Three partners, one specification

DollarBuild is a Melbourne design-and-build company formed in 2026. Its current catalogue includes the 34 m² category with a 34.3 m² one-bedroom plan; 60 m² with two or three bedrooms and one bathroom; standard and Premium 80 m² homes with two or three bedrooms and two bathrooms; Premium 80 m² with a 20 m² enclosed garage in the supplied two-bedroom layout; and a previously built 300 m² nine-bedroom, nine-ensuite rooming-house design. Ceilings are 2.4 m for the 34, 60 and 300 m² categories and 2.7 m across the 80 m² range. Every home is designed to a 7-star NatHERS energy rating, with the certificate issued for the final design on the site. Published state prices include GST and paperwork. Your agreed contract price stays fixed throughout the build. The fixed programme is 4 weeks paperwork, then 3 months construction; scope, site requirements and the schedule are agreed before signing.

Yes. The catalogue publishes turnkey state build prices including paperwork and GST. The agreed contract price stays fixed throughout the build. The fixed programme is 4 weeks paperwork, then 3 months construction; scope, site requirements and the schedule are agreed before signing.

You do not have to choose in advance. Feasibility checks what your site can physically take — crane access, street width, overhead lines, truck access — and what you are optimising for, then recommends one. The product and specification are the same whichever way it is built.

We quote projects in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, the Gold Coast and Perth, and the catalogue publishes build prices for Victoria, Queensland, New South Wales and Western Australia; a home without a published price in your state is quoted by written proposal. Melbourne comes first, and the founding team has delivered in Brisbane, the Gold Coast and Sydney. Regional Victoria — Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo — on request.

Leasing and property management are provided by OptimaRea (optimarea.com.au), the Optima Real Estate group’s Melbourne property management business. DollarBuild designs and builds the dwelling; it is not a real estate agency. If you want OptimaRea to lease and manage the finished home, its services, fees and responsible agent are confirmed in writing with OptimaRea. Rent depends on the property and market and is not guaranteed.

It depends on the state, zone and lot. In Victoria, Amendment VC306 (15 October 2026) lets a small second dwelling of up to 80 m² total floor area, measured to the outside of the external walls, be built without a planning permit where the zone conditions are met — in the General Residential Zone, a lot of 300 m² or more, one existing dwelling, no other small second dwelling and no reticulated gas — unless an overlay or title restriction applies. A building permit is always required, and the Building Regulations still define a small second dwelling as 60 m² or less, so a building surveyor confirms any 60–80 m² design. A rooming house has a different pathway. We confirm the project’s approval requirements in writing at feasibility.

The written specification should identify the product evidence required for Australian installation, including relevant WaterMark certification, window and door test evidence, and licensed electrical installation. Confirm the selected products, engineering and building surveyor requirements for your project before procurement; a generic kit description is not a project approval.

Yes. The partners work in both English and Mandarin, and this site is published in both.

The published programme is 4 weeks paperwork, then 3 months construction, for every catalogue offer from Compact 34 to Rooming House 300. Scope, site requirements and the schedule are agreed before signing, and your agreed contract price stays fixed throughout the build. A lot that needs a planning permit — an overlay, a Queensland council assessment, a site outside the no-permit conditions — has that approval time confirmed in writing at feasibility, before the programme starts.

Every published price is a turnkey state build price including paperwork and GST: the selected floor plan and documented ceiling height; kitchen, bathrooms and laundry to the agreed scope; frame, roofing, cladding and insulation to the project documentation; glazing, doors, internal finishes and services to the written schedule; engineered foundations and the site works defined in the proposal; and the approvals, inspections and completion documents itemised for the site. Every home is designed to a 7-star NatHERS rating, with the certificate issued for the final design on your site. Site-specific items — demolition, service connections, difficult ground, access — are itemised in the written proposal rather than hidden in the price, and the agreed contract price stays fixed throughout the build.

Yes, where both limbs of Clause 52.23 of the Victoria Planning Provisions are met. Clause 52.23-2 removes the permit for the use in ten zones and Clause 52.23-3 removes it for the buildings and works in six of them — General Residential, Neighbourhood Residential, Residential Growth, Mixed Use, Township and Housing Choice and Transport — provided the total floor area of all buildings on the land is no more than 300 m² excluding outbuildings, no more than 12 residents are accommodated in no more than 9 bedrooms, every bedroom is reached only from inside the building, shared entry facilities and common areas including a kitchen and a living area are provided, and the minimum garden area is kept in the General and Neighbourhood Residential zones. An overlay, a covenant or a Section 173 agreement can put a permit back. The exemption is planning only: a building permit, the NCC Class 1b classification, a Business Licensing Authority operator licence and council registration all still apply. Rooming House 300 is drawn inside those limits, and the free address check reads the zone, overlays and lot arithmetic of a Victorian address against the same rule pack (verified 2026-09-19).

Class 1b is a building classification in the National Construction Code, not a tenancy rule. Under clause A6G2(2)(b) a boarding house, guest house, hostel or the like that would ordinarily accommodate not more than 12 people and has a total area of all floors not more than 300 m², measured over the enclosing walls, is Class 1b — a sub-class of Class 1, designed like a house with two additions the code names: interconnected smoke alarms in every bedroom with lighting to assist evacuation, and access for people with a disability to one bedroom, its ensuite and one of each common room. Cross either number and the building is Class 3 under Volume One. The relevant building surveyor decides the classification and records it on the occupancy permit. Rooming House 300 is drawn single-storey, with nine bedrooms and a 292.05 m² drawing area, so that it sits inside Class 1b and inside the Clause 52.23 planning limits at the same time.

DollarBuild publishes the price. Rooming House 300 — nine bedrooms, nine ensuites, 2.4 m ceilings, 292.05 m² drawing area — has a published Victorian build price of $748,000 including GST and paperwork in the price book dated 2026-10-17: turnkey, with the agreed contract price fixed throughout construction and a programme of 4 weeks paperwork, then 3 months construction. That is about $2,490 per square metre of the nominal 300 m² category. Site-specific items — demolition of an existing house, service connections, ground conditions, access — are itemised in the written proposal for the address, so compare quotes on the same scope. Victoria is the only state with a published rooming-house price; other states are quoted by written proposal.

Look the contracting entity up on the free public register for the state your lot is in, before you read the price: in Victoria the Building and Plumbing Commission’s Find and check a practitioner tool (the BPC replaced the Victorian Building Authority on 1 July 2025), in Queensland the QBCC licensee register, in New South Wales the NSW Fair Trading check at verify.licence.nsw.gov.au — and ABN Lookup for the entity itself. DollarBuild provides the registered building practitioner’s name and registration number for your state, and the contracting entity with its ABN, in writing with every proposal and before any contract; they are not yet published on this website, so check them on the register exactly as our builder-check guide describes.

With the address. The address check on the homepage reads the planning position of a lot and offers the written feasibility report by email for sites in Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia; the rooming-house address check reads a Victorian or Queensland address against Clause 52.23. Then compare the six offers and their state prices, open the supplied floor plans, and send the address with your preferred home through the enquiry form or by email. You hear back from a person, and the first thing you receive is the written feasibility read for the lot — no call until the zoning has been read.