One of New Zealand’s largest franchise home builders has entered the Australian market with a rapid roll-out strategy starting in South East Queensland. 

Executives from the Stonewood Group, which holds almost $1B in assets across Hotel and Commercial Real Estate developments in NZ, as well as the Stonewood Homes brand, have launched in a grand opening at their new Toowoomba franchise office. 

Stonewood will launch with offices in Toowoomba, owned by Ian and Dee Carrie, and the Sunshine Coast, led by former Creation Home’s project manager Sean Hewitt and his wife Amanda. 

It follows months of meeting with suppliers and other industry stakeholders in Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast. 

Vicki Chow, Executive Director of the Stonewood Group, spoke to The Good Builder about why they chose Queensland. 

“Within New Zealand and our current footprint, there’s very little growth and with any business you just can’t go flat, you’ve got to grow” Ms Chow said.

“We believe there’s still a bit of growth to be realised in Queensland, it’s relatively affordable to other states and with infrastructure for the Olympics and other initiatives there’s a bright future here. Being so close to New Zealand it was a natural next step”

“Something we also have heard from the market is that there are clients out there who are looking to work with a local builder, but like the backing of a large corporate brand to give them certainty.” 

After building more than 8000 homes over the past 38 years in NZ, Stonewood Homes will operate as a franchise model in Australia, similar to other franchised brands G.J. Gardner Homes and Stroud Homes. 

“There’s a lot of builders here in Queensland that want to grow, but don’t know how to.”

“With our model and systems and processes we can support local builders to grow their business to bigger numbers.”

“In New Zealand there’s a lot of franchised builders, in Australia you’ve only got a handful for such a big country. I’m not entirely sure why and perhaps it’s the dominant corporate players that may make it difficult to enter, but we’re very excited and think it’s a great opportunity and model for builders.” she added.

Vicki said they have received significant interest from a range of builders who have had previous experience with franchising, along with others who simply want to join a reputable brand and grow within a community of other builders. 

“We’ve already had two franchisees sign up with us, one on the Sunshine Coast and one in Toowoomba,” she said.

“It’s a strong, positive start for us.”

“We also have about three other parties that are very interested and all within the South-East Queensland region of the market.”

The Queensland home building market is strong but highly competitive, with more than 800 builders each doing over $3m in revenue across the state. Stonewood plan to compete in this environment by taking on an often overlooked segment of the market. 

“We’re looking to bring something different to the Queensland market,” she said.

“Some really exciting product backed by some of the industry’s most exciting technology.

“ We think our clients are going to love the experience of building with Stonewood Homes Australia.”

Author: Peter Love

Pete was the General Manager of one of Australia’s largest home builders for six years, before starting his own business as a buyers’ advocate, building over 200 homes in five years across South East Queensland and working with over 20 builders to deliver them. Across this time he has seen most facets of the industry, the good, the bad, and the beautiful.