Why now is the perfect time to start thinking about building a house

A well-planned build is built twice: once on paper, once on site. The first build is where the costly mistakes get solved for free.

It sounds counterintuitive. The building sector has softened, the economic headlines are cautious, and confidence is down. So why would we say now is a great time to build?
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Because it is if you're strategic about it. For anyone seriously considering a custom home, the next six to nine months represent one of the best windows we've seen in years.

​The timeline works in your favour

For a well-resolved, considered house, the kind we design at OTO Group, the journey from first conversation to breaking ground is roughly six to nine months depending on the complexity of the brief and the site. Design, engineering, consenting, and planning all happen before a single trade sets foot on site.

Start that process now and you break ground in summer. Foundations, framing, and getting the house weathertight all happen in the best weather window of the year. Interior fit-out runs through winter once the house is dry. Delay six months and the sequence inverts, weather-sensitive work into the worst conditions, with all the delay and cost that brings with it.

The trades are responsive in a quiet market

When the building sector is busy, subcontractors don't return calls and pricing comes back late and padded. Designers end up working with guesses and these lead to more expensive building sites. It is always preffered to have plenty of time to make decisions without pressure or hurry. 

In a quiet market, this inverts. Builders, electricians, plumbers, they actually engage with the design process. They return accurate pricing based on current rates, because they genuinely want the work. That means by the time you go to build, you know what the house will cost, not an estimate that blows out on the way. That's a very different experience from building in a boom, and it's one that only exists in a market like this one.

We also want engaged trades, we want the people who are going to be building your dream home to understand the design, the thinking behind it and what is going into it. 

More material is available

With fewer builds happening across the country, there's a genuine surplus of material on the market. Timber, cladding, joinery, fixtures, stock levels are healthier, lead times are shorter, and pricing is more competitive than it has been through most of the last five years.

At OTO Group, we prefer to specify New Zealand-made products and materials wherever possible. A softer domestic market means more of the locally produced materials we like to work with are readily available which means better stock, shorter lead times, and in many cases more competitive pricing than we'd see in a busier cycle. Combined with international uncertainty, it is more of a necessity that we consider domestic products where possible. That doesn't mean that we can't still import tile from overseas, it just means that we need to have these extended timeframes considered in our build programming. 

Planning time is an advantage

A good design timeline with ample space to breathe, to consider options, to not feel rushed, are essential to a successful end product. 

It means you can pre-purchase key materials at today's prices before any upward shift, it means you can lock in the specific trades you want for the slots you want and not whoever happens to be free when you're forced to start. It means you can stage construction deliberately, rather than reactively.
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That's a very different starting position from a rushed build where suppliers and subcontractors end up dictating your sequence.

The market you design in is not the market you build in

This is the part most people miss. The conditions you're reading about today are not necessarily the conditions you'll be building in. By the time design, engineering, and consenting wrap up, the cycle may well have turned.

Builders' margins have already compressed on higher-end work, from around 15% closer to 10%. Sections are available in a way they haven't been for years. The ingredients for a well-executed build are lining up.
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Clients who plan now will be ready to move when the market shifts. Clients who wait for conditions to feel certain will be competing against everyone else thinking the same thing.

​A well-planned build is built twice: once on paper, once on site. The first build is where the costly mistakes get solved for free.