Whangārei teacher Meredith moved into her dream home in August on exactly the day scheduled by Generation Homes when she signed her building contract months earlier.
That certainty meant Meredith could plan the sale of her previous home and not inconvenience her sister and family who kindly hosted her while her new place was completed and timed their own house sale for when she was ready.
“My darling sister and her husband said I could live with them for the eight months while I built – they’re just around the corner from where I am now – so it was really nice to be able to pop up and watch the process happen quite regularly.”
Her new home is in Parklands Estate, a subdivision in Te Kamo West, and the house and location are living up to the local saying ‘Kamo West is the best’! It is the second home Meredith has built and she says this one finally feels like the forever home she’s been looking for.
“I moved in right on schedule. When I signed the contract back in November last year, Vynka Short, the sales consultant, said, ‘How about we aim for the 14th of August?’ and that was exactly the date it got handed over. I was pretty stoked.”
MEREDITH
I’d actually already been through the building process once before. Back in 2020 I built with a different builder in another subdivision called Totara Parklands, and my plan was always that that was going to be my forever home. Unfortunately, the neighbourhood changed when a lot of people started selling. Some of the houses were bought up by Housing New Zealand and the people moving in didn’t look after their properties as well, which changed the whole vibe.
I did look at buying an existing property for a little while, mainly because of the time it would take to build. I knew I’d have to sell my house and find somewhere to live for around eight months while a new build happened. But having lived in a beautiful brand-new home that was everything I wanted, every house I went to look at either wasn’t worth what I’d be paying, or wasn’t as nice as what I was moving out of, and I didn’t want to compromise on that. It was also hard to find a place with the right section size, in the right location, with the right kind of house – I’d find the perfect house, but it would be too far out, or on the other side of town.
So I started looking at building again.
MEREDITH
I actually know Vynka, the sales consultant, really well. I taught her son at school a number of years ago. When I started looking again, I contacted her about a section in a different place, and she told me they weren’t far off releasing the next stage of Parklands Estate.
A good friend of mine already lived in Parklands Estate – I think she owned the show home from the very first stage – so I used to visit quite often, and I always thought it was a really quiet, friendly, not-too-big subdivision to be part of. So when Vynka said they were getting ready to release the next stage, I told her to let me know as soon as it was on the market. The morning it went live, she sent me a picture of the site map – I said ‘I want that one,’ paid the deposit, and here we are.
Because the whole subdivision is Generation Homes, it wasn’t really a choice between builders for that particular site – but it wasn’t a case of settling for Generation either. I’d already lived among a couple of Generation homes in Totara Parklands, and I’d seen my friend’s show home, so I liked the look of the houses.
From the outside, before you go through the building process, I think all the housing companies look pretty similar. It’s not until you’re actually in it that you notice things – the standard inclusions in the Generation Homes packages were a lot higher-end than the last company I built with. Last time, I was all about saving money; this time I had a bit more money to work with, so it was nice to be able to get things as standard that I’d really wanted in my last house – like polished concrete floors, which I’ve always loved.
The fixed price was also really attractive – for my bank as well as for me. I’m right at the upper end of my budget, so being able to go to the bank knowing exactly what my mortgage repayment would be mattered a lot. I’ve had friends build with other companies who were given a price and then, halfway through the build, told they suddenly needed something like a $40,000 retaining wall out of the blue. Little things like that are the horror stories you hear about, and they made me wary.
I already knew about Generation’s fixed price and guaranteed move-in date from talking to Vynka over the years, and I think it’s something Generation advertises on the Parklands Estate website too. As it turned out, knowing my move-in date in advance was really handy, because my sister and brother-in-law were able to plan their own house sale and marketing campaign around that date.
MEREDITH
Really good. I think it’s partly because I know Vynka, but I also think that’s just the way she works with everyone – she’s the exact same with all her clients. She was available at all times of the day, taking calls from other clients even while she was standing at the front of my section with me. Nothing was ever too much for her.
Generation also matched my budget really well. I was very clear about the type of house I wanted and what my budget was, and they were able to take the house I wanted and shave 21 square metres off it to save around $75,000. Vynka sent the ideas off to the architect and had them back to me within a day. Any question I had along the way, it was never a straight no – it was always, ‘We’ll see where we’re at.’ They were flexible, accommodating, and very responsive. I wasn’t sitting around waiting three or four days for an email back; it was usually within the hour. When you’re making the biggest investment of your life, not having to wait around like that is really reassuring.
MEREDITH
Yes, definitely. I spent a lot of time looking at the Generation show home out at One Tree Point, which is what my house is modelled off, and I’d also spent a lot of time in my friend’s house, the former show home here in Parklands Estate. Looking at the finishes on both of those, and the houses being built around me at the same time, you could tell they were going to deliver something they were really proud of.
MEREDITH
Really positive. It still kind of blows my mind that they gave me a move-in date at the very start, and it ended up being the exact date I moved in. That’s not to say everything went perfectly along the way – about a week before I was due to move in, someone walked across the freshly poured driveway concrete in Crocs and left marks all over it. But the response was never a problem – it was just, ‘No problem, here are your options, you choose what you want to do, and we’ll get it done.’
Another time, once the house was framed up, I noticed they’d put a different set of windows into the master bedroom than what I thought I was getting. I rang Vynka worried it was too late to change, but it turned out they hadn’t even started making the windows yet, so it was fixed straight away. That’s what I mean – it was never a problem to keep messaging and asking questions, and no question ever felt like a dumb one. Even though I’d been through the process before, this was a different experience in terms of when things happened and in what order, but I never felt like I was a pain for asking.
I’d definitely recommend Generation Homes, and Vynka in particular. She’s very good at her job, and she genuinely gets excited helping people find their dream home – I know that’s real, because I’ve known her outside of this process too. When she does the handover photos, her smile is always as big as the person she’s handing the house over to, because she’s just as excited for them as they are.
MEREDITH
My house is based on the Coatesville plan – the same design as the show home at One Tree Point – but it’s what they call a modified Coatesville. I’d always said that if I could pick up my last house and put it on a different section, I would have, because I loved the pavilion style. So when I started looking at plans, I looked through every single one Generation had, just to make sure there wasn’t something that suited the section or my lifestyle better. But I kept coming back to wanting the pavilion.
I narrowed it down to two plans, the Weka and the Coatesville, and then I went and met Vynka and walked through the show home, which turned out to be the Coatesville. I knew straight away it was basically what I wanted, but I didn’t need four bedrooms, and the standard size – around 230 square metres – was going to be a bit out of my price range. So the architect took the fourth bedroom off and turned it into a little office nook, and then shaved about 10 centimetres off right around the rest of the house. Somehow nowhere in the house feels smaller for it, but it saved me 21 square metres, which worked out to about $75,000.
MEREDITH
I love the raked, high ceilings – that’s something I desperately wanted in my last house but couldn’t afford, so I’ve been able to get them here. Mine is a scissor-trussed version, which is a bit cheaper than a fully open raked ceiling, but I still get the height I wanted. I love the polished concrete floors in the kitchen, and all of the tiled spaces. And my master bedroom is just massive – I love it.
MEREDITH
There’s a saying in Whangārei that ‘Kamo West is best,’ and it’s a pretty highly sought-after area to live in. The zoned schools are very well-regarded and that lifts the whole area.
Most of the people who live in the subdivision at the moment are at retirement age or heading into it, and there are covenants here that mean nobody can rent their houses out. When I moved into my last house, it was all owner-occupied too – until tenants started moving in and it changed. I don’t want to go through that again, and it just feels like a really safe, settled area to be part of. My friends tease me that I’m a stone’s throw from the retirement village and that it’s probably my next move, but I don’t mind that at all.
When it came to choosing my actual section, I walked around while the road was in but nothing else. I picked out the section I thought had the best aspect – it was the flattest, at the end of the little private lane, and it was also the biggest. I’ve got a dog, and I wanted him to have a nice big space to run around in, plus for my nephew when he comes to stay.
MEREDITH
Stoked. It’s perfect – it’s everything I wanted it to be.
Because I was living so close by with my sister, and because mine was the first house built in this stage of the subdivision, I used to bring my dog up for walks and bring my nephew up to scooter around on the private lane while it was all still just open and grassy. I got to watch the whole process happen from the outside. But actually getting the keys, driving into the garage – I still walk around sometimes and can’t quite believe it’s mine.
For a new home, I think the risk is that it doesn’t always feel homely when you first move in – but this genuinely feels like home. It’s everything I wanted that I couldn’t get last time, and I’ve been able to get it this time. I don’t ever want to move again.
I know I said that about my last place too, but this time the location is where I want to be, and the house is where I want to be. I’m already picturing it finished – I used an AI tool to put a fence and some grass onto a photo of the house, just to see what it will look like once it’s done. Right now it’s all dirt, so I can’t wait for the grass to go in.
MEREDITH
I’m not sure they’re exactly budget tips, but what I did was go for everything I actually wanted first, get a price for the whole package, and then trim out the things that weren’t essential to bring it back within budget. For example, I trimmed off $5,000 by doing my own wardrobes and about $4,500 by sowing my own grass seed instead of having it done.
I think I was surprised by what I could actually get within my budget – I didn’t think I’d be able to afford the raked ceilings because I assumed that would be a big expense, but going with the slightly cheaper trussed version made it work.
Going for the things I really wanted first, and then trimming them back, meant I could talk to the bank knowing I could service everything. If I’d gone in assuming I couldn’t afford certain things without actually finding out the cost, I would have ended up with a very different house – and I still would have been happy with it, but as it’s turned out, I’ve been able to get pretty much everything I wanted.
The biggest saving came from working with the architect to trim the house size down. You genuinely don’t notice it walking through the rooms; standing here compared to the show home, it doesn’t feel like it’s that much smaller, other than that one bedroom.
