Thank you for enquiring about our business pricing your existing designs and plans

The three things that consistently emerge when working with prospective clients and what they want in the design process are:

1. Control over the design and inclusions and materials
2. Certainty over the value of the project
3. Clarity over the timelines and timeframes of events when seeking approvals and building

When customers enter into a design agreement process with our business, we do three things simultaneously when designing:

1. Providing accurate pricing as we design this includes the build costs and all associated site and utility connections - the extras - so it's a total turnkey value.
2. Ensure that building approval, entity endorsement and development approval will be granted.
3. That what we are designing can physically be built and meets the objectives.

The stage of where your project might be at the moment are:

1. You have a concept plan for which you want a ballpark price but still need to obtain development or building approval, or
2. You have obtained development approval but not building approval for your project, or
3. You have received both development approval and building approval.

There is a critical difference between development approval (DA) and building approval (BA). DA means that the local government approves it. Once you have development approval, you must also obtain a BA from a private building certifier. The biggest misconception is that because you have DA, you have sufficient plans and detailed documents to obtain a BA from the certifier. Certifiers ensure that residential building projects meet national construction codes and standards.

In simple terms, all projects require BA, and about half require DA. The volume of projects requiring DAs will increase due to the changes to the Australian Capital Territories' new Planning and Development ACT 2023 - which will come into play on the 27th of November 2023. When prospective clients ask us to quote or price other designers' work, the main problem we face is that we generally need to fix many practical issues, like the absence of detailed information required to provide a fixed price agreement and obtain BA.

If you would like to meet to discuss your plans, we will happily do that. An initial Zoom or MSTEAMS chat is recommended. You can provide your details below, and we will accommodate your availability.

In that meeting, we will discuss the suite of plans and documents required to provide you with the certainty or pricing you need and details about the inclusions and materials.

If your project has approved DA and BA plans, we would ask you to merge them and upload them here or email them to info@cgfb.com.au and include your residential address in the subject line.

Relevant documents:

• Site scope proposal
• Example Plans
• Example Proposal

Before committing to the meeting, here is the critical information that you will need to know:

Enquiry Form

What best describes your situation:

• We have a concept design, but we have not made an any applications for approvals
• We have Development Approval but not Building Approval
• We have both Development and Building Approval
• We have no idea where we are at