Homebuyers Centre Victoria

We have just completed our Empire 29 build with Homebuyers and wanted to share an honest review of the entire process start to end. We chose Homebuyers due to their longevity in the market and because they are a cash based business meaning in a market where builders were going under left right and centre, we felt that we had an extra level of… Read more

protection.

Sales - we had an excellent sales experience, with a wonderful consultant who guided us to the right home and inclusions for us. We decided to go ahead with Resolve as our brokers meaning we only had to put down $2000 until the slab stage. We found this experience to be excellent. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Colours - unfortunately our colour consultant was less than sub par, being unable to understand our request resulting in us having to triple check every detail and go back constantly on errors which was an ongoing and frustrating process. We recommend putting everything in writing even if you’re being reassured that your choices will 100% occur - we queried something and insisted they put it in writing and unfortunately the wrong thing was still installed however because we had it in writing homebuyers did agree to replace it to agreed.

In saying this we appreciated that home buyers had six colour schemes that we could choose from which gave us a bit of confidence that our home would be cohesive and beautiful. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Preconstruction - once our land titled we entered the most frustrating part of the entire process. While our neighbours were getting to site within a month after title, It took 5 1/2 months before homebuyers got to site. This means our neighbours were both completely finished with their build before our build had even started. This meant we had extra to deal with like additional boundary surveys, and a neighbours slab encroaching, as well as MANY illegal dumping and illegal use by other builders occurring. While we had a consultant who was providing a great communication, we found it incredibly frustrating that other builders were able to start within 2 to 3 months however homebuyers were so slow getting to site. It would have been significantly improved if HBC had at a minimum put up temporary fencing during this process to stop illegal dumping. At this point, we were feeling quite disappointed after such an excellent and positive sales experience, as the colour and reconstruction experience was not giving us confidence in our build. ⭐️⭐️

Construction - thankfully once we did get into construction the entire process significantly improved. We did engage with a private inspector to check five stages within our build. We had two side supervisors one for the slab stage and then one for the rest of the build. Our first site supervisor had phenomenal communication and we were very pleased with how that stage progressed. We then got handed over to our second site supervisor who was significantly harder to get a hold of and the communication was lacking. Homebuyers provide an excellent portal for clients however our site supervisor did not upload any photos for the construction after the first stage. This was fine for us as we lived close by and could stop and go look at the progress however I could see this being frustrating for homeowners who lived further away from their build.

However, the quality of the work done in our home and the workmanship is excellent. Our private inspector was extremely thorough and still mostly found minor issues that homebuyers did address quickly. It took 26 weeks to build our double story home which was speedy but we could see the quality of the work done was excellent. Specifically our electrical, brick work and stone work is fantastic. The only issues we found were with the paint (standard is two coats and we highly recommend anyone wanting to build with homebuyers upgrades to 3 coats) and our doors. In saying this, we have many friends and family that have built and the standard that we received was definitely above expected with a volume builder compared to some of our friends experiences. All in all, we give the construction process ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

From our very first visit to a display home through to signing our contract, we have had an amazing experience. I honestly can’t speak highly enough of Blake Pilkington, our New Homes Consultant. He was honest, extremely knowledgeable, and kept communication open at all times. Blake worked incredibly hard to get us to where we are now, and his… Read more

support throughout the process made everything feel seamless and stress‑free. Now that we’ve signed, we’ve transitioned to Chelsea, who has been outstanding so far. She has provided clear, precise updates on where our job is at and has continued the great level of service we’ve experienced from the start. Overall, our journey has been nothing but positive, and we wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Homebuyers to others building their homes.

The experience from the start was great. Honest quotes, advice and the packages are complete. Very helpful and supportive of first home owners. Flexible with terms and will work extra to help achieve what you want. I felt very supported through my first home buying process which is generally quite stressful. Show details

First time to build and building with home buyers has been a great experience. I am almost finish with my build and its perfect time to write an objective review of my experience. Nick Elsden was such a great agent he walk me through the steps and answer all my question with patience. I didnt enjoy my color selection much I felt pressured to make… Read more ·  1

up my mind as i have no idea of some of the things so i assume they choose stuff without asking my opinion to probably make it quicker too. It is a long process after all. Some of them i learn when the building started. My skirting was ordered wrong and my Site supervisor is pleasant enough to give me options I decided to keep it to AVOID further delays. I didnt realize that the color selection cannot be mix and match i should have done my research before signing. In Saying that all my Site supervisor has been so patient with me Especially Alastair Scribante. Kept me updated and address my concern. I visited the site and they could do better with cleanliness(Wink wink). i would sometimes find cigarette inside the house i guess it can't be avoided. The building time frame is amazing. Overall i had a such a great learning experience with homebuyers and would definitely recommend them to friends and family.

I have just completed my handover just over 1 week ago and I couldn’t recommend homebuyers enough! The whole build process went very smoothly, my site manager rang me every 1 or 2 weeks to update me on what was booked in and what had been done. During inspections we found minimal issues that needing correcting which was amazing, and the things we… Read more ·  1

found were corrected quickly. Everyone in the homebuyers team from accounts, site manager and CX hub were very easy to contact and get swift responses to questions. Laura, our new homes consultant and Nick, our site manager went above and beyond for us and I am forever thankful. This was our first home and I love it so much thanks to Homebuyers!

Joel Lombardo at the Averly Display in Nar Nar Goon North is truly one of a kind! We chose to build with Homebuyer Centre over two other home builders for our first home, purely due to the time and effort he has put in and he has been nothing short of amazing. Not only does he have a fantastic list of personal contacts (broker, conveyancer etc.)… Read more ·  1

that he provided to help us, he was also so knowledgeable, transparent, very friendly and easy to talk to. The whole experience we have had so far has been nothing short of positive and wonderful. He was the quickest to respond and have finalised quotes and plans drawn up within 2 days of us speaking to him. I genuinely can't stress enough how amazing he has been throughout this whole process so far, and how positive and fun he has made this whole experience for us. He's much more than just a salesman! He's so personable, helpful and clear with all of the information and documents we had to go through and answered all of our questions with ease. If you're a first home buyer or any buyer for that matter, I highly recommend Joel. We're looking forward to working with Joel throughout this process and seeing how our first build comes together. We would definitely come back to him when we plan to build a second home in the future! 11/10

Singed up for a home and land package. Shweta from Homebuyers helped us choose the plan and every step of the process was smooth. Thanks Shweta and homebuyers. Just finished colour appointment Looking forward for the next stages. Show details ·  1

We have built our first home (Harvey 23 floor plan) with Homebuyers Centre and our experience has been excellent from start to finish. At the start, we were unsure of which builder to go with even after visiting multiple display homes, until we met Nick Elsden, our New Home Consultant who was based in the Mount Duneed office. He listened to our… Read more ·  1

expectations and was able to put together a house and land package that suits all our needs. There was no pressure or upselling, just clear information and genuine help along the way. Communication was mostly great in the next few stages from preconstuctions to constructions and finally handover. Our questions were followed up promptly by the customer experience team. We couldn't be any happier with the build quality of our home now that we have moved into the property.

Had a great experience at Homebuyers Centre Armstrong Creek. My consultant was Nick – super professional, patient and easy to deal with. I rocked up with zero idea what I actually wanted, and he took the time to go through everything properly without any pressure or hard sell. Explained all the options clearly and helped me land on the Lawson 28, which feels perfect for what I need. Whole process was smooth and stress-free. Show details ·  1

Dean Debattista has been awesome throughout the process of assisting me in purchasing my first home! He put my mind at ease and was very responsive to all my queries. I would highly recommend him and home buyers centre if you are looking to step into the property market. Show details ·  1

I had a fantastic experience building my home with Home Buyers Centre. From start to finish, the entire process was smooth, transparent, and well-managed. Their team was professional, friendly, and always available to answer any questions I had along the way. The quality of the house is excellent – everything was delivered exactly as promised,… Read more ·  1

and the workmanship really shows attention to detail. Most impressively, they completed the build on time, which made planning my move much easier.

If you’re looking for a reliable builder who delivers both quality and punctuality, I highly recommend Home Buyers Centre. They truly exceeded my expectations!

Our sales consultant Shweta was amazing in starting the process of building our first home! With having to meet some short timelines she did amazing at making sure everything was done efficiently and correctly! Highly recommend! Show details ·  1

We had a great overall experience building our home. From the start, the service from our New Homes Consultant, Customer Experience Coordinator, and Construction Coordinator was smooth and professional. Our Site Manager was also attentive and kept things on track. The only letdown was the workmanship of the tiling and the installation of the… Read more ·  1

ensuite toilet, which didn’t meet our expectations. We did raise our concerns, and while they were acknowledged, we understood that addressing them might delay our move-in timeline, so we chose to move forward.

Despite that, we’re happy with the end result and appreciate the support we received throughout the process.

We had an amazing experience with Dale Salter from Home Buyers Centre. We weren’t planning to build a home at first, but after visiting their display at Kaduna Park and seeing the Harvey floor plan the display was Harvey 26 we feel I love with the design but it doesn’t suit our budget we selected Harvey 20 any way we need that extra theatre for a… Read more ·  1

family with 2 kids. Dale helped us work within our budget and find the perfect area ( we choose officer central). Despite some challenges during settlement (right around the holiday season), Dale went above and beyond to help us secure our land. We’re now in the final stage of our build, and everything’s going smoothly with our site manager, Sam Saxton. A special thanks also to Amelia, our Customer Experience Specialist, for being so supportive and responsive throughout the process. Highly recommend Dale and the Home Buyers Centre team!

Pre-construction: They exceeded my expectations by showcasing an eye for detail. They even showed me pictures on how tidy the site is maintained during the construction phase emphasising attention given to the job. However, unfortunately that was the only bit to win the sale. Construction phase: The construction team was disappointment from… Read more

start to end.

They came back with some Govt. Regulatory changes dated 30th March 2023 affecting gas installation and got me to pay extra $1100 towards compliance via variation. I signed the contact in early July and the plans were approved in late July for them to come back to me in September! They said that unless I agree to pay they wont proceed with the construction. Surely they had enough time to work on the contract price!!

Unlike promises made during the sales phase the supervisor did not bother to check the works! This resulted in 2 windows frames being built in bedrooms at different heights than the approved plans! This shows no care was given for the job. Moreover it was I who discovered this major defect after the handover only to receive the response such as `such minor issues do occur` from the site supervisor. The warranties manager and their manager tried to sell me the defect saying it would be better from a privacy point of view optionally offered to redo the frames. Clearly this was no minor defect. Interestingly, even their preferred building surveyor did not pick on the defect!

I tried to find reasonable ground that I could live with the defect if I am paid the costs involved in doing the rectification works. This builder even turned down the proposal, with 2 options: 1. Get the defect fixed at cost of inconvenience and patchy look of the house. The works would take 2 weeks and craete a mess. Even then I might be inviting more problems to rectify in future. 2. Live with this off putting defect, even if I have paid the full costs and done nothing wrong. This is not fair.

No security alarm were installed by the builder once its built to deter thieves, generally builders do install them. Instead all lights were kept on! My neighbour called me up to bring it to my notice. No remedial action was taken by HBC.

Post Construction phase:

The only positive was that HBC agreed to install the appliances few days before I moved in. I appreciate that.

However, it took them 6 months after settlement to fix something identified at handover! It was my mistake that I signed off in good faith. I did sent a bunch of minor defects, out of which they fixed what was convenient stating other were damages caused my me. For example the dent on the door knob and chips on the tiles at various places. I am pretty sure the dent was made by their tradesman who came out to have a look at the unfunctional lock.

There are still few more defects I have not sent them across to HBC such as the missing caulking on exterior wall (Photo attached). The bricks above the garage were not pressure cleaned. However this highlights that the house was handed over without much care. We never know what is the quality behind walls...

The star ratings I have provided is I am being too generous!

PS: If you do care about the house you built using your hard earned money then find other builder who can provide better service. I have written evidence of what I have mentioned here.

Dean debattista from homebuyer group was absolutely amazing from the start of the progress walking us through different floorplans that suites our budget and to our family needs dean also walked us through the colour scheme and through the pwc and… Read more ·  1

h.i.a contarct... we are still along way to go but dean has made sure you will be there for every step of the way....

19/11/25: FOLLOW-UP 14h · WARNING!!! Do NOT build with Homebuyers Centre! My experience has continued to be a disaster. I’ve had to pay for multiple reinspections because my build has failed to meet Australian & Victorian standards and codes. Home… Read more

by Centre attempt to cover up defects by racing ahead to the next stage of the build and hope you don’t discover what they’re doing. Just 1 example is it’s taken them 5 weeks of continuous attempts to address defective waterproofing issues that my inspector identified & despite me paying for multiple reinspections its continue to fail to meet standard- even up until yesterday 19/11/2025 where it failed again. I have a very small house & bathroom & they still can’t get it right! They attempted to move ahead with tiling and cover up their defective! They’ve now put off my build being ready due to their FAILURES. which is costing me not only the cost of reinspections but additional lawyers fees & rent. They employ the worst tradesmen who cut corners, are extremely sloppy and the list of DEFECTS are never ending. It’s been an absolute nightmare!! What’s been worse is the site managers need to be told by inspectors what to do and they do not care about their extremely poor workmanship, & terrible quality of your build, the stress they cause customers & in my case, I’ve taken it up to regional manager; who also doesn’t care. Every part of my build has been defective. You’d think that there were 15 year-old apprentices building my house. DO NOT BUILD WITH THEM- go to a proper builder! Parts of my house things have been installed crooked, unevenly. They’ve had to rip down walls and fix them because they failed in inspections, it’s been a nightmare for months & 4 years of hell dealing with them. I’m now having to bring in defective lawyers to force them to build it to Australian standards.

Earlier comments: I’m currently building with HBC at the Ortus Estate in Cranbourne East, Melbourne. I didn’t think anything could be worse than preconstruction stage with HBC (what a headache that was) & construction phase has been worse; countless defects that are not being rectified, they’re being put off because they’re too busy in their rush to the ‘next stage’. Some of the defects are very serious & require immediate attention because they do not meet Victorian & Australian standards and site & area managers just keep attempting to smooth me over with ‘words’, telling me they’ll be done ‘next stage’ and just refusing to spend a day or 2 to address defects- HUGE lack of action. Theyre just ‘throwing it up’ with no care, the worst workmanship; it’s been absolutely terrible/frightful. I will post some pictures shortly to show the disgraceful & poor workmanship that’s being done at my house. They booked plastering the very next day after an inspection allowing absolutely no time to rectify issues, just hoping that they won’t get caught out with what wasn’t completed to Australian standards underneath, I had to get upset and demand that they rectify things before plastering. There’s absolutely NO checking going on by my site manager before inspections because again, they clearly do not care and they’re in too much of a rush to check anything! This is now resulting in me having to pay more for re-inspections!! I’m having to double pay $ to check what they’re not taking their time to build properly! It’s been a hideously stressful nightmare!! I would never recommend anyone building through Homebuyers Centre. The workmanship has been so shoddy it’s been bewildering and as previously mentioned also many defects have not been up to code or up to Victorian & Australian standards. Currently I have 23 terrible defects; including an uneven roof, badly misaligned issues, a very badly bowed wall that needs immediate re-plastering & rectification after it was already raised in a previous inspection (but they ignored & ‘put it off until later’) & they’re STILL not addressing it & also of additional/most concern, my waterproofing couldn’t even be checked in the waterproofing inspection because they obstructed it so badly so I have no guarantees at all about this! I have emailed my site and area managers and they have not responded to me (they’re clearly ignoring me). There is a high likelihood we will end up in court if things continue this way given I will NEVER accept what they’re doing. Beware-dreadful experience from beginning to current day (3.5 years!) * photos (of poor workmanship around my windows & doors) are just one of the many examples of what’s happening to my build.

My Honest Experience with HomeBuyers – Overall Score: 3.3/10 I want to share my complete journey with HomeBuyers so future customers can make informed decisions. My experience spans three phases: Pre-Sales/Sales, Pre-Construction, and Construction. Phase 1: Pre-Sales / Sales (Score: 2/10) The sales process felt like a trap. You are pushed to… Read more

commit $2,500 quickly, and every demand is written into PWC and HIA without confirming feasibility. And in later stages they will just say sorry without any compensation. Once signed, there is no rollback for the customer. If the salesperson leaves, any issues later are blamed on them, with zero internal checks or accountability. Tip for Customers: • Do not rush into signing PWC or HIA. • Verify every commitment in writing and confirm feasibility before paying the deposit. • Keep all communication documented.

Phase 2: Pre-Construction (Score: 0/10) This was the most disappointing phase. High staff turnover means inexperienced managers who lack training. I often knew more than the assigned manager. As they are new so level of cooperation is zero and knowledge of the job is none. You must be extremely vigilant when reviewing plans and documents because errors and omissions are common. Tip for Customers: • Double-check every plan and document before signing. • Expect delays and multiple iterations. • Do not rely on verbal assurances—get everything in writing.

Phase 3: Construction (Score: 8/10) Finally, some professionalism. The construction team genuinely tried to deliver quality and resolve issues caused by earlier phases. They were the only reason my experience wasn’t a complete disaster. My site manager and his Boss, I believe are the only 2 responsible guys hired by Homebuyers.

Tip for Customers: • Stay engaged during construction. • Communicate regularly with the site supervisor—they are usually the most reliable point of contact. • Inspect the work at every stage.

I haven’t counted the CXhub team in this whole process deliberately else the average score would have dropped further. If any amount needs to be credited back they will keep on changing statements just not to refund you the amount and will give you unsatisfactory proofs against the expense.

Common Issues I Faced • Wrong cost estimates and poor contract handling • Lack of transparency and frequent changes in commitments • No internal audits or accountability • Blame-shifting between teams • Customer always made to feel at fault

Bottom Line If you choose HomeBuyers, be prepared for a stressful journey. The construction team works hard, but the earlier phases need serious improvement. My overall rating is 3.3/10, and that’s only because of the construction team’s efforts.

I believe even the 6 years old kids playing in the playground will have more coordination among themselves and are more organized than the coordination among homebuyers PROFESSIONAL team