You love the street, the school zone and the block. The house is the problem. A knockdown rebuild keeps the location and replaces the home, and in Perth’s established suburbs a rebuild is often the better choice over a large renovation.
This guide covers each step, the costs owners miss, and a realistic timeline, from a builder who does this work in Bicton, Attadale and Applecross.
A renovation makes sense when the structure is sound and you want to change one or two areas. A knockdown rebuild makes more sense when:
Older homes also hide surprises behind the walls. Asbestos, termite damage and failed footings add cost to a renovation mid-job. With a rebuild, those risks sit at the start, before your new home is designed.
Before design, confirm what the site allows. Your local council sets the zoning and R-Code density, which control setbacks, site cover and height. Some streets carry heritage or character controls. A feature survey and a soil test show the levels, existing services and footing needs.
A new home on an established lot works around the neighbours, mature trees, the slope and the sun. A narrow lot pushes living space up. A wide lot allows a single-level plan with a large alfresco. Design and documentation usually take 3 to 6 months, including engineering.
Demolition comes first. Your local council issues a demolition permit for the existing house, and planning approval is needed if the design departs from the R-Codes or sits in a heritage area.
Once all documentation is ready, costings are finalised and the building contract is signed, the following building approvals are processed:
Before work starts, a registered builder also takes out home indemnity insurance and pays the Construction Training Fund levy where it applies.
Water, power, gas and NBN all need formal disconnection before demolition. Each provider runs its own process, so book early. Bonded asbestos over 10 square metres must go out with a licensed removalist, and many homes built before 1990 contain some. Demolition itself takes days, but disconnections and asbestos removal add weeks.
Construction runs through site works, slab, frame, roof, lock-up, fit-out and handover. Construction averages 1 year from Building Permit approval, depending on the build complexity. Our Karnup home took 8 months.
The build price is only part of the budget. Allow for:
Our guide to the cost to build a house in Perth covers site, size and specification in more detail.
Design comes first and takes 3 to 6 months. After that, the timeline runs in this order:
Weather, trade availability and supply delays can all move a program. Projects that start in winter are more prone to weather delays, so we plan around them early.
See our full Perth build timeline and the real build times of our recent homes.
Bicton sits in the City of Melville between Attadale and East Fremantle, and almost every project there starts with an existing home on a generous block. That means demolition, service disconnections, mature trees and neighbours on both boundaries are part of the job from day one.
Our Bicton custom home with pool was built over 9 months: a timber-framed home with polished concrete floors and a large pool planned at slab stage. Our second Bicton project followed the same approach, with the early site work planned as carefully as the design. Read more on our home builders in Bicton page.
We build a small number of homes at a time across Perth’s river suburbs. See our Bicton knockdown rebuild work, our completed projects, or call to talk through your block.