A custom architectural new build in Auckland commonly runs eighteen months from the first brief to keys in hand. Six months for design and consent, six months for documentation, procurement, and site start, and six months for construction if the house is a single storey pavilion on a clear site. Rural-residential sites in Whitford, Clevedon, and Ness Valley add a further two to four months because of geotech work, earthworks consent, and long-lead infrastructure. A two-storey urban build in Herne Bay or Remuera sits closer to twenty months for the same reasons extended differently.

Design stage: three to four months

The architect's brief stage is short. Schematic design is where time turns into drawings. Most architects we work with run a fortnightly or three-weekly client meeting through schematic design and into developed design. That is the stage where a room layout moves from a bubble diagram to a set of 1:100 plans with structural grid and service runs indicated.

Our job during this window is to run a buildability review on the scheme as it develops. We look at the structural strategy, the roof plan, the junction geometry at the parapets, and the service routes for heating and ventilation. We price the scheme against a square metre rate for comparable projects and flag where the decisions being made are going to translate into budget pressure at tender stage.

What speeds up design: a client who has done their site research early, a decision-making process that does not back-solve every choice, and an architect who briefs the structural and services engineers at concept. What slows it down: a brief that keeps growing, late geotech reports, and decisions deferred to developed design that should have been settled at schematic.

Consent: eight to sixteen weeks, longer for rural

Building consent through Auckland Council is twenty working days on paper. That clock only starts when the application is accepted. Most applications receive a Request for Further Information in the first two weeks, which pauses the clock until the architect responds. On a straightforward urban scheme we see consent issued in ten to twelve weeks. On a Whitford or Ness Valley site, factor in sixteen to twenty weeks because of separate earthworks consents, wastewater discharge consents, and overlay assessments.

Resource consent runs in parallel where needed. Character overlay work in Ponsonby or Mount Eden, coastal inundation near Takapuna, or Significant Ecological Area overlays out at Clevedon all trigger resource consent pathways that add weeks. We work with architects who present these schemes with the overlay assessment already in hand. It saves months.

Documentation and procurement: six to ten weeks

Between consent and site start, the architect produces the full tender set. For us this is the most intensive administrative stage of the project. We price the set in detail, confirm the sub-trades, place deposits on the long-lead items, and lock in the programme.

Long-lead items you will encounter on a current Auckland build: structural steel, joinery packages, stone slabs, commercial-grade aluminium systems, bespoke hardware, and certain cladding lines. Twelve to sixteen weeks is typical for European joinery fittings. Six to ten weeks for the stone. Structural steel depends on the supplier queue that week.

A client who confirms selections in this window saves time that cannot be recovered later. A client who keeps selecting into the first six weeks of construction pushes the whole programme by a commensurate amount.

Construction: six to twelve months

Site start to practical completion on a typical single-storey architectural new build is six months. A two-storey house with structural complexity, heritage retention, or a large outbuilding runs nine to twelve. A two-storey Clevedon build with a long drive, a separate garage with guest flat, and full rural infrastructure can sit at twelve to fourteen.

The on-site stages run roughly as follows. Earthworks and foundations: three to six weeks. Platform and drainage: two to three weeks. Frame and roof: six to eight weeks. External envelope, cladding, and joinery: eight to twelve weeks. Internal lining, cabinetry, and finishing trades: eight to twelve weeks. Commissioning and defects resolution before handover: two to three weeks.

We run a Tuesday morning site meeting with the architect through construction. Decisions that need to be made get made there. Items that cannot be resolved on site go into the following week's agenda. The system is disciplined rather than complicated.

The week of handover

The architect walks the site with us the week before handover and produces a defects list. We work through it before the client move-in date. The house is cleaned, the landscape works are tidy, compliance certificates and warranties are collated, and the operating manuals for the house systems are walked through with the client on the day. The first twelve months on the property will then be the seasoning period, which we cover separately in the Process series.

What shifts the programme

Longer, in order of frequency: a brief that grows during design, consent overlays addressed late, a client decision process that fights the schedule, long-lead procurement started late, and weather events on a rural site. Shorter: a site without overlays, an experienced architect-builder relationship where tender pricing does not surprise anyone, early selections, and a site that does not need significant earthworks. An eighteen-month programme does not go to twelve months by working faster. It shortens by removing the things that waste weeks upstream.