If you ask ten people what it costs to build in the Garden Route, you will get ten different answers. Some will tell you R13,000 per square metre. Some will say R45,000 per square metre. The frustrating part is that all of them can be right. That is the problem with a square metre rate. On its own, it is almost useless. A rate only means something when you attach two things to it: The specification The programme In plain English, that means what you are building, and how long

A deck project often starts with one simple question: “What will this cost?” The hard part is that the answer changes fast. Add a meter to the length, choose composite instead of pine, include stairs, add balustrades, or raise the deck off the ground, and the estimate can move by thousands of rand. That is exactly why a free deck calculator belongs on a homeowner’s shortlist before phoning around, buying materials, or committing to a design. The deck calculator on the website

The first time I compared a €1 million coastal budget in Europe with the same budget in South Africa, I had to check the numbers twice. In many European ocean towns, that figure can still mean compromise. A smaller apartment. A view between rooftops. A renovation project with charm, yes, but also damp walls, parking problems, and a long list of local planning rules. In South Africa, the same budget can place a buyer in a different category altogether. It can open the door to

I spent twenty years on some of the biggest construction sites in the country before I started OFFplan. This is the story of what those sites taught me, and why I now build a handful of homes at a time, with the books open.