The most stressful part identified across the board is breaking the devastating news to homeowners that their new home build or major reno will likely cost hundreds of thousands more than anticipated. It's a shocking position to be in.
Budgeting for a custom home build or major reno has always been tricky because so many variables are at play. Including but not limited to;
In years gone by, industry professionals could rely on their experience and previous project pricing to align the design with the budget as much as practically possible. Of course, given the individual nature of custom homes and renovations, it's impossible to guarantee a project's price, but we could generally get it within cooee. And if it did happen to come in over budget (which it nearly always did), the gap could be bridged with well-considered specification changes to get the project off the ground.
But fast forward to 2022, and it's a different picture. The distance between the client's anticipated budget and actual pricing is likely more similar to a gaping chasm than a bridgable gap. Any gap between the budget and project pricing will have increased exponentially due to the steep rise in construction costs and the time that has passed since the project's design commenced.
Unfortunately, no specification change can bring a project back to acceptability when the gap becomes a chasm. The owners' course of action at this point is much direr and resembles either;
It's a terrible situation all-round for the homeowner, designer and builder. But at this point, we can only manage what IS.
But what IF;
Boom