Display homes vs standard inclusions: what is included in a builder's base price?

A display home can differ from the advertised base price because all five sources examined state that pictured or displayed items may include upgrades or other items the advertised price does not cover.

Coral Homes' website states that display homes feature upgrades that may be available at an additional cost to current promotions². Simonds Homes' Victorian booklet states that its photographs include examples of upgrade items that are not included³. The Queensland Building and Construction Commission's consumer guidance states that for project and display homes, some fittings, inclusions and design features on display homes can cost more⁴.

The base specification is the written list of standard inclusions, such as a brochure, booklet or web page, that sets out the fixtures, finishes and appliances covered by the advertised price. This can include details ranging from the brand and width of the oven to the ceiling height. The QBCC describes a project home as one chosen from a selection of standard plans, usually covering a wide range of prices, styles, sizes, specifications and standards of fittings and inclusions⁴.

The written list becomes binding when it forms part of the building contract, while a display home is not a contract document.

In New South Wales, a home building contract worth more than $20,000 must have plans and specifications attached and a clause that all plans and specifications under the contract are taken to form part of the contract. Any variation must also be in writing and signed by both parties⁵.

In Queensland, a contract of $20,000 or more must state a fixed contract price, or the method and allowances used to calculate it, on the first page of the contract schedule. The implied warranty also covers work in accordance with all relevant laws, legal requirements and plans and specifications⁶. In Victoria, building work worth more than $10,000 that involves more than one trade needs a major domestic building contract before work starts, and Consumer Affairs Victoria's pre-signing checks include the procedure for changing the plans and specifications⁷.

Coral Homes' fixed-price guarantee applies to the construction of the house and site works in accordance with the specifications of the contract¹.

What a fixed price fixes, and what it leaves to allowances, is covered in fixed-price contracts explained.

All four documents examined state cooking appliances by brand and width, a kitchen benchtop material, a tapware brand, a ceiling height and floor tiling to wet areas⁸. Ceiling heights run from 2,400 mm at Coral Homes and Hotondo Homes to 2,590 mm at Simonds Homes, with G.J. Gardner's brochure stating a 2,570 mm standard frame height⁹. Three of the four state a hot-water system, and two state a ducted heating unit, with Hotondo's unit applying to Victorian builds only.

The documents specify different inclusions for the same items. Coral Homes and G.J. Gardner both list 20 mm Caesarstone kitchen benchtops, Simonds lists a 40 mm Caesarstone benchtop with a 1,000 mm deep island, and Hotondo's Sanctuary list specifies a Laminex benchtop³.

Cooking appliances range from Coral's 600 mm Technika set and G.J. Gardner's 600 mm Smeg oven, cooktop and rangehood to 900 mm cookers and canopy rangehoods at Hotondo and Simonds⁹. The documents state the benchtop material, the oven brand and width, and the tapware range, details that a display walkthrough does not establish.

All four documents state a dishwasher space or provision, but none includes the appliance⁸.

Three prices can attach to one displayed design, and in the documents examined they relate to three different transactions. The advertised base price covers the design built to the standard-inclusions document based on assumed site conditions.

Simonds' connection allowances assume an allotment of up to 650m2 with up to 300mm of fall, and Hotondo's site-costs allowance assumes a 650m2 block up to 300mm fall⁹³.

What a specific block adds to that price is covered in base price vs site costs.

The display build can include upgrades beyond the base specification, but none of the documents examined publishes their total value. Coral Homes' brochure prices three of the upgrades as packs and one substitution inside a pack. Its premium oak flooring is approximately $124 per square metre more than the laminate flooring included in the promotion¹. The other three builders indicate that their displays or images can include upgrades but do not publish the cost of those upgrades in the documents examined.

Coral Homes advertises its display homes for sale as completed houses, with their upgrades, styling and landscaping in place. It also advertises a secured rental return for the life of the display home paid while the builder continues to use the house as a display¹⁰. Buying the display is a property purchase, and contracting to build the same design at its base price is a building contract. The two prices therefore relate to different transactions.

BuildStreet's inclusions comparison records each builder's published lines verbatim and classifies a missing line as "not stated", with the cell wording "unknown, not 'no'", never as "not included"¹¹.

A cell is classified as not standard only where there is clear evidence, such as a builder identifying the item as an extra. An unstated item remains unknown. Display-home styling is not recorded, because the documents do not state it.

Two further rules separate promotional and optional items from standard inclusions. Promotions are recorded separately as time-limited offers rather than added to a standard-inclusions list. An item covered only by a pick-one offer is recorded as not part of the builder's standard inclusions with the offer as a note. Lines marked "(optional)" inside a standard list are also excluded from the standard-inclusions comparison¹¹. Coral's August 2026 Advantage Packs are priced offers on top of the Designer Standard Inclusions¹, so they are recorded separately, while the 2,400 mm ceiling and 600 mm appliances remain the standard inclusions.

An unstated item can still affect BuildStreet's scoreboard. On the big-ticket rows that are scored, a builder whose document states an item is ranked above one whose document does not mention it, while the cell keeps its "unknown" wording¹¹. The comparison therefore separates what a document includes from how that item contributes to the score.