Custom Home Builders in Shellharbour

Yes. CKS Projects builds custom homes, knockdown rebuilds, duplexes and extensions across all 21 suburbs and localities of Shellharbour City, including Warilla, Barrack Heights, Shellharbour, Shell Cove, Flinders, Oak Flats, Lake Illawarra, Albion Park, Calderwood and Tullimbar. Our office is in Unanderra, in the Wollongong local government area just north of Lake Illawarra. We do not have a separate Shellharbour office. Whether we can take on your address depends on the block and on current capacity, so we confirm that on the first call.

Yes. The Warilla Beach House is a complete refurbishment and first-floor addition that CKS Projects built in Warilla, turning a modest family home into a light-filled beach house with an open-plan living area, a white kitchen, oak flooring and indoor-outdoor flow. The owners, Terri and Corey, talk about the build on the project page.

Shellharbour City Council is the consent authority. The main planning instrument is the Shellharbour Local Environmental Plan 2013, with the Shellharbour Rural LEP 2004 covering some rural land. The detailed controls are in the Shellharbour Development Control Plan, which applies to the whole city except the Calderwood Urban Development Area, where separate controls apply. Which rules affect your block, and how, is shown on the section 10.7 planning certificate, which we read at the site assessment.

It depends on the work and the lot. Council describes three pathways: exempt development for minor works that meet set standards, complying development for straightforward projects that meet every criterion and can be approved by council or an accredited certifier, and a development application for work that is neither. New homes and second storeys are usually complying development or a DA. Land with a heritage, bushfire, flood or coastal constraint more often needs a DA. CKS Projects works out the pathway during the site assessment and manages the lodgement. Our council approval guide explains each step.

Often, yes, but the flood level shapes the design. Shellharbour City Council runs flood studies for each catchment, including Elliott Lake and Little Lake, Horsley Creek, and Shellharbour Village and Shell Cove, and it provides flood level information for an individual property on request. CKS Projects reads that information before design, because it can set the floor level of a new home or extension. At Ocean Windang, across the lake entrance, the rear extension was raised four steps and designed as a split level to meet council flood requirements.

Check the map first. Shellharbour’s bush fire prone land map was certified by the NSW Rural Fire Service on 20 May 2026 and applies to planning certificates and development assessments from that date. Development on mapped land may need referral to the RFS and must be assessed under Planning for Bush Fire Protection, which sets construction standards for the site. Council’s online mapping tool shows whether your lot is mapped, and we confirm it at the site assessment.

Yes. New estates come with their own rules. Council has design guidelines for its new communities, Calderwood sits outside the Shellharbour DCP with its own controls, and Tullimbar has its own appendix in the DCP. Some estates also have covenants on the title. A custom design has to satisfy all of them, so we read the estate guidelines and the title with you before design starts.

Yes. A knockdown rebuild keeps your land and your street and replaces the house. Services are disconnected, the existing home is demolished, any asbestos is removed by a licensed contractor, and the new home is built, all under one contract. In the established suburbs such as Warilla, Barrack Heights and Oak Flats, it is often weighed against a second storey, and we can price both. The knockdown rebuild process is set out in full on its own page.

Possibly. Since 1 July 2024, dual occupancies have been permitted with consent in the R2 Low Density Residential zone across NSW. The NSW Low and Mid-Rise Housing Policy names Albion Park, Shellharbour and Warilla Grove among its town centres, and lots inside the policy’s areas use its state standards, while other lots use the Shellharbour LEP and DCP. Whether your lot fits comes down to its size, width and constraints, which we check at the site assessment. See our duplex builders page for the standards.

CKS Projects does not publish a square-metre rate, because a figure detached from your block would be misleading. The price depends on the size and design of the home, the slope and soil of the site, any demolition and asbestos removal, the approval pathway, site-specific requirements such as flood levels or bushfire construction standards, and your selections. The honest way to get a number is to have the block assessed and the design scoped, after which we issue a detailed fixed-price tender.

Book a free site assessment through our contact page or phone 02 4271 5132. Keiron Moore looks at your block and your brief, checks the controls that apply in Shellharbour, and tells you what the lot allows before you spend anything on design. If it suits, the next step is design and then a fixed-price tender.