A house and land package bundles a block of land and the construction of a home into a single arrangement with one headline price, but what that price actually covers varies dramatically between builders, and the items most commonly missing are site costs, driveways, landscaping, fencing and flooring.
If you have built before, you already know the advertised price and the final price are rarely the same number, and you know exactly which line items did the damage last time. This guide is written for that reader: a plain accounting of what sits inside a typical package, what routinely sits outside it, and the questions that separate a genuinely complete price from an optimistic one.
What does a house and land package actually include?
At minimum, a package includes the land and a home built to a defined specification, usually under two contracts: a land contract with the developer and a building contract with the builder. Beyond that baseline, a reasonable package should cover the home’s structure, standard fixtures and fittings, connection to services, and the approvals needed to build it. Where packages diverge is in everything wrapped around the house itself. Some builders price the home as it will be lived in; others price a house floating on an unfinished block, with the real world sold back to you later as variations. Neither approach is illegal. Only one of them lets you budget.
What is commonly left out of the headline price?
The most frequently excluded items across the market are the ones you cannot live without, which is precisely why comparing headline prices tells you very little. Watch for these:
- Site costs. Excavation, piering, slab upgrades and retaining, priced only after your block’s soil test. On sloping or reactive sites this is the largest single exclusion, sometimes tens of thousands of dollars.
- Driveway and paths. A home you cannot drive up to is surprisingly common in base pricing.
- Landscaping and fencing. Often required by estate design guidelines within a set period after handover, so they are not optional even when they are excluded.
- Flooring, window coverings and cooling. Some base specifications stop at bare concrete and open windows.
- Council and developer requirements. Estate covenants can mandate facade upgrades, specific materials or corner-block treatments that base designs do not include.
- Bushfire or flood compliance. If the lot carries a BAL rating, compliant materials and glazing add real money, and the ranges involved are set out in our guide to what a bushfire zone adds to a build in NSW.
What are site costs and why do they matter most?
Site costs are the works needed to get your specific block ready to carry your specific home, and they are the gap through which most package budgets fall. Soil classification, slope, rock, fill and drainage all vary lot by lot, even within the same estate, so a price quoted before anyone has tested your block is a guess wearing a contract. The protective habit is simple: treat any package price as provisional until the builder has assessed the actual lot and stated site costs as a fixed figure. Sanctuary completes the site assessment before a tender is issued, which is why its tenders can state site costs as confirmed numbers, an approach clients keep describing the same way. As one Sanctuary client put it: “Delivering the house on time and within budget.”
What is a provisional sum, and why should it worry you?
A provisional sum is an allowance for work not yet priced, and it is the mechanism that turns a $650,000 package into a $720,000 project without anyone technically misleading you. The number in the contract is not a commitment; it is a placeholder that gets reconciled against reality after you have signed. Provisional sums are legitimate where genuine uncertainty exists, but a contract carrying several large ones is telling you the builder has not done the work to price your block. Ask for each provisional sum to be converted into a fixed figure before signing, and be appropriately suspicious of any that cannot be.
How do base price and fixed price packages compare?
The difference is not the quality of the home; it is who carries the risk of the unknown. Here is the practical contrast:
| Base price package | All-inclusive fixed price | |
| Site costs | Provisional allowance, reconciled later | Confirmed after site assessment, fixed in tender |
| Driveway, landscaping, fencing | Typically excluded | Included or itemised as fixed figures |
| Flooring and finishes | Base specification, upgrades extra | Selections priced before contract |
| Budget certainty | Low until construction begins | High from contract signing |
| Who carries site risk | You | The builder |
Sanctuary’s house and land packages on the Central Coast follow the second column: everything included in the price up front, with a 10 per cent contract deposit at building agreement stage and a typical construction timeline of 6 to 9 months once building starts, followed by a 90-day maintenance period after handover. That structure exists because the buyers Sanctuary works with, generally on their second or third build, have already lived through the first column once and have no intention of repeating it.
Does the estate you choose change what is included?
Yes, because estate design guidelines and lot conditions add requirements that a generic package price cannot anticipate. Coastal lots at Catherine Hill Bay face different covenant and exposure conditions than Hunter Valley lots at Huntlee or Lochinvar Ridge, and lakeside releases around Murrays Beach bring their own compliance considerations. Sanctuary builds across more than a dozen estates, and you can see the current spread of land estates across the Central Coast, Lake Macquarie, Hunter Valley and Maitland to compare what different locations ask of a build. A builder who knows the estate’s guidelines before pricing your package is quietly saving you a variation later.
What questions should you ask before comparing packages?
Six questions expose the difference between packages faster than any brochure:
- Has my specific lot been assessed, and are site costs fixed? If not, the price is not comparable to one where they are.
- What exactly is excluded? Ask for the exclusions in writing; a builder who hesitates has answered the question.
- Which items are provisional sums, and can they be fixed before contract? Every conversion from allowance to fixed figure is risk moving off your side of the table.
- What do the estate guidelines require that the base design does not include? Facade requirements, fencing and landscaping deadlines belong in the budget, not in a surprise letter from the developer.
- What are the flooring, driveway and landscaping arrangements? These three account for most post-contract spending in base-price packages.
- Who is accountable during the build, by name? At Sanctuary the answer starts with Gary and Amanda Palmer, with a dedicated project manager on every build, and the testimonials from past clients name the people they dealt with at every stage.
How does the contract protect you in NSW?
NSW home building law gives package buyers real protections, provided the paperwork is done properly. For residential work over $20,000 you are entitled to a written contract meeting Home Building Act requirements, a certificate of Home Building Compensation cover before paying a deposit, and a five business day cooling-off period. Before signing, work through the NSW Government’s home building contract checklist, and confirm the builder’s credentials through the Service NSW licence check. Two minutes of verification beats two years of dispute.
Frequently asked questions
Is a house and land package cheaper than buying an established home?
Often, once stamp duty is counted, because duty on a package is generally payable on the land component rather than the completed home value. The comparison depends on the specific lot and home, so run the numbers on real packages rather than averages.
Are house and land packages only for first home buyers?
No. Packages with genuinely custom homes suit experienced buyers well, particularly downsizers and second or third-time builders who want a new home in a specific location without compromise on design. Sanctuary’s packages pair architect-designed, customisable home designs with lots across four regions, and its clients are overwhelmingly experienced owner-occupiers rather than first-timers.
Can I customise the home in a package?
With Sanctuary, yes: designs are customisable to the lot and the brief, with colour and inclusion selections made with the in-house interior designer at Studio S in Tuggerah. With volume packages, customisation is often limited to a facade choice and an upgrade list, which is worth understanding before you fall for a floor plan.
Next steps
The fastest way to test any package, ours included, is to ask for the full list of inclusions and exclusions in writing and compare it against the six questions above. Sanctuary New Homes (NSW Builders Licence 158653C) prices its packages with everything included up front, site costs confirmed before you commit, and Gary Palmer taking the first call, across the Central Coast, Lake Macquarie, Hunter Valley and Maitland. If a package has caught your eye, ask for the full inclusions list on any Sanctuary package and compare it line by line against the ones you have been quoted.