Property education · 36 guides

Construction and delivery

Building, contracts and practical project delivery considerations. Each guide explains its scope; check local requirements and current official sources for your site.

• Accessible Housing: The Rule That Applies In Some States And Not Others

  Accessible housing is in the National Construction Code, but your state decides whether it applies. Get that wrong in either direction and it costs you money or a certification.

• Appoint Your Principal Certifier Before Anyone Picks Up a Tool

  The principal certifier cannot be appointed late, cannot be chosen by your builder, and has to inspect at stages that will already be covered up. Get the appointment and the inspection schedule right before work starts.

• Before a Property JV Disagrees: Design the Deadlock Path

  Agree how partners escalate, decide and exit before a stalled decision threatens the site, funding or delivery programme.

• Before Construction Starts: Run a Builder Pre-Start Readiness Review

  Confirm documents, authority, site information, cash and communication before mobilisation turns unresolved assumptions into variations.

• Before Site Work Starts: Build a Development Insurance Responsibility Matrix

  Coordinate who must arrange, verify, maintain and evidence project insurance across acquisition, construction, consultants and handover.

• Before You Approve a Construction Variation: Run the Five-Impact Check

  Assess scope, cost, time, downstream effects and exit impact before a construction change quietly rewrites the feasibility.

• Before You Choose the Cheapest Builder: Make Every Tender Comparable

  Normalise scope, exclusions, allowances and programme before a low headline price creates a false feasibility advantage.

• Builders Warranty Insurance Australia: What Cover Investors Should Confirm Before Building

  What builders warranty insurance actually covers in Australia and the checks investors should make before a build starts.

• Bushfire Attack Level Australia: Why BAL Risk Can Change A Site Feasibility

  Learn how bushfire-prone land, BAL assessment and construction requirements can affect Australian development feasibility, design and due diligence.

• Condensation Management In NCC 2025: The Wall Cavity Rule That Moves Your Cladding Cost

  NCC 2025 tightened external wall and roof ventilation, and in climate zones 6, 7 and 8 it made a drained and ventilated cavity mandatory. Here is how to price the wall system before you buy the site.

• Construction Contract Red Flags Australia: What Investors Should Read Before Signing

  Key construction contract red flags Australian property investors should look for before signing a building agreement.

• Construction Insurance Before Site Start: The Risk Check Small Developers Should Not Leave Late

  Before work starts, confirm who insures the works, public risk, existing structures and contract responsibilities so a site problem does not become a funding crisis.

• Construction Noise Australia: Set Working Hours That Keep Your Project Out Of Trouble

  Construction noise rules, permitted hours and neighbour complaints affect your build programme and cost. Learn the site test to run before you lodge, in NSW and Victoria.

• Defects Liability Period Australia: What Investors Should Know Before Handover

  What the defects liability period covers on an Australian build and how investors should manage it before and after handover.

• Excavating Next To A Neighbour: The Protection Work Test Before You Start

  Excavation near a boundary can trigger formal protection work duties, notices and insurance before a building permit is issued. Run this test before you programme the site.

• Far North Queensland’s 2046 Growth Plan: Where A Developer Should Test The Map Against Reality

  How developers can assess private housing opportunities under the Far North Queensland Regional Plan and Infrastructure Plan 2026.

• Hobart’s 38-Home Milestone: What A Constrained Social-Housing Site Teaches About Delivery

  Hobart’s 38-apartment Argyle Street project shows how funding, staging and site constraints shape social-housing delivery.

• In Queensland, One Approval Is Not the End of Your Approvals

  In Queensland a reconfiguring-a-lot approval usually comes with a second permit for operational work. Get the sequencing wrong and the civil works are unlawful.

• Owner-Builder Permit NSW: What A Developer Gives Up To Save A Builders Margin

  An owner-builder permit lets you supervise your own build in NSW, but it removes builder insurance cover and attaches a consumer warning to the contract when you sell. Know the limits first.

• Party Wall Sound Insulation: The Check That Decides Your Attached Dwelling Layout

  A separating wall between Class 1 dwellings needs an airborne rating of at least Rw + Ctr 50, and discontinuous construction in specific room pairings. Decide the wall before the floor plan hardens.

• Planning Permit Vs Building Permit Australia: Why Approval Names Matter

  Understand the difference between planning permission and building approval so a property development feasibility does not confuse land-use approval with construction approval.

• Prime Cost Items And Provisional Sums: Where A Fixed Price Contract Is Not Fixed

  A domestic building contract can be described as fixed price and still move, because prime cost items and provisional sums are allowances rather than prices. Understanding how each allowance is defined, and how much of your contract sits behind them, is one of the cheapest risk checks available before you sign.

• Progress Payments Construction Australia: How Staged Payments Work On A Build

  How progress payments work on Australian construction projects and what investors should check before each stage release.

• Property Development Contingency Australia: How Much Risk Should Your Feasibility Carry?

  Learn how to build contingency into an Australian property development feasibility and test whether a deal can absorb cost, time and revenue shocks.

• Queensland’s Four-Site Fast Track: What The New PPDA Changes—And What It Doesn’t

  Queensland’s final provisional land-use plan covers four state-owned precincts. Here is what developers should verify next.

• Rise And Fall Clauses In Victoria And WA: What Your Contract Cannot Do

  Victoria restricts cost escalation clauses on domestic building contracts and Western Australia prohibits them outright in the covered band. Test which regime applies, the thresholds, and what happens when a variation is a change of law rather than inflation.

• Road Occupancy Licence NSW: The Approval Before Your Machines Reach The Street

  Kerb, driveway crossings, crane lifts and skip bins can all need a Road Occupancy Licence. Work out who approves what before the construction program is set.

• Stop Letting Project Questions Drift: Run an RFI Decision Register

  Turn design and construction questions into owned, costed and authorised decisions before silence becomes delay or rework.

• Tasmania's 14-Day Appeal Clock: When A Permit Is Not Yet Worth Anything

  In Tasmania a permit can be granted and still not take effect for fourteen days. Miss the deadline, or misread the servicing conditions, and the delay lands on your construction program.

• The Construction Certificate NSW: What Must Be Paid And Signed Before Work Starts

  In NSW a development consent alone does not let you build. A construction certificate has to be issued first, and it will not be issued until the money conditions — contributions, the long service levy and any security — are dealt with.

• The Construction Management Plan: The Condition That Delays Your Start

  A construction management plan is usually a condition of consent rather than part of the application, so it is easy to miss. It has to be lodged and approved before certain works begin — and that timing is a program risk, not a paperwork formality.

• The DA Clock: How Long Council Actually Has To Assess Your Application

  New South Wales measures development assessment in days, and the clock stops whenever council asks for more information. Understanding that mechanism is what separates a realistic program from a hopeful one.

• The Long Service Levy NSW: The 0.25 Per Cent You Must Pay Before Work Starts

  NSW charges a levy on building and construction work of $250,000 or more, and the construction certificate cannot be released until it is paid. It is small, certain and easy to leave out of a feasibility.

• When the Feasibility Looks Good: Try to Break It

  Learn a five-shock sensitivity test for revenue, build cost, interest, timing and yield before you trust a headline margin.

• Who Runs The Site? When Your Subdivision Becomes A Construction Project

  Once construction work on your subdivision is valued at $250,000 or more, work health and safety law treats it as a construction project with a principal contractor and a written management plan. Work out who that is before the first machine arrives.

• Your DA May Not Approve Your Driveway

  A DA or planning approval does not always authorise a vehicle crossing in the road reserve. The approval path varies by state and road authority; in NSW, a separate Section 138 approval is commonly required.

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