Mark Vassallo and Paul Hogan spent decades inside some of Sydney’s biggest builders and developers. Now running their own business, they argue the gap between a busy builder and a healthy one is decided long before the slab goes down.
A builder can have a full order book and still be going backwards.
That was one of the sharper points on this week’s episode of our podcast, where Az sat down with Mark Vassallo and Paul Hogan, the directors of Dixon Homes Sydney. Between them they bring more than 60 years across residential construction, land development, sales and finance.
Vassallo came into the industry through accounting and ran Allam Homes as general manager for a decade before launching Mojo Homes for McDonald Jones. Hogan came through sales at Mirvac, then land acquisition, project management and Stockland’s residential communities business, before joining Vassallo at Mojo to set up a duplex division.
About three years ago the pair started Dixon Homes Sydney, a franchise of the Dixon Homes brand, which is owned by ASX listed Tamawood Limited. The business focuses on knockdown rebuilds and duplexes across Sydney, the Central Coast and the South Coast.
What separates a busy builder from a healthy one?
For Vassallo, it starts with the pipeline, and specifically how much of it sits on land that is ready to build.
Buyers often secure lots off the plan that will not be registered for 18 months, then collect quotes that assume a level block. In his view those quotes mean very little, because the price has to be redone when the job finally starts.
“Until you build the house or start building the house, a builder doesn’t make any money,” he said. “And in fact it costs money to work on a pipeline that is in the long term.”
Dixon Homes Sydney does not quote on unregistered land unless registration is three to four months away. Anyone can produce a quote in five seconds, Vassallo said, and a small deposit makes a buyer feel committed. The job gets counted, but it is not real yet.
The other half of the answer is knowing what every job costs. Their plans are linked to bills of quantities that update daily, which Hogan said removes the habit of estimators adding a buffer just in case. Accurate costing, in his view, is not the same as pricing high.
Busy builder vs healthy builder
A busy builder has a full pipeline of signed or quoted jobs. A healthy builder has a pipeline weighted toward jobs that can actually start, priced from known costs, with an overhead the margin can carry. As Mark Vassallo described it on our podcast, work sitting on unregistered land and placeholder quotes adds cost before it adds revenue.
Why does overhead decide how much work a builder has to chase?
Vassallo described margin and overhead as the main risk for builders who are not also developers. Staff, display homes and big marketing budgets lift overhead quickly, and together they create a business that needs high sales volume just to stand still.
Their model runs the other way: no large display footprint, automated drafting and estimating, a small team, and the buying power of a national brand.
Hogan, who leads sales, put it simply. “Every sale is a promise that the rest of the team have to deliver.” Sales and operations work together, so the people making commitments also prepare the job for construction.
A customer can recover from disappointment in a meeting far more easily than halfway through a build.
How does the land shape the cost of the build?
Hogan’s background in land and master planned communities shapes his view of where builders get it wrong. Clients fall for a floor plan, and the house gets plotted on the block without enough thought about cut and fill, driveway gradients, services, or how the family will live on the site.
He gave a live example. On a block falling away from the street, the cheapest option is an even cut and fill, which leaves the house below the road with water running toward the garage. Exporting fill and using edge beams to lift the house costs more up front, but it spares the owner a bill for retaining walls or fill removal after the builder has gone.
“The cheapest block isn’t the cheapest outcome,” he said.
He noted that clients often arrive having spent more than half their budget on the land. Designing from that reality, he argued, beats pricing high and then stripping out inclusions once site costs blow the budget.
The reverse also holds. A lot that is narrow at the front and splays out at the rear can cost less than the neat rectangle on a sales plan, and deliver more backyard.
Why does telling clients the hard news early protect the builder?
Vassallo said the industry he joined in the 1990s often held back bad news until buyers were committed. Plans drawn, council lodgement in, contract signed, and then the extra costs arrived.
“We hated that,” he said.
The pair describe their approach as the reverse. Hogan’s rule is that if something can be found out, it should be found out, even if it takes another half hour. The business works on the idea that a customer can recover from disappointment in a meeting far more easily than halfway through a build.
Vassallo calls it “point easy” and “point hard”. An issue dealt with early is cheaper. Left until later, it costs more in money and in the relationship.
What does sensible growth look like for a smaller builder?
The pair say the business has doubled each year, yet Vassallo’s view on scaling was cautious. Growth takes twice as long as expected and probably costs twice as much, so a business needs proper capital and job margins that cover overheads, with profit left to reinvest.
His bigger point was people, including a good accountant who can show what everything costs.
Growth becomes a problem, they argued, when the sales pipeline runs ahead of what the business can deliver. That is why they turn down work outside their strengths and refer it to specialists.
What are they seeing in the Sydney market?
Hogan said knockdown rebuilds have held up better than greenfield. Many clients own their homes or hold strong equity, so borrowing capacity bites less, and some are reactivating projects that sat idle for up to two years. Greenfield, where buyers borrow for land and build, has dropped off.
Duplexes carry an extra draw. Under the May 2026 Federal Budget, negative gearing on residential property is set to be limited to new builds from 1 July 2027, and Treasury’s exposure draft indicates a knockdown that replaces one home with more dwellings would appear to qualify. Vassallo said that detail has been lost in the noise around the changes.
What makes a good builder?
Vassallo’s answer to the question that closes every episode: do what you say you will do, and respond quickly when things go wrong. Hogan added that a good builder is someone a client would trust with their own family’s money, and still feel comfortable ringing when something goes wrong.
Neither pretended the job is ever problem free. Their point was that clients judge builders on how problems are handled, and the builders who handle them best tend to be the ones who were honest before the contract was signed.
The Good Builder Take
Most builders track how many jobs are signed. Fewer track how many of those jobs can actually start in the next quarter, and at what cost.
Vassallo and Hogan’s distinction gives a simple lens. A pipeline full of unregistered lots and placeholder quotes carries overhead without revenue. A smaller pipeline of buildable, properly costed jobs is slower to brag about and far easier to survive on.
Listen to the full conversation with Mark Vassallo and Paul Hogan on The Good Builder Podcast, available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Frequently asked questions
A busy builder has plenty of signed or quoted work. A healthy builder has work that can actually start, priced from known costs, with overheads the margin can carry. Jobs on unregistered land and quotes that assume a level block can make a builder look busy while adding cost before any revenue arrives.
Land that will not be registered for a year or more cannot be properly assessed for levels, fall or site conditions, and prices will likely move before construction starts. Dixon Homes Sydney’s directors say they only quote where registration is three to four months away, so the price they give is one they can build to.
Site conditions such as slope, cut and fill, driveway gradients and service locations can add significant cost. A block that looks cheap or neat on a sales plan may need retaining walls, fill removal or drainage work, while an irregular lot with the right design can deliver more usable space for less.
The May 2026 Federal Budget proposes limiting negative gearing on residential property to new builds from 1 July 2027. Treasury’s exposure draft indicates a knockdown that replaces one dwelling with more, such as a duplex, would appear to qualify, while a like for like rebuild would not. The legislation was still being finalised at the time of writing.
Related articles
- Treasury has doubled the new build window to 24 months, citing builders sitting on unsold stock
- Running a Building Business in Australia
- Cash Flow for Australian Builders
Published 15 October 2026. Negative gearing references reflect proposed changes as at this date.
General Information Only: This article provides general information only and does not constitute legal, financial, tax or professional advice. Readers should seek independent advice tailored to their circumstances before making any decisions. Views expressed by guests are their own. While we take care to ensure accuracy at the time of publication, laws, policies and market conditions change.
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