How do you know what a custom home will actually cost?
Most custom home estimates are a square-metre rate multiplied by hope. Ours is built in steps, and every step is checkable.
It starts with a 48-hour feasibility: a number within 10% of your real build cost, before you’ve spent anything on design. That accuracy isn’t luck. Our estimating engine breaks every home into more than 90 cost categories. Labour is back-costed from over $20 million of completed Tasmanian homes. Material quantities come from a 3D model of your home, not a rate someone half-remembers. The whole method is written up in The Perfect Estimate.
Then comes the part most builders won’t do: an open-book tender. Two quotes from every subcontract trade. Every line — labour, materials, subcontractors, margin — yours to inspect. We target a net profit of 10% and we publish it. Our custom homes typically start around $5,000 per square metre in 2026; the full picture is in our guide to the cost to build in Tasmania.
Cost certainty is the real luxury in a custom build. Stone benchtops are easy to buy. A number that holds is not. And if you’re weighing custom against a volume builder, we’ve written an honest comparison of house and land packages vs a custom build in Tasmania — including where the packages genuinely win.
Who’s actually building your home?
Zanetto Builders holds Tasmanian building licence CC7565 and is a member of Master Builders Tasmania and the HIA. The team has won 23-plus industry awards, including a national Master Builders award for Best Use of Australian Made Products, and Kyle Zanetto was named Tasmanian Young Builder of the Year in 2023.
We build across Tasmania from three offices: our Launceston HQ at St Leonards, Hobart at Cambridge, and St Helens at Akaroa. Your build is run by people who work in your region — not people who fly in for it.
What happens after you get in touch?
Every project follows the same Forever Home Process: a questionnaire, an initial consultation, and a Qualifying Budget Estimate if you don’t have plans yet — then design, open-book tender and construction. No stage is skipped and no stage is vague. You’ll know what’s happening, what it costs, and what comes next, the whole way through.
If that’s how you want your custom home built, start your application.
