. i would highly recommend GJ Gardner Liverpool for a new home in the inner west area

We are first time builders & GJ Liverpool has been AMAZING in guiding us through the process. The team are always willing to help answer our questions, explain anything we aren't sure of & we genuinely trust their opinion because they aren't pushy or trying to serve themselves by upselling things on our build. I've been surprised at how quickly… Read more ·  1

things have come together. We are about to start construction & from seeing their display house in Austral to this point, its been less than 6 months. We'd been told by many friends & family it will be 8-12months just to get slab down. We've about to start in the next few weeks. Faster than I'd expected & I would attribute it to GJ & the team for their great customer service & active communication from the early days of getting the tender & right through to this point. They are QUICK - in the best way!

Mitch, Cindy & the team over at GJ Gardner Liverpool have been an absolute pleasure to work with for this whole process.

Cindy has been on top of her game for the whole pre construction process. Anything we need, she will jump on it to make things happen. No delays from her or having to chase for details/ documents. She got on top of all our appointments super early so things could run smoothly for our variation choices/ quotes. Cindy is great as her job. I wish we could have Cindy continue with us for the entire build process. its been lovely working with her.

Mitch is such a lovely person to deal with. Knowing we are first time builders, he doesn't use jargon terms & explains things very well for us to get a grasp on how our home will be built or any issues we may come across - he's upfront about it all & honest. We really appreciated that from Mitch. He helped calm down any stresses I've had so far. From early on - pre signing any contracts, Mitch & Cindy were there to support us. Mitch talked us through the build, construction details for the house we wanted, he gave us the space to explain what we wanted & our plan for our forever home. He also saw the vision my fiancé had on a post-it note for one side of our home, the design we were trying to achieve & was able to make it happen for us (he worked on it overnight to get us plans the next morning with the drawings!). From a post-it note to house plans & now it will make up part of our future home. We see his effort & we are so happy to have had him supporting us.

Building a new home is always a daunting experience, but the team at G.J. Gardner Homes Albury made the entire journey smooth, enjoyable, and far less stressful than we expected. A special thank you to Shona for guiding us through the initial design process, and to Wes for overseeing the build from start to finish. We also really appreciated… Read more ·  1

Madeleine for keeping us informed every step of the way, and Sherrie for helping us with our colour selections. Everyone was patient, approachable, and always happy to answer our many questions. Their advice, ideas, and attention to detail helped turn our "imagination" into a home we love. What stood out most was the care and support from the entire team. They always took the time to explain everything clearly and made sure we felt comfortable with every decision. Their professionalism, communication, and dedication gave us confidence throughout the build. We are incredibly grateful to everyone at G.J. Gardner Homes Albury and would not hesitate to recommend them to anyone looking to build their home. Thank you for making what could have been a stressful experience such a positive and rewarding one. Cheers, Lee.

The whole team at GJ Gardner Wagga and Griffith were amazing throughout the entire building process. Sian was fantastic to deal with from day one. Nothing was ever an issue or too much trouble for her and she was always happy to make changes or help wherever she could. She was the perfect first point of contact for us and was the person who sold… Read more ·  1

us on building with GJ Gardner. Luke, our site supervisor, was incredible to work with throughout the construction process. He was extremely knowledgeable, professional and approachable. He never made us feel like our questions were silly or that we were ever bothering him. We were particularly impressed by his attention to detail and the care he put into our build from start to finish. Overall, we cannot recommend GJ Gardner Wagga and Griffith highly enough. The entire team went above and beyond to make the building process as smooth and enjoyable as possible, and we couldn’t be happier with our experience.

We had a fantastic experience building with GJ Gardner Coffs. From the very beginning, the planning stage was straightforward and well guided, which made the whole process feel easy and enjoyable. One of the highlights for us was working with the admin team on our colour selections—they were incredibly helpful, patient, and made what could have… Read more ·  1

been an overwhelming process really exciting.

Throughout construction, everything ran smoothly and we were kept well informed at every stage. The communication from both the supervisors and admin team was excellent, which gave us a lot of confidence and peace of mind along the way.

A big thank you to Rick, Susan and the whole team at GJ Gardner Coffs—it was genuinely a pleasure building with you all. We’re really happy with the end result and would absolutely recommend them to anyone looking to build.

GJ Gardner Orange delivered an excellent building experience for my new home. The construction timeline was efficient, with the build completed in roughly 6–7 months. The staff consistently demonstrated professionalism, patience, and dedication, responding promptly to all my questions. What stood out most was the team’s positive attitude —… Read more ·  1

everyone greeted me with a smile, making the entire process smooth and reassuring. I’m very satisfied with the final result and would confidently recommend them.

This is an update of the response or lack of response that I received from GJ Gardner regarding the issues with the house. I emailed both the GJ Gardner head office and the Coffs Harbour office regarding promised repairs to the incorrect tiling in the main bathroom and the damaged window reveal. Both of them failed to provide any response which… Read more

maybe goes to the character of the people and GJ Gardner, both unwilling to admit their failings and mistakes and to rectify them. The fact that the main office customer service did not bother to respond to my email appears to indicate that they care little about their reputation as well. These issues will have to be done later at the owner's expense. Following the handover and upon closer inspection it was found that the majority of the door handles were either loose or incorrectly fitted. These were repaired by the owner. It was also found that all the external power points were damaged and no longer weatherproof more than likely due to the covers being screwed on with a battery drill and stripping the screw threads. These had to be replaced by the owner due to safety concerns. If you want to have a well-built house that is finished off professionally, I would use another builder, not GJ Gardner. They appear to care little about the quality of the job or their reputation.

Extremely Disappointing and Untrustworthy Builder Our experience with G.J. Gardner Homes Parramatta has been one of the most frustrating and disappointing experiences we’ve ever had. It clearly shows how poorly managed, disorganized, and arrogant this franchise truly is. 1. Poor Management and Arrogant Attitude They suddenly fired all their… Read more

sales staff, which caused total chaos in our case handover. I had been dealing with them since April or May, but due to poor coordination and lack of communication, the whole process dragged on for months. The management — especially the director — was arrogant, dismissive, and unprofessional, showing no sense of accountability or customer care.

2. Wrong Design, Wasted Time, and Unbelievable Lack of Professionalism

All surveys, engineering reports, and designs were based on a wrong layout that did not comply with CDC (Complying Development Certificate) requirements. Even more shocking — it was me, a non-professional client, who discovered the issue first. I pointed it out to them, and it took G.J. Gardner over two weeks to finally admit that I was right. For a professional builder to rely on a client to identify such a fundamental compliance problem is simply absurd — honestly laughable and unacceptable.

This major mistake wasted over five months of my time, forcing me to delay my planned demolition in December. If I had paid a larger deposit and continued the process, it would have been a complete disaster, as I’m sure they would have just blamed me again, just like they did this time.

3. Price Increase During Design Stage — Totally Unreasonable

Even during the design stage, they increased the price by more than 10%, before any construction even began. That makes absolutely no sense and shows how unpredictable and unreliable they are. They broke previous agreements, changed their story, and blamed everything on the sales consultant they had fired — and then went even further, blaming me as the customer for their own design and compliance mistakes. It’s a perfect example of a company that refuses to take any responsibility for its own failures.

4. Price Hike After Deposit and Blame-Shifting

Before paying the $5,000 deposit, the quoted price was about $800k. After the deposit, it jumped to $920k, and that still didn’t include variations or external costs. When questioned, they claimed “management never approved” those numbers, then blamed the departed salesperson. Later, they told me the CDC compliance issue was my own decision and my own problem, even though their own design failed CDC requirements.

When I mentioned that I might contact NSW Fair Trading, they didn’t say they didn’t care — but their tone and attitude made it clear they had no real intention to resolve the issue. It felt dismissive and indifferent, as if the customer’s concern simply didn’t matter.

They even added that my $5,000 deposit didn’t even cover their costs, implying that I should be grateful they weren’t asking for more — an incredibly arrogant thing to say to a paying client.

5. Misleading Image — Not a Luxury Builder

Despite how they advertise themselves, G.J. Gardner is not a luxury builder. They are a franchise-based project home company with basic inclusions and inflated prices. Each franchise pays around 4–7% of its revenue to head office and keeps 25%+ profit margins, meaning customers easily overpay by around 30%.

For a 300m² home quoted at $1,000,000, the realistic construction cost is about $600,000, plus roughly $50,000 in variations — around $650,000 total, or about $2,170/m² to build. After adding the 7% franchise fee ($70,000) and their own profit margin ($300,000), the total markup is roughly $370,000, which is nearly 57% above the actual cost.

That means customers are paying over $3,300/m² for what is essentially a budget-level project home. It’s neither high-end in design nor fair in pricing. You’re essentially spending over a million dollars to build what is, in reality, a budget-level project home — it truly feels like they’re taking customers for granted.

Final Thoughts

From design errors and broken promises to hidden price hikes and constant blame-shifting — G.J. Gardner Homes Parramatta cannot be trusted. They waste your time, change their story, blame their staff and their customers, and refuse to take any real responsibility.

Because of them, I lost over five months and had to delay my entire project. If you value your time, money, and peace of mind, stay far away from this builder. There are many honest and professional builders out there — this one is absolutely not one of them.

This review is based on my own experience as a genuine customer of G.J. Gardner Homes Parramatta. Supporting documents such as my deposit receipt have been provided to ProductReview for verification.

My review is 5 years after the build I have previously submitted a review in regards to the build experience which happened during covid In that period I was stuck at times in WA where I worked and the dealings with GJ Gardener were dealt with by… Read more

my partner ( who has no building experience ) but that aside I stand by my review on the helpfulness of the GJ Gardener employees . My reflection now is 5 years later and I will say you get what you pay for . If you asked me do I think this house will be around in 15 years I'd have to say no , the quality is not there , I am getting cracking in one bathroom , I can see daylight through my front doors , is it sealed for heat retention ? probably not . The Bifold doors and windows are cheap ( I blame myself in part for not being on top of the items included in the build , if your not you will just get the cheapest ) I have already had to dowel and rescrew door hinges . I've had to remove the silicon around the bath tub and redo it . I have 2 different styles of architrave through the house in the main living areas its just cheap . One of the things I sourced myself was the flooring and carpet but when I asked to have the contactors come in and install these items before any architraves were installed I was given a flat no , they said safety issue , really ? The internal paint used is cheap , everything really has been done as cheap as they could do it , get in get out . The outside of the house is Hardi plank weatherboard and the joins are already starting to come apart and will require filling and then obviously re-paint . The internal wall frames have no noggins , this was something that I did manage to see and question and was told it's just the way they do it. All that was installed in the framing was 1 inch dowel placed about 3/4 of the way up the studs this was used to keep spacing . A lot of this might seem trivial to some but on reflection if you can afford it go to a proper licenced builder where you have better control of your build or be onsite 80% of the time the build is happening and stand up for what you expect . Again you get what you pay for and quality is not one of them after 5 years . I am adding to my review after having a GJ Gardner representative make a visit to assess my complaints and be able to respond to my complaints The visit lasted over an hour where all issues were pointed out , it was agreed the architraves were not what was agreed on , the rep was asked what he thought the finish on the paint was he responded with Mat finish... not what was asked for , he also took photos of the poor quality paint , the crack in the ensuite wall , the architraves coming away from the walls , the weather boards joint's where the filler at the joints had fallen out and joints not connected properly , he did say he was going to Hardys and would get back to me on what would fix the issue... Nothing On leaving the rep made a point of saying he was not at my house to look to repair anything he just wanted a chance to respond to my complaints Again quality is not something that shows up 5 years after the build

Fabulous service and assistance from our first enquiry to handover. Our home was built well ahead of arrangements and we were kept up to date with the progress on a weekly basis. Building a home was much easier than we expected, we would build with them again. Show details ·  1

We are currently mid-build with GJ Gardner MacArthur. The communication and service from everyone in the team has been fantastic. They worked with us in the initial stages to create a custom floor plan for our family. We are enjoying seeing our home come to life! Show details ·  1

Jean, Rob and the team were great at understanding what I needed to achieve and really tried very hard with council to get me the best possible outcome. Very happy and thanks you Show details ·  1

Excellent from the start to finish, Highly recommended GJ Gardner Wagga Wagga, all staff were thorough and everything went smoothly, quality build. I would definitely build with them again in the future. Show details ·  1

Second project experience with the team, easy to deal with, responsive, documentations and approvals were received relatively quickly this is credited to subcontractor relationships and understanding the requirements of council expectations. Managed well, great build quality. Would continuously work with the team. Thank you to all for your efforts. Show details ·  1