Home Bodies – Focus on quality

Low-volume builder Howard + Wade hopes to wow the public with its display home at Torquay’s Quay 2, says Lee Howard.

Howard + Wade builds only around 10 to 15 homes each year, he says, allowing it to focus on “absolute quality“.

“Our homes start as a complete package, we don’t build our home from the bottom and keep adding and adding, it comes as a complete package.”

Lee’s confident the display at the enviable Quay 2 estate will impress.

“It becomes apparent when most people step in that it’s a quality home,” he says.

“Hopefully they think it’s a beautiful home full of a lot of textures that they normally wouldn’t find in a volume product.”

The home is fitted out with Neff kitchen appliances which describes as “the Porsche of appliances”.

Quality is paramount, Lee says. From the vaulted ceiling to the stainless steel, four burner Beefeater barbecue that comes as standard.

“From front to back across the home in 20, 30, 40 years it will still be standing strong,” Lee says.

With land at a premium in and around Torquay, Lee says Quay 2 represents a great opportunity to get into the market.

“It’s two seconds away from the Surf Coast Highway so whether you want to go down the coast to the beach or go into town to Geelong, it takes you two seconds to get onto the highway,” he says.

“There’s schools, ovals, a shopping centre and there’s some nice parklands. It’s a great location.

“Available land is actually diminishing in Torquay so there’s not a lot of approved subdivisions. Land in Torquay is running out.”

Savvy home hunters will be wowed by the quality, Lee says.

“Especially from the educated buyer’s point of view who have gone through the buying process, they immediately notice the quality,” he says.

“That’s not to say first-home buyers wouldn’t be able to purchase one of ours, but ours is more targeted towards the subsequent home buyer who have already been in the housing market who appreciate quality and they see through all the smoke and mirrors.

“Even though we are a new entrant to the marketplace, my business partner (Steven Wade) has had a family business for 50 years so he’s been around just as long as the other big volume builders and I’ve come from a development background.”