Build a house in New Zealand - before you move home

Building a house back in New Zealand while you’re still in the UK isn’t as ridiculous as it sounds.

Go online

Harnessing the modern solution to all of life’s problems – the internet – Stonewood Connect, a New Zealand home building company, now stores information related to a house build in a web-based system, which is only accessible to the parties involved.

It offers a great alternative to the paper-intensive process of setting up a building project, with information, documents, email communication and – the best part – photos of the progress being made, all shared online.

No paper trail

Not only are trees spared in this enterprise, but home buyers, brokers and suppliers are relieved of the time-wasting process of creating, amending and circulating engineering reports, consent forms and other documents any time that information needs to be altered.

Pretty pictures

But the real highlight of this system is that all parties involved can upload and view photos to monitor the progress of the house.

“Throughout a project there are about 300 photos available; particularly useful for overseas clients who are building here,” says Stonewood Connect administrator Donella Lloyd.

This means you can see exactly how things are moving along, and know that when you hit home soil, it’s four walls and a roof, and not bare timber struts that you’re going to find.

What it costs

Nicky Cranswick, from Stonewood, says a new three-bedroom, two-bathroom home with double garage and internal access, can cost from as little as NZ$150,000, excluding the land. The home would include carpets, white goods, kitchen and bathroom fittings, electrics, plumbing, alarm and all the bells and whistles.

Get more info at stonewood.co.nz