Novus Homes

We are now proud owners of a double storey house built by Novus Homes. The process has been a challenging one since our original builder (Builton Group) went bankrupt late in the planning stage so NH had to take over. However, due to their skill and professionalism they managed to pull it off with minimum time waste and to our satisfaction. We have found NH through our friends who also had a great experience with heir build and unreservedly recommended NH.
A few challenges during the construction process were easily overcome as NH has been very responsive and quick dealing with our inquiries or requests for plan modifications. The quality of the build is outstanding as confirmed by several of our close friends who also work in the building industry. We have been living in the house for over a month and are yet to find a fault.
Special thanks to Sid our supervisor and Danielle the contract administrator. Both were available, responsive and happy to assist each time we made an inquiry or had a request. Sid was simply awesome keeping a close eye on construction and quickly dealing with any issue at hand. In the end he delivered a perfect product and ended up with a pair of new friends (us!).
To all NH employees – big thanks for building us a great home! To the rest of you guys out there looking for a good quality builder that won't break the bank, look no further. Novus Homes is the way to go!

Novus Homes are an exceptional builder and one that I can honestly say will build with again.

The team are knowledgeable, hardworking, honest and reliable.

They have long and lasting relationships with all of their trades and among other positive things it speaks volumes when it comes to inspecting the finished product.

Novus homes took on this job after the ground floor slab was poured due to the Builton insolvency. The job was tendered to a number of builders and it was decided that Novus were the most reputable, knowledgeable and trustworthy given the circumstances. That decision was a very good one and we couldn't be happier with the team at Novus.

Thanks guys!!

We would like to thank Melanie and Greg of Novus Homes for helping us to create our dream home and for creating the stepping stones to making this journey such a pleasant one. From their professionalism in making sense of our various jumbled ideas to getting the first plans to almost exactly what we had in our hearts but were unable to put to paper ourselves. You are both truly perceptive and talented at perceiving what we wanted.

Our experience with Novus was smooth and wonderful. All the team were excellent and professional. In particular, our awesome building manager Sam was approachable and dealt with any queries we had in an timely and efficient manner. Novus truly exceeded our expectations.

We are certainly singing your praises and hope to be able to refer someone to you in the near future. A big thank you for building us our amazing dream home!

We cannot be happier with our choice to build with Novus Homes. The quality of the build was first class - from start to finish, the service was also first class. Danielle (the Contracts Administrator) was there for us every step of the way. The support we received was brilliant. And Sid (the building supervisor) was also fantastic. The staff are so professional and helpful. We really cannot praise them enough. I'd highly recommend for anyone to build with Novus. We are over the moon with our dream home! Thanks Novus!!

Novus recently completed a 2 story home for me in North Beach. It was a custom design. Novus' design was innovative and stood out from the other designs I had received. It took great advantage of both the block's northern aspect and also the block size. I am delighted with the result. The home has great space, light, ventilation, outdoor areas and the 'welcoming feeling' I was looking for. The construction quality is first rate and many friends/family have commented on it.
The Novus people were fantastic. The General Manager kept overall management of the project and was still hands on when needed (and able to explain things in everyday language). The Construction supervisor was the consummate professional - he was across the details, spent a lot of time thinking through the more challenging aspects of the build and was easy to communicate with. The contract administrator coordinated my variations and other queries with a prompt and positive precision.
The feedback I had from neighbours was the Novus' trades on site were very respectful. It was also obvious from my speaking to the trades that they had a good working relationship with Novus.
I was always optimistic as to how the house might end up, however it is even better than I had hoped for.

We could not be happier with the experience we had with Novus Homes. This is the first time we have built, and people have often said to me you either love it or you hate it. Well, we loved it. It was very simple to love it because the team at Novus made it so easy!

Firstly, I didn’t know where to begin. As a complete rookie, I set off into the land of the internet, looking for some signs of where to start. I went to display homes and spoke to a number of sales reps from different companies, but I had no idea what I was doing. I noticed very quickly though that Novus had the nicest display home of the lot. Just to be sure, I went to their other display homes. Thumbs up.

Fast forward a few months and I was sitting down with Fab after having sat down with a handful of other people from different companies. It was the easiest decision I’ve ever made. Fab was the only person I dealt with that took the time and explained everything in great detail to me. He was so efficient when it came to breaking down all the possible costs and different things we may encounter along the way. He wrote everything down for me really clearly and gave me actual number figures to work with too, as opposed to everyone else that just gave me ballpark figures. We were planning to knock down our house and subdivide our block so I wanted to make sure that we didn’t blow our budget. Fab was extremely thorough. We went through a bunch of ideas too and he went away with everything I had asked, came back to me in a day or two with a couple of different custom drawings. With a few minor changes, we were very quickly on track to having the final design of our dream home.
I must really emphasise that this step was the most daunting for me - making the right decision of who to use to build our home. Novus has a great team - not only did I have all the figures I needed very clearly laid out for me, I had a great design done almost instantly, and very importantly, the costs were actually extremely reasonable. I found that their costs were significantly lower than many of the other builders, and this was a very pleasant surprise, given their impressive display homes.

The pre-start process was very smooth. We already knew mostly what we wanted, so most decisions were really easy to make. We were supplied with coffee and biscuits, which always makes the decision making process more pleasant, and we were given plenty of options and ideas to work with. We had already been given a folder of things to consider and look at, so we came well prepared and were very happy with all the decisions we had made. If there was anything we had thought of after this, or any changes we wanted to make, a simple email was all it took to make instant changes that were hassle free. A smooth process over all.

It was great being able to start the actual build. This is where the real magic began. I should mention that Novus was very efficient with all paperwork and applications for all the different approvals we needed with our council etc. In fact all of that was handled so smoothly that we hardly even noticed any of it. They had thoroughly checked our site after we had demolished and made sure that everything had been cleared and prepared properly. The build itself was fantastic. Everything was done efficiently and quickly, but not rushed. The trades were impressive and the workmanship was of the highest standard. The tiling was the best I have seen - Carlo did an outstanding job throughout the house. Cannot fault it! The build was finished months before we had been initially told it would be, which is always a huge plus. You’d expect that when something is done fast that the quality may not be as high, but I can confidently say that the finishing standard of the place was excellent. We get constant comments from visitors and even post-build trades that point out the top quality work that we have had done in this home.

Sid was our site supervisor. Before the build even began he had phoned and introduced himself, answering a few of my first-timer questions! He was very much on top of everything and picked up issues that I wouldn’t have even seen, having them fixed quickly. It was very obvious that he supervises these builds as though it was for his own home. His very pleasant nature meant that it was easy to contact him and let him know any questions or concerns and he was right on top of it every time. Even after handover, Sid has checked on the place to ensure that all the finishing touches were done right. It’s very noticeable when someone does their job properly, especially in a field like this. The results are tangible, and certainly with Sid as the supervisor, we would build again with Novus in a heartbeat. He doesn’t let anything slide! We had some trades that have dealt with him visit us post-handover, and commented that Sid is their favourite supervisor by far. This wasn’t surprising at all, but really nice to hear from a trade too that he’s really good at his job and fair to everyone.

Danielle was our contact at Novus. She was absolutely lovely to deal with and made us feel very comfortable to call or email at any time with any kind of query! She was very responsive, so we never had to wait to receive replies or have phone calls answered. It was a welcome change from many companies where you spend 2-3 days waiting on a response. Danielle was very knowledgeable and helped to make everything smooth and problem-free. She answered all of our questions promptly, and when she didn’t have the answer right away, it was only a matter of hours before she had sourced the answer for us!
 One thing that really stood out for me: Danielle not only took the time to listen and answer all of our questions (and there were lot of them!) or help with any changes we wanted to make, she would go out of her way to check in and see how we were going, how we were enjoying the whole process or even just how our day was going. The difference that this made day to day was excellent. Not only did we form a great relationship which made it very easy to contact her, it was so nice to feel that we weren’t just ‘another client’. We were made to feel welcome and most importantly, really valued.

Overall, we are extremely satisfied with Novus Homes. We have our dream home and it’s nothing short of perfect. All the small hiccups completely pale in comparison - like I said, any issues were dealt with really efficiently. As with any build, there were some minor errors - what else would you expect when there’s so many things to be done and so many different people coming through. However, the way all issues were handled was great - everything was dealt with right away and we had quickly forgotten about any negatives when we saw such a large amount of positives. The actual coordination of trades and different services was so well executed, I’m sure that’s why our build was completed so much sooner than expected.

We could not be happier with our new home!

We scoured the newspapers, internet, magazines and spoke to everyone we knew who had built and finally found Novus Homes on the internet with the best design we were after.
From the first contact to the handover the experience has been great.
All tradies were good and cleaned up after themselves. There were no major issues with any of them.
Quality of the build was good all the way through.
Because builders selection of tiles was limited it was quite easy to spend more but everything comes at a price.
Prestart was excellent, the administrator was so helpful.
Even though the supervisor changed part way through the build the professionalism remained.
The home was completed ahead of schedule.
We are very happy with our new home.

We did the usual research to get the right builder for our house build. Novus homes were recommended by close friends who had just built with them. We couldn't find too many online reviews - good or bad so here is ours. The build from start to finish has been excellent. Great communication from Novus throughout the process made us confident we had chosen the right builder. The knowledge of all the staff was great - all of our queries and requests were dealt with promptly with good advice if we were making changes. When first looking for a builder we were concerned with hidden costs and time scheduling but we are happy to report that was not an issue with Novus. The standard builders choices are excellent, whereas others seemed to use this as an upgrade opportunity. The final quality of our house build is excellent...and it was completed ahead of the original projected date. We can't be happier with our new home.

After doing some serious looking around for a builder, we ended up with three that we considered using. However, Novus quickly shot to the top because they hit the ground running with the design process and when we compared costs, they were very reasonable. In summary, we felt we got good value for a home of exceptional quality, and service that made the entire experience positive from beginning to end.

Here was our experience in detail:

Sales - Out of the box, the project home design had some great features, such as a large open plan area that didn't have a column to hold it up like some builders need to do to keep costs down. The salesman was always very quick to get back to us with an updated design, and he had great CAD and design skills. Every time we brought up an idea or "issue" but we didn't know how to incorporate it into the design, he'd just send back a design that solved it - sometimes within an hour. We'd notice all sorts of improvements that he'd make with each iteration. He addressed all our questions point by point which we liked. We never waited long for anything. It was only necessary to meet the salesman in person on a small number of occasions because our home was pretty much designed over email, but when we did meet him, it was always a good meeting. It's a very great shame that that salesman is no longer at Novus because he is a real asset to any builder.

Shire approval: Even though our shire is known to be "difficult", approval went through no problems in the minimum time of six weeks, even with consultation with our neighbours.

Prestart: Quick and easy and actually quite fun. Within the choices available, there were always good options.

After prestart: The pricing that came back seemed fair, and although we queried a few things, there were always perfectly reasonable explanations which came back to us in a considerate way.

Building process: We picked a good time to build (just lucky) when trades were looking for work, so the house came up quickly, however we noticed the efficient scheduling was also part of the reason why the build was so quick. Living four minutes away from the site meant we could visit just about every day, and we saw that things happened on site pretty much every single day, sometimes even on weekends, and sometimes with more than one trade working at a time.

Our contact at Novus throughout the build was absolutely lovely and very communicative. We felt well looked after by her. There's a particular home building forum that some people recommended we use. It contains checklists of things to look out for by those sneaky builders out there who cut costs wherever they can. Every time we asked if Novus was planning to build a particular item the "correct" or better way, they did without exception. In fact, they seemed slightly confused as to why the question was asked. We ended up realising those types of forums don't apply to builders with integrity like Novus.

Building supervisor: He was exceptional. Even though it seemed like each trade was experienced and of a high standard, we'd walk through the house and see all sorts of markings that the supervisor made to get trades back and do things to his high standard. He built the house the way he'd want his own house built. He was always great at getting back to us. Both my husband and I have a lot of project management experience, and we usually notice things that aren't quite right - but with the build, we barely had to point anything out because it would just be taken care of without our involvement. If we did point anything out, the supervisor was almost always already onto it. We felt like our house build was being closely supervised and it took all the drama and worry out of the process.

Handover: Early - to the tune of 3.5 months. It was an orderly process and pleasant.

Living here: We really, really love our home. It works so well, the feel of the home is amazing and I can't think of anything I'd change. This is partly due to staring at the design so much ourselves, getting tonnes of feedback from friends and family, but also all the service we got from Novus throughout the build process.

We chose Novushomes because their display homes appeared excellent value and the awards they have won gave us confidence. Their designer was extremely helpful in helping us navigate subdivision and the approval process. The pre start administrator was excellent. However, as the design process progressed for our custom built home we began to be less and less sure we were getting value for money. For example, we were being charged hefty amounts for Essa stone bench tops and glass splashbacks when most builders these days include them as standard for a home over $700 000.

Custom design seems expensive