Chelsea
New home builder in Chelsea
The Kiely Group built a new home in Chelsea — the whole thing, from a clear block through to handover. We also renovate and extend established homes across Bayside.
On a new build, the expensive decisions are made on paper
A renovation is a negotiation with a house that already exists. A new build is not — which sounds simpler and is in fact where more money goes astray, because nothing about the site pushes back until the concrete is poured. Everything that will cost you is decided while the drawings are still moving.
That is the stage we want to be in the room for. Not to overrule the architect, but to say plainly what each option costs to build, which details are expensive for reasons that will never be visible, and where the same intent can be achieved for considerably less. A design priced this way rarely needs the painful conversation later.
Chelsea is toward the southern end of where we build. We work from Brighton down through Mentone, Parkdale and Mordialloc, and we will go further for the right project.
What a new build with us involves
- Reading the drawings as a builder before the design is locked
- Testing the budget against real costs, not a rate per square metre
- Resolving the details that are expensive to change once built
- One team and one point of contact from slab to handover
- A programme you can plan around, and early warning when it moves
Why we build so few of them
We take on a small number of projects each year, and most of them are renovations. That is deliberate — it is the work we are best at and the work the business is built around. New homes are something we do well and do rarely.
The practical consequence for you is that we will say no more often than a volume builder would, and we will say it early. If your project and our year do not fit together, that is a better conversation to have at the start.
Our Chelsea project
What we do in Chelsea
Questions we get asked
- Do you build new homes, or only renovate?
- Both. Most of our work is renovations and extensions, and we build a small number of new homes each year — the one in Chelsea among them. The approach does not change: get the plan and the budget to agree before construction starts.
- How far south do you work?
- Chelsea is toward the southern end of where we build, and we have completed a full home here. We work from Brighton down through the bayside suburbs, and we will stretch further for the right project.
- What does a new build cost?
- It depends far more on the block and the design than on the floor area, which is why we would rather look at your drawings than quote a number here. We will tell you honestly and early whether what you are planning and what you would like to spend can meet.
- Can you build from an architect’s drawings?
- Yes, and we would rather be involved before those drawings are finished. The decisions that cost the most on a new build are made on paper, and a builder reading them early is the cheapest way to find the expensive ones.
- Do you take on knockdown rebuilds?
- Yes. A knockdown rebuild sits somewhere between our two kinds of work — the site conditions of a renovation with the freedom of a new build — and the planning stage matters even more than usual.
Building in Chelsea?
James personally reviews every enquiry and will be in touch by phone or email.
Enquire
Let’s talk about your home.
The more you can tell us, the more useful our first conversation will be. James personally reads every enquiry.
We take on a limited number of projects each year, so the more detail you can give us, the faster we can tell you whether we are the right fit.
- Phone
- (03) 9787 4880
- Where we build
- Bayside Melbourne — Brighton, Hampton, Sandringham & surrounds