Simonds SA, Adelaide

This is a builder with no care factor. Recently, we had a handover of our new house and found out that Simonds Home has not followed its own engineering report for stormwater, putting the house at risk. The Construction manager was notified, and he called me to advise that this would be fixed as a priority. 3 weeks on and it still hasn't been… Read more

fixed properly. They keep sending the same plumber who did not follow the engineering report, and the plumber came twice to fix the issues caused by them and the builder. The issue has still not been fixed; in fact, it is worse now, since the plumber went and adjusted the incorrect drain pipe, which is now causing a tripping hazard. I have sent two emails without any response.

On top of that, our three-month warranty is overdue. All issues were sent to the SA Maintenance on the 14th of November, and it's been two weeks, and there's been no response. Some of the issues are serious, as such gas test and tagging have not been validated. You spent a lifetime saving for a family house, which turned out to be a nightmare because of a builder who does not care.

Attached are photos of - stormwater no complying with engineering report, using old tap to save money and also test and tag not completed 3 months post handover.

Great building experience – Build was well managed by the supervisor Jon and was hassle free. Quality of finish and value for money was exceptional. Communication from admin was great from start to finish. Easy process for my first home. Thankyou Show details ·  1

Exceptional Service and Quality Build – From the outset, our journey with Simonds Homes was marked by a few initial challenges, but their unwavering commitment to customer satisfaction truly set them apart. Building interstate can be daunting, yet Simonds went above and beyond to ensure a seamless process, accommodating our needs at every turn. Throughout the construction process, our… Read more ·  1

site supervisor, Joe Meola, ensured that all work was completed to a high standard. While there were minor issues identified during post-construction inspection (which is normal for any new construction), Joe promptly addressed them, demonstrating a commitment to resolving any concerns that arose.

While communication with the site supervisor could sometimes be challenging, Shaneece Taylor, our Customer Relationship Coordinator, emerged as a beacon of support. Her responsiveness, professionalism, and willingness to go the extra mile ensured that our queries were addressed promptly and effectively, leaving us with a sense of reassurance throughout the process.

Simonds Homes is known for its attention to detail and commitment to quality materials and workmanship. Throughout the construction process, they prioritise using high-quality materials and ensuring that work is completed to a high standard. By following strict processes and quality control measures, Simonds maintains consistency and delivers homes that meet the expectations of their customers. This dedication to craftsmanship is a cornerstone of their reputation for excellence in the industry.

Having previously built a house, I can confidently say that Simonds Homes far surpassed my previous experiences. If given the opportunity to build again, there is no doubt that I would choose Simonds without hesitation. Their dedication to customer satisfaction and commitment to quality craftsmanship make them an exceptional choice for anyone embarking on the journey of building their dream home.

Really positive build experience – We've had a really positive overall experience, and were keen to share some of that experience as well as taking the opportunity to publicly thank a few key people in the Simonds team. From a design perspective; we were struggling to find a home that met the needs of our growing family, and so after some consideration decided to build a home… Read more ·  1

ourselves. We looked through hundreds of builder's stock floor plans online, initially thinking we might need to engage a building designer and pursue a custom option, before finding the Glendale 27 from Simonds.

From an administrative perspective pre-construction; this process took perhaps a little longer than we initially expected. We entered into a preliminary agreement in July 2021, signed a draft contract in December 2021, gallery appointment in January 2022, before ultimately signing the final version of the contract post-selections in April 2022. There's no doubt that changes we wished to make, COVID, Christmas and a number of factors will have affected this timing - but equally the pace of the administrative process gave us to time to visit showrooms and display homes to assist in our decision making, and ensured that everything we were looking for was thoroughly documented. I should highlight too that despite being initially told that all of our preferred design amendments may not be able to be accommodated (our Sales Consultant Jason was very transparent with us about these potential challenges), ultimately each and every one of them has found its way into our home.

We would like to thank Alana (our CRC for much of the process - who went above and beyond to provide a really warm, informative level of customer service to us), Olivia (Gallery Team Lead), Emily (our Gallery Consultant) and Tom (Electrical / Lighting Designer) who all provided us a great deal of assistance before, during and following our Gallery appointment in finalising our selections. We would also like to thank Richard for his assistance with the approvals process, and Cody for assisting us with the contract documentation.

The build process commenced on site at the end of June, with our slab being poured in mid-late July. Notwithstanding challenges including commencing in winter, theft from the site, material and labour delays, Christmas and so forth - we undertook our PCI in early April and took handover in early May. We were expecting a 12 month build, and were very impressed at the pace and quality of the work undertaken (our building inspector identified a number of minor defects, but overall expressed to us that we should be very pleased with the high quality of the build). I should also say that our neighbours told us that the build process went well, and without causing any unreasonable nuisance. Our neighbours were also kind enough to try to help our SS track down the thieves who stole some wiring from the site.

We would really like to thank and acknowledge Rob, our Site Supervisor, for his exceptional work during and post-construction. As an example; we had an issue after handover of pipes being partially blocked and not draining correctly. Within approximately 90 minutes of contacting Rob and advising him of the issue, we had a plumber on site resolving the matter. I have no doubt that his pragmatism, organisation and attention to detail played a crucial role in the excellent outcome of our build.

We would also like to thank Alyce, who took over as our CRC at the start of the new year. With the MySimonds portal going down late last year (which was unfortunate as this was a really good resource), there are a number of times we sought some advice/information from Alyce - who was always generous with her time and very helpful.

Two weeks post-construction we're very pleased with the outcome, and we're looking forward to spending many years with our growing family in our Simonds home.

Couldn’t be happier with our first home – We fell in love with a block with amazing views and had already decided to purchase it before speaking to Simonds. The great views came with a price, the block wasn’t the easiest site to deal with and they prepared us for the worst with the possibility of a spilt level home. After some back and fourth we were able to come to a house design that… Read more ·  1

wouldn’t require the spilt level, thus saving us a good $20k-$30k. Simonds also let us modify our floor plan to best utilise the views which we are forever grateful for (you will see why in the photos).

When we got to the construction stage we didn’t really know what to expect, and having heard a few horror stories from a Simonds build Facebook group we had prepared ourselves for a bumpy ride. Much to our delight we experienced the exact opposite. Our Site Supervisor, Gabe Brewster was and still is absolutely wonderful to deal with. Honest, frequent communication, a friendly attitude, he would always do his best to answer any query we had along the way. He will still answer our calls and texts as we’ve been settling in to our home to help out as much as he can. Similarly, Jenny Horsfall our CRC was much the same. If for whatever reason she missed out call or wasn’t able to respond to our email straight away she would get in touch to acknowledge us and would get back to us as soon as she could. She was always helpful and informative every step of the way. I will not hesitate in saying that we had the absolute dream team when it came to our build and extremely thankful knowing we have a good quality build home and received so much support along the way.

Anything that we weren’t happy with the finish of was rectified as soon as it could be. We are extremely satisfied with the quality and workmanship of our build! We have only had small things come up that we’re missed at PCI that we will bring to their attention at our 3 monthly inspection (i.e. silicone missed, paintwork needing retouching).

Amazing finished product and fabulous service and experience! – Our build started off messy as we had a change of CRC and site supervisors quite regularly but once we had our final CRC and site supervisor, they were beyond helpful and always happy to answer any questions we had and be sure the update us regularly and be sure the process was smooth sailing. The quality is great and if there were any issues we… Read more ·  1

were concerned about, they would be sure to fix them straight away and to our standard. We were overall happy with the finished product and grateful our dream home has come to a reality and that there were not extra costs involved from the initial quote and sign off. I would be sure to recommend Simonds to any family and friends wanting to build.

Great build average follow up – We had a fabulous build with Simonds from consultation at show homes to the selections center. Our manager and build supervisor were hands down amazing and always kept us in the loop and were timely in their responses and were always happy to help us out. We love our home and couldn't be happier with the overall process we went through. However… Read more

after our walk through and three month follow up we are still waiting over a year later for issues to be rectified. Our large sink was stained and watermarked previous to hand over and was recorded then and in our follow up. Our mirror in the main bathroom in next to unusable due to rust spots that were present and recorded in our follow up also. We understand last year was a tough year and we were patient and understanding but after six months of unanswered phone calls and emails we feel this is not good enough. We really want to make sure people check these final finishes and know they can have a great home if they keep on top of these.

Review after one year – We have been in our Simonds home for just over one year now. We love our home and our overall experience was decent, but I thought I should post this so other people may avoid the mistakes we made. Please be careful of their finishes and be wary of some of the standard products they offer. Several our drawers have broken, our cupboards have the… Read more

most ridiculous hinges that take up a significant amount of space, our shower head broke and we will have to have a tile replaced to fix the shoddy work done when it was installed. The shifting of the house has exposed many cracks which was to be expected, but several are larger than they should be which indicates corners were cut when doing the work in the first place. You can get a very nice home from Simonds, but, as with all building matters, you do need to be careful and wary.

Not a bad expiring but a bumpy journey at times – We found our journey with Simonds to be just that, a journey. I wouldn’t say we had a bad experience but it did feel disjointed at times. Three site supervisors over 12 months caused a few delay as our first two supervisors became unresponsive in their final weeks and we saw work halt once a supervisor was on the way out. Our final site supervisor… Read more

[Name Removed] who handed out house over to us was fantastic, he communicated well and addressed any issues we had. Our experience with [Name Removed] in the office was also pleasant, at times I felt there wasn’t enough communication, when raising this I felt heard and moving forward felt we were in the loop.

We’ve been in our home for two months and we have noticed patches of poor workman ship particularly around painting, grouting in the wet areas and there is paint throughout the house where it shouldn’t be, on the floor, carpet and tiles. These are all minor issues, we do have some larger issues that will be raised at our three month maintenance period, I hope these are handled as well as our PCI issues.

Overall we’re happy with our home, the process could have been smoother but I feel our experience has been a lot better than people we know building with other companies.

Great solid home – We are about to move in to our new Simmonds home and are very pleased with the final product. Our initial sales consultant Luke was very helpful and we appreciated his honest and thorough approach. The initial planning/estimating stage did take a while which wasn’t helped by covid however once the build started it was relatively speedy. We also… Read more ·  3

found Olivia in the gallery very helpful and knowledgeable and enjoyed the fact you could do all selections in the one spot including tiles. We are pleased with the overall quality and workmanship of the home and felt that the build process was smooth, well project managed and timely, and this is largely thanks to our supervisor Heath. We were also grateful that Heath and the customer service team were able to speed up our handover process to ensure we could make our deadlines. Overall would definitely build with Simmonds again!

Do Not Build With Simonds – Do yourself a favour and save your mental health!! Simonds should be marketing themselves as low grade volume builder. We had nothing but problems. We were promised the world and they delivered sub standard. 1 year post build and we are still waiting for resolution on the 3 month maintenance fix. I would never build or recommend Simonds to my… Read more

worst enemy!!

Windows over hanging vanities, 7000 bricks laid and removed to be re laid, kitchen replaced twice, bathroom shower niche on a massive angle and can’t be used to store products as they fall off, kitchen stone top replaced 5 times, stone joins were ridiculously bad, grout in tiles cracked and replaced multiple times and still not fixed over a year later. Mitre cut tiles not done correctly as tiler never made a mitre cut before, Nib wall in shower crooked and replaced twice the list goes on and on ans on and on and so many items are still not resolved.

We had their tiler ask us for more money to compete the job as he wasn’t paid enough for the mitre edging, we paid Simonds extra for this.

Their trades are all from non English speaking background and had no idea about occupation health and safety requirements as per pic on ladder.

Stair stinger is in 2 pieces and cracks, still not fixed.

Although the stone was fixed and replaced it’s still not up to scratch and to get to that point it was nothing but arguments with the manager as he couldn’t see any issues.

Late builds and terrible communication – Unfortunately my build was managed terribly. The Customer Service Reps for Simonds are very kind but ultimately my build date was run around all over the place, resulting in me moving into Airbnb's twice, because I would be told it'd be four weeks and at the death knock be told it's getting extended again. Simonds would blame my realestate agent,… Read more

the estate agent would say it was Simonds but ultimately Simonds told me end of Dec, then start of Jan, then end of Feb, then within a week I was told it would be ready for end of Jan. When I I moved in, after 3 weeks I provided them a list of some items that needed repair (solar panels not working, side gate dragging on floor, no irrigation installed as outlined) I got fobbed off, no responses, other people included in emails asking to help, and the Supervisor was rude, unhelpful and just an absolute crap artist.

Just on that basis, I would never build with Simonds again. So unprofessional and just a truly disappointing experience.

So glad we built with Simonds – Pre Construction: Our journey through the pre-construction phase with Simonds was fantastic. The sales consultant was great, he was the only sales consultant out of all the builders we visited to give us information on what factors to consider when deciding our perfect floor plan to ensure we could afford it without selling us the dream. He was… Read more ·  3

quick with his communications and initial plan markups.

Our CRC Chris has been fantastic. His communications have been quick and timely and if he hasn’t known the answer to anything, has endeavoured to find the answers for us. He continues to be prompt while we are in the construction phase.

Mid-Construction:

Construction began the day after our construction meeting with our SS Vince. So far the timeliness of works has been superb in such a chaotic and scary time for the construction industry. Scheduling of trades and materials has seen our house go up much faster than any other house in our land release.

We were worried about trades delays and feared our house would sit idle but with our new SS Andy, our house has been continually worked on while trades are secured.

We have at every stage of our journey felt so glad we chose Simonds and can not recommend them enough. The next 18 months will decide how well builders fare and secure buyer/builder confidence and so far Simonds are kicking massive goals.

It’s also worth mentioning we hired a private inspector to check each stage of our build. He has mentioned several times that the work carried out is some of the better quality work he has seen, with nothing really worth reporting to be of concern so far.

Post Construction: We’ve been in the house a little over a week and so far everything is amazing. There were a few little electrical issues at hand over which were promptly sorted the next day. So happy with the quality of the construction of our home. The construction manager who handled our job at handover has been quick to respond to urgent issues that need attention. Overall I would 100% build with Simonds in SA again.

Our entire build journey was documented on our instagram profile sierra.springwood which reflects our thoughts and impressions of how Simonds delivered our dream home.

Very happy customers – Simonds recently completed the Avalon build for us, job no. S2285. We initially visited the Simonds display home at St Clair, after being very impressed with their floor plans from their website. Our sales consultant Luke was incredible, and helped us immensely with selecting the right home for us. Throughout the selections process, he was very… Read more ·  1

knowledgeable and provided a lot of advice which we took on board and are extremely grateful we did. He was upfront and honest with us about areas we could save money, and things that he considered would give us the best product within our budget. He also assisted us greatly in eventually finding a suitable block to build on, and was always very friendly and responsive by phone and email.

Once we got to selections, we leaned very heavily on Olivia, who guided us through the process. Olivia met with us to work out what we liked and didn't like, and was then able to show us options within our taste. We trusted her expertise, and asked for honest feedback on selections we were making. There were various items that we were unsure of or didn't agree on, where we deferred to Olivia for her opinion (particularly some tile and flooring selections, which we found very difficult to decide on). We could not be happier with our selections, and are extremely grateful for all of her input. The Simonds gallery in Adelaide is also a huge positive, and something we know a lot of other builders don't have. We were able to do all of our selections in one place (also convenient to our workplaces), and were able to stop in to have a look at options before and after our selections meeting, which made the process a lot easier.

Our site supervisor was Steve. Steve managed the process impeccably, provided us detailed weekly updates on what was happening on site, and was always available to discuss progress, estimated timing and any other queries we had. We told Steve we were hoping to have handover before Christmas, when our slab was poured at the start of July. Despite Covid and all of the issues it caused, we received handover prior to Christmas (less than 6 months from slab pour, for a large two story house).

Steve has managed all post handover matters personally, and has ensured work can be done at times convenient to us.

This was our second build, and the entire process, workmanship and the end product is far superior to our previous home. Often post handover matters can be very difficult (as they were last time for us), but Steve has managed everything very smoothly and we have absolutely no complaints.

We would (and have) thoroughly recommend Simonds.

Adorable home house and land package – Overall we had a good experience as our build happened during COVID-19. There was very limited communication and contact with the site but we were kept up to date from the Melbourne office. Site was managed well as we would drive buy to see the progress of the build which was done in a timely manner. We are very pleased with the quality of the complete house. Show details ·  1

Good Experience building with Simonds – During my building period, I found teams as well as tradespersons are very good on their job. Completed earlier than as I thought. Supervisor Heath is fantastic. As I have limited thing to choose from, I am very happy what they have build, bit tight on budget on lighting in the house though.  Show details ·  1

Update 5 years post building (Nov 2025): Based on my recent experience in trying to get some help on my house, I am no longer recommending Simonds to anyone that I know. Responses have been dismissive in nature and zero attempt (or interest) to help to solve problem with the house. Truly disappointed! Previous review: Positive points from… Read more

building experience with Simonds: - Did not experience any significant delays during construction throughout covid-19 period; - Ann and Steve regularly provided update on construction progress; - Appreciated that Steve was willing to work closely with an independent building inspector to rectify items that may have been missed - Could be one of the very few builders that allow customer to complete gallery selections prior to contract signing; - Quality of standard inclusions are generally better than other builder's standard inclusions.

A few negative experiences that I wish could have been done better: - Prior to contract signing, it was rather stressful for me as the process was not clearly explained to me by the previous customer service in charge of my file. As a result of this, I incurred a cost that could've been avoided; - Delay due to initial incorrectly provided information regarding building on the boundary. Thankfully Simonds was willing to work together to modify floorplan without any additional admin costs; - Before Ann took over, it was rather difficult to get a hold of customer service team; - I was disappointed to find out after handover that TV antenna installation was not part of Simonds general inclusion. When I queried this, I was indirectly accused of not telling the truth (that I opted not to install this during gallery selection and now I turned back saying otherwise - this is not true!!). Thankfully Simonds was happy to introduce a company to install this within a short time notice (at my own cost). - Site clean up could have been better. We found lots of nails, plastics, bricks, and other constructions rubbish being left in the backyard; - Although generally quality of finish is good, however, I have found spots on my flooring that I can't remove since I moved in. Unsure what these spots are.

Overall, apart from a few hiccups, I am generally happy with my experience with Simonds. Thanks again for all your great work!

Our last home – Very pleased with the way things went. We had a few issues along the way but Andy went above and beyond to sort any issues out that we had.Would definitely recommend Simonds to family and friends. The only disappointment was when we were handed the keys that I was given a mop and not a bottle of champagne. LOL. Show details ·  3