Reviewed
Before ground is broken
Due diligence comes first: verifying the certificate, confirming the plot's designation and permitted use, checking access rights and services. Then design, which produces both the house and the technical documents the permit application rests on. These two stages run into each other, and the permit cannot be sensibly separated from the design.
This is the part most often compressed in a sales conversation and most often the cause of delay in reality. A plot with a clean title and confirmed zoning moves quickly; one with an unclear designation or contested access can stall for as long as it takes to resolve, which is not a period anyone can promise.
Construction
Once approval is in place, the build runs through groundworks, structure, roof, services, finishes and external works, roughly in that order, with the trades overlapping where they safely can. Size matters, but not as much as people expect: a bigger villa adds proportionally, whereas a difficult site adds disproportionately.
The wet season affects the programme rather than stopping it. Earthworks, foundations and roofing are the vulnerable stages; internal finishes carry on. A programme written without any allowance for rain is a programme that will be revised.
What lengthens a build here
Almost all of it is decided before construction starts, which is the argument for spending longer on the front half.
- Unresolved title, zoning or access, which can hold a project indefinitely.
- A site that needs retaining, rock excavation or a long service run.
- Narrow access, which turns every delivery into several smaller ones.
- Design changes made after construction has started.
- Imported materials and long-lead items ordered late.
What shortens it
Deciding things early. A complete design, a specification that is actually chosen rather than left open, long-lead items ordered on time, and one team accountable for both the drawings and the site. Where the architect and the contractor are separate parties, the gaps between them become weeks.
We run design and construction as one process for exactly that reason, and we would rather give you a programme after seeing your plot than a number that sounds good on a first call.