624 reviews
- Pre-Construction
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- Mid-Construction
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- Post-Construction
The purchase was effortless, timely and stress free. The agent, Atticus, was thoroughly professional and handled the process without fail. Similarly, the site supervisor, Shane, kindly walked us through, and attended to all minor details and touch-ups needed prior to handover. This newly built home is a pleasure to walk through, with a… Read more · 1
fresh, well-considered design that feels both modern and welcoming. The finishes are clean and high quality, the layout flows naturally from room to room, and everything works exactly as it should. There’s a clear attention to detail throughout, from the solid construction to the thoughtfully placed features that make everyday living comfortable and easy. The house quietly impresses without bragging—confident, comfortable, and clearly built by people who knew what they were doing.
The overall quality of build was very good. I have heard a lot of negative reviews but I believe with the money we paid and the product provided to us. They have created a beautiful house and did a fantastic job! Thank you. Show details
Follow-up · *I have to call them to check on the stages of the build, we also had someone on the ground checking and confirming it every week, they are ok with it. They don't give update unless you initiate but the progress is there. *The landscaping was done by ourselves with the help of AI *The house has 6 star energy efficiency rating, it isn't perfect… Read more
- +7
UPDATE - a bit less happy We have now gotten to the point of trying to rent out the house and apparently the locks installed are not compliant with the Minimum Housing Standards in South Australia (Housing Improvement Act 2016 and Housing Improvement Regulations 2017). These mandate that "each external door in the residential premises must be… Read more · 1
fitted with a lock that is able to be operated from the outside with a key and unlocked from the inside without a key;" The doors fitted do not comply as they're lockable from the inside. Hickinbotham customer service refused to rectify this as they believe that this is for leased / tenanted properties only and they just follow the NCC. While the act imposes duties on landlords to ensure that properties meet the standards at the start of the tenancy, the act and regulations apply to all residential properties so it is quite astonishing that new buildings can be built that are noncompliant with the builder refusing to rectify. I will fix this at my own cost for now and take this matter to SACAT. For everyone else building new houses in SA - make sure that your builder provides something that is actually compliant to SA legislation not just the NCC. As far as Hickinbotham goes - this was a rather unnecessary way to take away from an otherwise quite solid customer experience.
Pretty happy
We built a house as an investment in Victor Harbor and have been quite satisfied. We generally expected a fair few problems but practically nothing significant emerged and what did emerge they rectified pretty quickly.
There are a few minor things that are not worth taking away a star from their rating for, but could be improved:
- we did feel invoices for some stages were handed to us earlier than what the condition of the house was. We did delay payment of the final invoice on these grounds and had no issues with that, but generally it would be better if they could define the stages more accurately and wait a bit with the invoices. I.e we got the Practical Completion invoice with incomplete plumbing, garage door, some tiling - since this was not a turnkey house it would be great if they could proactively update us on an expected handover date. We need to organise a lot of trades to come and finish the site and that is difficult if we don't know when they can come
This is about it. Honestly the house quality is very good, they finished quickly and came under budget (in our last variation we got money back). Would definitely build with them again!
Reviews with attachments
- +1
In my first review, I said we’d build with Hickinbotham again — and I’m glad to say that’s exactly what we did. Once again, our site supervisor Jake went above and beyond throughout the entire process. From our initial meeting with Josh, our sales consultant, to the friendly and helpful team in the office, everything ran seamlessly and was… Read more · 1
genuinely enjoyable.
We did have a small issue with part of the stormwater being damaged during the build, but after a few emails and phone calls with Pia, the team quickly resolved it. The tradies not only fixed the damage but exceeded expectation to finish the job properly. Couldn’t be happier with the outcome and overall experience
I am incredibly impressed with the quality of the build and the general process. Communication was elite, I was well informed and taken care of at every stage. Hickinbotham and the team did a great job at settling any nerves or anxiety I had and am overwhelmed with the final product. Show details
We are extremely happy with our experience with Hickinbotham. Our house was built in 6 months, which is amazing timelines. We have also been very happy with our Liaisons at Hickinbotham, they have been very helpful and very reliable. I would recommend Hickinbotham to everyone and happy to write any reviews because we are so happy. Show details · 1
High Quality Build & Great Service – We had an incredible experience with Hickinbothom!. The team at client services were amazing and provided us with great supports and updates throughout our build. We had a great site supervisor who ensured that our build was completed to a high standard, with attention to detail and in great time. Show details · 1
In-depth reviews
Sign a contract and you will find out! – Hickinbotham looks great—until you actually start building with them. The build quality may be ok. but their admin staff is a disgrace. They're nothing more than a useless wall that does nothing but deflect issues away from management. Multiple times, I've had to bypass these incompetent clowns sitting in the admin staff just to get my concerns… Read more
addressed by managers who actually understood and resolved the problems where staff member told me "Do whatever you can, but this is how it is". But who has time to chase managers every time something goes wrong?
The admin team? Completely untrained and incapable of functioning in a professional environment. If you're foolish enough to ask questions or have basic expectations, prepare for disappointment. They are over-committed. Though it's just a cover for their incompetence.
CSA, their so-called Construction Service Australia, is the true disaster that deals with you after you sign the contract. Up until the phase where we had the sales team it was a good experience. Soon after it was all about "Building consultant didn't document this , sorry we don't have written proof and now she left".vAs a first-time home buyer dealing with an urgent situation, I was told construction was delayed due to a shortage of trades and their dates. Funny, since five display homes opposite to my street ( same block) hwere magically completed within a week. Clearly, display homes that help them upsell properties are more important than paying customers. When I confronted them, I got the classic "that's a different department" excuse.
If you want to watch them prioritise their marketing needs while treating you like an afterthought, by all means, go ahead. But if you value your time, money, and sanity, stay far away. Their team is utterly pathetic, and if I could plaster this experience on a billboard outside their display homes, I would.
Quality custom dream home built in record time – Hickinbotham built our custom 2 storey dream home in record time (11 months) at a cost that other builders couldn’t even come close to competing with. We had never built before but at every turn they explained the process and helped us through. When the interest rates were rising they even helped us refinance. Our own privately paid house… Read more · 1
inspector was thoroughly impressed and said it was quality craftsmanship. From the beginning when they took our vision and drew up our custom design right to the end, they were always available to us. The product ranges at selections are beautiful and on trend and even though we couldn’t afford to upgrade various finishes, the selections available under the inclusions are classic and timeless and our home is beautiful and exceptionally comfortable and functional. Our site supervisor, Aaron, took great pride in delivering us a quality build in a timely fashion. Our consultant, Paige, was always available to us and no query or request was too much. Even after handover they make themselves available to answer any questions and help with anything we need. Our house has risen in value enormously already and we couldn’t be happier or recommend them highly enough.
Thank You Joanne K – We are currently nearing the end of our pre-construction stage. To say we are beyond grateful and impressed by the service from Joanne K in Playford is an understatement! We spent months looking at displays with other builders and not much stood out to us, especially to fit our budget at the time. Until we visited the Hickinbotham display in… Read more · 1
Playford. We immediately fell in love with the display! Joanne didn’t mess around, giving us quotes on the same day for some similar designs to fit our budget! Within a few days we were back with Joanne signing a contract!
After some hiccups with the land we had at the time (through a seperate real estate agent), we unfortunately had to cancel the build contract and find new land. Joanne was amazing during this time! Contacting us almost daily with land she was finding available in areas we liked and keeping up to date with our ideas!
Joanne was the first to know once we purchased land and invited us in for a meeting straight away. She had already done quotes on the designs we loved before we arrived, making it 1000% easier. In the end we signed on the Playford Display design, as it was finally in our budget!
Joanne kept in contact regularly through email and call, ensuring our contract was perfect and nothing was missed!
She is thoughtful, organised and thorough. We highly recommend Joanne to anyone looking at building a new home!
Positive reviews
Just finished our build and handover very happy with the whole process and our build is amazing, they kept us informed through each stage and worked with us to finish in the time frame needed. Highly recommend Show details · 1
We’ve just finished building our home with Hickinbotham, and the entire experience has been absolutely fantastic! From start to finish, everything ran smoothly and far exceeded our expectations. Throughout the build, our site supervisor Jake kept us updated every step of the way, was quick to respond to any questions, and made sure everything was… Read more · 1
completed to a high standard.
The quality of the workmanship is excellent, and it’s clear the team takes real pride in what they do. Hickinbotham made the whole process stress-free, enjoyable, and exciting.
We couldn’t be happier with our new home and would 100% recommend Hickinbotham to anyone thinking about building — we’d definitely build with them again!
We recently purchased a turnkey home with Hickinbotham, and the whole experience was seamless from start to finish. Any items noted by our building inspector were sorted out before settlement, and Atticus was always professional, friendly, responsive and knowledgeable — which was especially reassuring as a first-time buyer. There were only a… Read more · 1
couple of very minor hiccups along the way, but nothing that took away from what was otherwise a smooth and stress-free build and handover. A special thanks to Joanne, who was fantastic to deal with during the purchase stage — she made everything so easy. Really happy overall and grateful to everyone involved!
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Negative reviews
Hi friends Please aware if you going to built new house with Hickinbotham. I have worse experience with this builder. I am writing to bring to your attention an issue with the final invoice. During the selection process, I clearly removed the air conditioning and timber flooring options from the scope of works. However, I’ve noticed that the… Read more
costs for these items $25800 have been included in the final invoice and manager or supervisor did not inform me about this mistake done by staff. Very bad experience
Hi Harminder, Thank you for meeting with me a few… Read more (+1 reply)
Review for Hickinbotham Homes – Building with Hickinbotham Homes was a deeply disappointing experience, one that has made me never want to build a home again. Initially, they presented themselves as communicative and attentive, constantly reaching out to ensure everything was smooth — but this was only up until I signed the contract and paid the deposit. Once that was done, the… Read more
level of communication dropped dramatically.
It became clear that they are overloaded and don’t have the necessary tradespeople to complete homes in a reasonable time frame. Delays kept piling up, and getting any updates was like pulling teeth. I constantly had to chase them for information, and the few responses I received felt rushed and unhelpful.
After the handover, the communication got even worse. Issues that should have been resolved quickly were met with silence or endless delays. I expected some level of follow-up or support after moving into the home, but it felt like they had moved on to the next project, leaving me to deal with the problems on my own.
I would not recommend Hickinbotham Homes to anyone looking for a reliable builder. The experience left me frustrated and regretful. They seemed more interested in securing the contract than in delivering quality service or maintaining any sort of relationship after the paperwork was signed.
Hi Jemma, Thank you for your feedback. We are sorry… Read more
Great experience – A bitter sweet build. Quick time frame and on site supervisor was good. Quality and finishing were not awesome, I’d like the same quality to be completed on your show homes haha! That will all be logged to be fixed at the three month mark which I understand. What was truely disappointing was the customer service at HO. Once you get close to final… Read more
payment there is an obvious shift. We have ended up calling companies ourselves to get help and information on how to proceed after emails and calls being ignored and to the point of being sighed at from customer service. We had to call accounts to get information and advice which the customer service should be doing and does but wouldn’t return calls or emails. All we received from customer service was attitude and instead of helping they seem to esculate things by ignoring the issue and the attitude and lack of care. Things that shouldn’t have been hard were awful. It is really disappointing. And just to reply to your bot response, I would love to call and discuss further with you as previously you don’t answer calls or emails and when you do it’s attitude and to be honest it’s clear that you don’t care at all once you have a signed contract and most of the pay, so no thanks, I’ve waisted enough time with that.
Hi Ali, We appreciate you taking the time to share… Read more (+1 reply)
Recent reviews
I purchased a turn key home with Hickinbotham and I'm very happy with the entire process, quality of the build and communication. From signing to handover the whole process went smoothly and timelines were as they were communicated. Any minor issues that were picked up at PCI were fixed prior to handover. Atticus was great to deal with, he… Read more · 1
provided lots of information during each step in the process and was prompt with responding to any questions I had - I couldn't recommend him enough.
A great home built by great people! I purchased a home though Hickinbotham and genuinely felt supported and looked after every step of the way! Fantastic service from a fantastic team! Show details · 1
We absolutely love our new home. All the communication during the build was great and everything was completed within the advised timeframes. Having expertly chosen colour schemes made our lives so easy, and they look amazing as a finished home. Show details · 1
Great company and the best builder for my first home. The process was smooth, and the house is built on a solid foundation with excellent quality and modern design. The attention to detail and workmanship really stand out. My wife and I couldn’t be happier — we truly love our new home.” Show details
Just finished building a house with Hickinbotham. Was an amazing experience, lots of communication, and the final result is amazing. The whole process was easy and smooth going. Now we have a lovely new house. We will definitely be building through Hickinbotham again Show details · 1
Hickinbotham had amazing communication throughout the build of our home. House is beautiful and couldn’t be happier. The build was done in a timely matter, and to a high standard of quality Show details · 1
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Recently purchased a turn key home through hickinbotham with my partner. We couldn’t be happier with the final product. Better than we could have expected and the team were all very helpful throughout the whole process. Show details · 1
Happy with the quality of the finished product. The high ceiling and door ways makes the house feel so much bigger. The living area is very open and the amount of windows bring in a lot of natural light. Show details · 1
Highy recommend them to build your dream house with quality products. The handover was done on time as promised and everything was done to a quality level. Very happy with end results Show details · 1
Very professional and supportive staff. Very happy with the quality of product delivered. The house was handedover on time and process was easy and smooth. Highly recommend them to build your dream house. Show details · 1
We recently built our new home with the SA Housing Centre and couldn’t be happier with the entire experience! From start to finish, the process exceeded our expectations. The build was completed ahead of schedule, which made the whole experience 10x better! Very grateful to the Hickinbotham Group. Show details · 1
I recently built with the Hickinbotham Group, the communication was excellent—both the head office team and our site supervisor kept us updated every step of the way and were always quick to answer any questions we had. The quality of the workmanship is outstanding, and the whole journey felt smooth and stress-free. We’re so thrilled with the final result and would highly recommend this company to anyone looking to build. Show details · 1
The Hickinbotham team were fantastic to work with. We purchased a turnkey home that left us very satisfied both in terms of build quality and time. Our house is perfect for our growing family and we cannot wait to add our own touches. Atticus was very prompt with his emails and time frames and we couldn’t recommend him enough for future clients. Show details · 1
The Hickinbotham team were fantastic to work with. We purchased a turnkey home that left us very satisfied both in terms of build quality and time. Our house is perfect for our growing family and we cannot wait to add our own touches. Atticus was very prompt with his emails and time frames and we couldn’t recommend him enough for future clients. Show details · 1
Process was smooth, i was not involved in the process as it was an off the plan house. However whenever i called with a question it would get answered relatively quickly. the build quality was good few minor issues that required fixing but otherwise it has been good. they got onto my concerns quickly and came out to fix them. Show details · 1
An amazing experience! My project manager provided a great handover/settlement building a rapport with myself and my family! Reassured regarding issues which may arise with a new build and how to easily fix these with the maintenance team. Was provided with prompt responses to emails and as a first home owner i had many questions! Professional and experienced team id happily recommend. Show details · 1
I’m very happy with the experience of getting my first home built through hickinbothom. Everyone along the journey has been very helpful and understanding. It had been a very smooth process. Show details · 1
From start to finish they have been very helpful and transparent. Any issues sorted out with haste with minimal hassles. Thank you for our first family home and a place for my young daughter to grow up in. Show details · 1
Signed the contract Oct 2023 Slab poured July 2024 Keys provided March 2025 I've heard some absolute horror stories and was warned to never build a house. But honestly it wasn't nearly as bad as I was told. Yes things went wrong but they were commicared and then fixed and it's all you can ask. I would build again no worries. The only thing I… Read more · 1
would suggest is for the sales reps to maybe go through the options like being able to move internal walls with no extra fee and not having to get flooring and do it post handover as I feel that would have helped us greatly and changed how we did our build.
But overall thanks to the Hickies team!
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Hi Dee, Thank you for your feedback. We're sorry… Read more (+1 reply)