About 6,000 owner-builder permits are issued in NSW each year, down from about 8,500 a decade ago (based on the public register’s permit numbers, July 2026).
What you gain
- You keep the builder’s margin. On a new home it’s the biggest saving available — but you earn it.
- Full control. You choose every trade, product and trade-off. No surprise allowances you didn’t write.
- No builder to go broke on you. If a builder fails mid-job, their clients wait on the insurer. You’ve removed that risk.
- Direct contact with your trades. Problems get sorted on the phone, not through a site supervisor.
What you take on
- You’re the principal. Every trade job over $5,000 (incl GST) needs a written contract. Over $20,000, a trade doing residential building work must give you a home warranty insurance certificate before you pay. Collecting and checking them is your job.
- You owe the warranties. 6 years for major defects, 2 for others. They pass with the house — a future buyer can pursue you.
- Selling means disclosure. Sell within 7½ years and the contract must disclose the owner-builder work. Buyers factor that in.
- Site safety is your responsibility once you’re hiring trades and running the site.
- Trades may charge you more. Many quote owner-builders higher, and good ones may refuse — because many owner-builders are disorganised. Organised ones get treated like builders.
- Banks lend less, with lower limits and checks at each stage. Why, and what they ask for →
- It’s a part-time job — scheduling about 20 trades, chasing quotes and keeping paperwork straight, for a year or more.
- One permit every five years. It’s not designed to be a side business.
Who it suits
- You (or your partner) can give the build real hours every week, for the whole job.
- You’re comfortable holding trades to a written scope and paperwork — or you’ll use tools that do it for you.
- You’re building to live in it, not to sell — the permit requires it, and the resale rules penalise selling.
- Your finance is sorted before you settle on the design.
The most expensive mistake
It isn’t bad tiling. It’s hiring trades on a handshake: no written contract over $5,000, no insurance certificate over $20,000, and no record of what was agreed when things changed. Most expensive owner-builder disputes start there — and the paperwork that prevents them takes minutes if it’s done at the time.
How eSiteOffice helps an owner-builder
- Get comparable quotes. Every trade quotes on the same form, scope of works and conditions, through a web page — nothing for them to install. You can compare like with like before you choose.
- Turn the chosen quote into a contract. Signed electronically and filed.
- Every change priced and agreed before it’s built. Changes in writing, or they don’t happen.
- Every deadline tracked. Any trade you hire can send you a payment claim. Miss the reply date and you owe the full amount. eSiteOffice counts the days for you.
- A file the bank can check. Contracts, changes, payments, photos and sign-offs — dated and in order.
Opens in October. Register to be one of the first to use it and keep the launch price for as long as you stay.