Start by checking the builder is registered, before anything else

In Victoria, most domestic building work valued at $10,000 or more must be carried out by a practitioner registered or licensed with the Building and Plumbing Commission (BPC), according to the BPC's guidance on finding a practitioner and getting quotes (page last updated 30 June 2026). Registration is the floor, not the finish line, but a builder who fails this check is not a candidate.

The regulator is direct about why you should look it up yourself rather than take the builder's word for it. Its advice on how to find and check a practitioner states: "Do not rely only on advertising, business cards, quotes or what someone tells you. Check their details before signing a contract or allowing work to start."

Four steps, in order:

1. Search the practitioner register. You can search by practitioner name, business name, registration or licence number, location or type of work. Search the registration number if you have it, because trading names change and company structures shift.
2. Read the conditions attached to the registration. A registration can carry limits on the class of work or the value of work. A builder registered for one category is not automatically permitted to run yours.
3. Search the Compliance and Enforcement Register separately. This is a different search from the practitioner lookup. It records disciplinary action, prosecutions and their court outcomes, suspensions, cancellations and conditions imposed on a registration.
4. Read the register's own caveat. The BPC states that "not every complaint, enquiry, inspection or compliance activity appears on the register", so a clean result means no published enforcement outcome, not a guaranteed clean history.

Do this before the first site meeting, not after you have committed to a design. It takes about ten minutes per builder.

As a worked example, ROMAAC Group holds building licences DB-U 100420 and CD-BU 100477, and both numbers are published on our registration details page along with the registered business address at Unit 2, 2A Cope Street, Preston VIC 3072. Run those numbers through the register the same way you would run any other builder's.

A builder who is uncomfortable with you checking is telling you something useful. 

What Melbourne builder reviews actually tell you, and what they do not

Reviews are useful for detecting patterns of behaviour and close to useless for comparing builders of different types. A home builders Melbourne review search returns mostly raw ratings with no interpretation attached, and interpretation is the part that decides whether a rating means anything.

Four filters change how those reviews read.

• Review volume tracks build volume, not quality: A builder completing many homes a year accumulates many reviews. A custom builder completing a small number of bespoke homes a year cannot, no matter how good the work is. Comparing a slightly lower average across a large review count with a higher average across a handful tells you about output, not about relative quality.
• Recency beats volume: Site supervisors, project managers and trade teams turn over. A builder's reviews from three years ago may describe a team that no longer exists. Weight the last twelve to eighteen months heavily and read the older ones only for patterns that repeat.
• Separate display home reviews from completed build reviews: A large share of reviews describe a sales experience: the display home visit, the responsiveness of a sales consultant, the tour. Those are reviews of a sales process. What you need are reviews written by people who lived through handover, defects rectification and the twelve month warranty period.
• Read the negative reviews for the builder's response, not the complaint: Every builder has a bad review. What separates them is whether the response engages with specifics or issues a template.

Product Review's Victorian home builders directory, Google reviews and Melbourne community forums are all legitimate inputs. None of them is an authority, and none of them applies these filters for you. Treat them as evidence to be weighed rather than a verdict.

Custom builder or volume builder: the difference that decides everything else

These are two different products, and assessing them on the same criteria produces a bad decision. A volume builder sells a refined plan from a range, built repeatedly, with pricing certainty derived from that repetition. A custom builder produces a single design for a single site, which removes the plan range and the pricing certainty that came with it.

Neither model is better in the abstract. If your block is regular, your brief is conventional and predictability matters most, a volume builder is the rational choice. If your site is difficult or your finishes are bespoke, the volume model cannot deliver it and the comparison stops being relevant.

What protects you if the build goes wrong

Victoria changed its home building consumer protection scheme on 1 July 2026, and which scheme applies to you depends on the date you sign, not the date you build. According to the BPC page on Domestic Building Insurance and Home Warranty (page last updated 1 July 2026):

Source: Building and Plumbing Commission, current as at the page's 1 July 2026 update.

The practical difference is significant. Under the old scheme, a builder who was still trading but refusing to fix defective work did not trigger the insurance. Under Home Warranty, incomplete, defective or non-compliant work is within scope. The BPC also confirms that a DBI Certificate of Insurance issued before 1 July 2026 continues under that existing policy.

Two things follow for anyone shortlisting now. First, ask any builder which scheme your contract will fall under and get the answer in writing. Second, treat advice published before mid-2026 with caution, including shortlist articles that still describe Domestic Building Insurance as the current scheme.

How to compare quotes from Melbourne builders properly

A comparable quote is one where the scope, the specification and the assumptions are the same across every builder you are asking. The BPC's advice is to "get at least three quotes for the same job", to obtain itemised quotes so hidden expenses surface, and to find at least three independent sources who recommend a practitioner before you select them.

Work through each quote against the same list:

• Is the scope identical? If one builder has excluded site works, driveways or landscaping and another has included them, you are not comparing prices, you are comparing inclusions.
• Are materials specified by product, not by category? "Stone benchtop" is not a specification. A named stone, thickness and edge detail is.
• How many provisional sums and prime cost items are there, and how are they set? These are the two line items that move most between quote and final invoice. A quote with generous allowances looks cheaper and finishes dearer.
• What is the variation process and how are variations priced? Agree the mechanism before signing, not at the point you want to change something.
• What warranties apply, and to what? Structural, waterproofing and appliance warranties all run for different periods.
• Who holds the compliance certificates and permits, and when?
• Is the payment schedule tied to completed stages you can inspect?

The BPC also names the warning signs: a practitioner who is too cheap, promises too much for the price, is too pushy, or is not specific enough.

On the question everyone asks first, cost: build cost in Melbourne is driven by site conditions and access, the size and complexity of the design, the specification level of finishes and joinery, structural and engineering demands on sloping or constrained blocks, and current trade and material availability.

Those inputs move, sometimes sharply, so any figure quoted in an article is out of date before you read it. ROMAAC does not publish price ranges, and a builder who quotes you a firm figure before seeing your site and your specification is guessing. A pre-construction consultation is where a real number gets built. 

See the work in person, and know what to look at

A display home is built to be photographed. A completed home, ideally two or three years old, shows what the builder's work looks like after it has settled and been lived in. Ask to see completed builds.

What to inspect once you are there:

• Joinery and cabinetry tolerances. Consistent gaps, doors and drawers aligned, soft-close still working, no swelling at the base of wet-area cabinetry.
• Tile and stone setting out. Whether the layout was planned so cuts land in sensible places, whether patterns align across corners and how junctions at benchtops and splashbacks resolve.
• Ceiling and shadowline detail. Straight, even shadowlines are difficult and show whether the plastering was supervised.
• Door and window operation. Large or heavy doors are where poor installation shows first.
• Evidence of waterproofing done properly. Falls to wastes, no ponding in showers, no staining on adjacent walls.
• Whether key trades are in-house or subcontracted, and who is on site day to day.

Detail is where custom work either holds up or does not. The Camberwell build shows the level involved: a cathedral ceiling running from the lounge through to the rear facade and finishing in a timber atrium above the glass bi-folds, a handcrafted 1.6 metre pivot front door, Calacatta marble, a bespoke wine cellar and CBUS automation, with the joinery handcrafted by an in-house carpentry team.

The North Warrandyte build resolves a different site and brief, with recycled timber posts sourced from Kerford Pier in St Kilda used as structural and visual elements, a 13 metre lap pool, Miele appliances and CBUS automation throughout. Those are the kinds of elements to walk up to and examine closely on any builder's completed work, including ours, before you commission custom home construction.

A short list of questions worth asking before you sign

Six questions surface most of what matters:

1. What is your registration number, and what conditions sit on it?
2. Who will supervise my build day to day, how many other builds will they be running, and how is the build supervised week to week?
3. Which trades are in-house and which are subcontracted?
4. How are variations priced and approved, and what happens if I decline one?
5. Which provisional sums and prime cost items are in this quote, and what happens when they are exceeded?
6. Which warranty scheme will my contract fall under, and what does it cover?

If you are building in Queensland

The verification steps are the same in principle and different in detail. Queensland contractors are listed in the QBCC licensee register, and the QBCC's guidance on how to find a licensed contractor (page last reviewed 12 December 2025) states that "if you cannot find them, there's a chance they're not licensed".

Licensed contractors must show their name as registered and their unique QBCC licence number in advertising, and an ad missing those details is a flag. Licensing thresholds apply by work value and by trade, with plumbing, drainage, gas fitting and fire protection work requiring a licence regardless of value. ROMAAC Group holds QBCC registration and has completed a project at Burleigh Waters.

Where this leaves you

The method is the same for every builder on your shortlist: check the register, check the compliance and enforcement register, read reviews with the volume, recency and display-home filters applied, get three quotes on identical scope, confirm which warranty scheme your contract falls under, and inspect completed work rather than display homes.

Applied honestly, it will shorten most shortlists quickly. If you want that scope defined properly before you compare quotes, a pre-construction consultation is the sensible place to start.

Frequently asked questions

1. Who is the most reliable builder in Melbourne?

There is no single answer, and any page that gives you one is ranking builders against criteria it has not disclosed. Reliability is something you verify rather than accept: current registration with no adverse entries on the Compliance and Enforcement Register, completed builds you can inspect in person, and a contract with a clear variation process.

2. Is $400,000 enough to build a house?

It depends on inputs that vary widely: whether land and site costs are included, the size and complexity of the design, site conditions and access, and the specification level of finishes. Construction costs also move over time, so published figures date quickly. Get a builder to price your actual site and specification rather than working from a general figure. 

3. Which home builder has the best reviews?

Star ratings are not comparable across builder types, because review volume tracks build volume. A volume builder accumulates hundreds of reviews; a custom builder completing a handful of homes a year cannot. Compare builders of the same type, weight the last twelve to eighteen months most heavily, and read for detail rather than the average.

4. Who is Australia's most trusted home builder?

Trust is not a national ranking, it is a set of things you can check on a specific builder: current registration for the class of work, a clean compliance and enforcement record, completed homes you can walk through, references from owners who have passed handover, and a contract that spells out variations, provisional sums and warranty cover.

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