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The Canberra Business Podcast
A podcast about all things Canberra Business.
The Canberra Business Podcast
How A Newcomer Scaled A Construction Company To $30M
Want the real reasons Canberra homes cost more—and what would actually move the needle on supply? We sit down with Taz Building Group CEO Suman Dhillon to unpack a 13‑year climb from one home to a $30 million operation, delivering 70–80 new builds a year while keeping clients coming back. From stable subcontractor teams to five‑month build timelines after approvals, Suman shares how paying trades on time, standardizing processes, and protecting the client experience compound into reliable delivery and word‑of‑mouth growth.
We dig into the numbers and the nuance. Canberra’s construction costs skew higher than Sydney and Melbourne, not because of materials, but because the trades pool is smaller and aging. With many seasoned carpenters and stonemasons retiring, the city needs more apprentices, stronger migration pathways, and better storytelling about why Canberra is a great place to live and work. Suman also breaks down where policy bites: lengthy DA and BA processes, entity clearances, and conditions that can stretch townhouse projects to nearly two years before ground is broken—costs that inevitably surface in final prices.
Prefab sounds like a silver bullet until local realities set in. Canberra’s varied block sizes, slopes, and a strong appetite for custom designs limit off‑the‑shelf efficiencies. The path forward, Suman argues, blends smarter subdivision standards, selective use of pre‑approved plans for standard blocks, and buyer acceptance of fewer variations when speed matters most. We also tackle developer licensing rules, quality assurance after the pandemic’s builder boom, and fresh zoning changes that open RZ1 infill to accelerate supply—provided approvals don’t remain the bottleneck.
If you’re weighing a new build, Suman outlines the sweet spot: a four‑bedroom, 250 m² home with above‑basic inclusions in the $500k–$600k band, plus true end‑to‑end support from land choice to handover. It’s a grounded look at what’s working, what isn’t, and where Canberra can credibly gain speed without sacrificing standards. Enjoyed the conversation? Follow the show, share this episode with a friend, and leave a quick review to help more Canberrans find it.
Hello and welcome to the Canberra Business Podcast. I'm Greg Harford, your host from the Canberra Business Chamber, and today we're talking about construction with Suman Dillon, the CEO of Canberra's own Taz Building Group. Suman, welcome to the podcast. Thank you, Greg. Thanks. Let's uh kick off with a little bit of a background uh for our listeners. Um, Taz Building Group has been around in Canberra for a while, uh 13 years, I think. But how did it start and what's been the history of the business?
SPEAKER_00:Uh first of all, I want to thank Canberra Business Chamber to invite me on the podcast. So first starting, I came to Canberra in 2009 from Melbourne. Um I originally migrated from India in 2007. So I started in 2012. I was doing some other businesses uh in Canberra, but then I always want to go to the building and started uh with one of my mentors, John, in 2012. And since then we're doing the building here.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Did you have a background in building before you got into it?
SPEAKER_00:Uh no, actually I have a master degree in political science. Excellent. So hopefully I I should contest the election. But uh yeah, but I have an engineering uh diploma, so a couple of different uh qualifications. I have a mix of qualifications, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, fantastic. Um so what's what's been the history of the business? 13 odd years you've you've been running. Um how how big are you now? Uh what what are you up to?
SPEAKER_00:So in 2012, I started from doing one house, and at the moment we're doing 40 to 50 houses any one time. And in one year, like we do like you know 70, 80 houses. We are also doing some townhouses projects as well across uh Canberra. So you can say like from starting from$500,000 one house, now we are doing$30 million turnover annually at the moment. Yeah. That's a scale of the business.
SPEAKER_01:And we're growing fast. That's that's really impressive growth over time. What's what's been the driver of that success, do you think?
SPEAKER_00:Uh it's I think, yeah, like uh it's like your vision, you know. Like I always want to be, you know, uh bit do bit better in my life rather than doing just a job. So I always have a vision, and still I have a more vision ahead. So I want to go further. So it's a hard work, you know, always. And uh, you know, working on the pace, slowly, slowly growth. So yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Um no, that's quite an impressive number of houses, 70 or 80 a year. Um do you do you employ lots of people? Do you have subcontractors? What's what's your model for for getting work done?
SPEAKER_00:So yes, yeah, we have a employees as well. We have like uh two four men, one working outside, one south side, and in the office staff, like at least eight people. And then maybe we have more than 200 contractors. So on every day on our job, maybe 100 people working uh on all the projects across Canberra. Yeah. Okay.
SPEAKER_01:So um, yeah, that's that's a lot of people to to wrangle. Um, I guess good project management must be must be an important part of what you do.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I think yeah, because I learned myself first. I think for every business to be successful, if you know about the business, it's better to scale and to be successful. So first of all, when I started, I was doing everything by my own, doing admin jobs, looking after the sites, doing accounting, paying the bills. But slowly, slowly I have built the team. So now we have, you know, like a good team, and I have a consistent people, you know. So to successful, a lot of uh builders ask, you know, why you're better than others. So we have a same contractor we're normally using from like last 10, 12 years. We don't change the people and unless there's a problem. So it's on the auto mode, you know, when you have the same people, they know what to do, and you know, and we pay on time, and that's what subcontractors are happy and they're killing the business, you know, they're doing great, you know.
SPEAKER_01:Uh your focus is on residential building. Is it all new builds that you do?
SPEAKER_00:Yes, we don't do like any uh extension or renovation. We just do the new builds, but we do like knockdown rebuild is so all across Canberra and our surrounding, like Gugong, uh, Moram Batman, certain. So we're doing all like a new South Wheel within 50 kilometer zone, but we just do new builds. We don't do any extension or renovation because it's a different uh style of business, I think.
SPEAKER_01:So you do a bit of work across the border in in New South Wales um as as well as here. Um do you do you find there are differences uh in doing business on on each side of the border?
SPEAKER_00:Uh I think it's around the border, it's the same because uh, you know, uh Kunby and Gugong, it's like you know, the influence of Canberra people anyway, it's part of uh it's a new southwell, but it's the influence. Same people work here in ACT and New South Wales. But I uh I quite find a difference between working in Melbourne and uh actually ACT. I built two houses in Victoria in 2015 because I want to start there. Still we're working on that. Um, but it's very different between like uh if we talk about Victoria and you know uh Canberra or ACT. But uh around the ACT is the same, but maybe Sydney is different, definitely different than uh ACT and surrounding areas. Yeah, and what are those differences? I think it's about the availability of the staff uh or subcontractors, you know, Canberra is like a small market, you know, like it's always hard to find the good people if you especially want to expand. But in Melbourne and Sydney, there's a lot of you can find the good trade people and there's availability of the trades. And cost of building is a difference, you know. Like if you talk today's indeed, like if it's$2,000 km price in ACT and Gugong, in Sydney it's$1,800, but in Victoria and Melbourne it's only like$1,400. So it's that difference. Sometimes I don't understand the same country, same material, but I think it's the just the labor cost is quite high because maybe we don't have enough people. And a lot of uh people who work in trade in Canberra are retiring, especially from uh Europe uh people who came here from long term, they are at the retirement stage. So we need more people, we need to train our young generation uh to get you know better, you know, a result. So apprentice, we need more apprentices. So that's the challenge in Canberra always, I have seen.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. It's really interesting. So the the cost, the relatively high cost of building here, you think is is driven largely by labor. Do you do you take apprentices on in your business?
SPEAKER_00:Uh we don't take because we like use uh car painter, plumber as a subcontractor, but they do. Our um people who work with us, because they are bigger companies as well, like especially our like electrician. Uh, he has like 20 people working for him, and uh maybe 10 people are apprentices, and they train very like uh good um people. After four years, they're very uh like good uh tradies. So I think we need more to focus on the new generation to come in the building game, you know. So which is uh I don't know why uh new generation is not interested. Maybe they have a lot of IT jobs in Canberra, that's another reason.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. I mean, I sort of wonder, you know, if there are enough people in Canberra to fill the roles generally that we've we've got available. I mean, do you have a view on that?
SPEAKER_00:Uh I think so, yeah, because um maybe we have a like um uh we always talk about the population growth in Canberra, but uh we have more retiring people in Canberra, I think. We need more junk generation. It could become from interstate or from like international, but uh we have a lot of retiring people. That's the problem in Canberra I have seen. Like every year, a lot of our good carpenters, good stone missions, they're leaving the industry. So we need new people as well to train it because it takes some time to get to the good level of the skills, so at least four years, you know. So we need to work on that. Uh, I think government may be doing something, but uh maybe there's no enough young people, and because Canberra is a pretty small place, and young people want to live in Sydney and Melbourne because of the life there. That's always a challenge, it will be, I think.
SPEAKER_01:Which is really unfair because Canberra is a beautiful place to live. There's many great things about it. So do you think we need a bit more marketing to young Australians and indeed foreign arrivals about uh about the the joys of living here in the capital?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I think so. Yeah, I I love Canberra. Like um I came from uh north of India, which is Punjab. So I always say either I can live in Canberra or either I'll go back to my town. It's it looks the same. So I love Canberra, and it's a good city to bring you a family and it's good schools. And uh people are nice as compared to Sydney or Melbourne, wherever I lived or traveled. So Canberra people are very generous. I think we need to maybe project more because a lot of uh people don't know about the Canberra. If you talk about migration, when I came to Australia, everyone in India was thinking Sydney is the capital of uh, you know, like uh so a lot of people come to Sydney. If we can promote Canberra on an international level, I think we can get a direct uh you know migration here. So yeah, but it's the best city in Australia. I love Canberra.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it's a great place to live, a great place to do business, right? So um, yeah. So uh Simon, you've been in business now for 13 years. You must have built hundreds of houses over that time. What's what's the project or two that you're most proud of?
SPEAKER_00:Like every project is special for us and for our clients as well. Uh doesn't matter, like smallest house maybe we built, you know, for$400,000. We recently finished one house in a corner for$3 million. But emotions are the same for every client and for us as well. So we treat every client, you know, same. It's not like we're building expensive houses, we give more attention because everyone has a budget, and that's why I tell my staff as well. Even it's like uh someone is first home buyer, we have a less budget, but he has emotion because big investor meant for him. So we treat every house equally. But yeah, we've done good houses, and uh I always feel proud, and especially when the client is happy. I want to keep my clients happy. And uh we have a you know word of mouth advertisement, that's why we've grown that big because we have a lot of repeated clients. And then you don't need too much advertisement, I think. That's what the key to success is. So people ask how you're going from this level to that level. Actually, our clients recommend uh us. So we have their friends building with us again and again, same repeat client. We have like maybe 10 repeat clients even this year. Which which is fascinating, right?
SPEAKER_01:Because you'd think that most people would build a house and stay in it and then not build another one for a little while. But but actually you're saying there's there's quite a number of people who who actually do build or commission a build and then then go off and do it again.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, I I think so if an experience is good with the builder, people always, when they have some extra money, they want to upgrade their house. So so many clients uh when they say, Oh, you want to build again? Like uh some of my clients was telling me stories, you know, like a their friend going with another builder, and they were very unhappy, and they say, Oh, we're not going to build a house again in our lifetime because we have a lot of problems. But when they ask our client, oh, do you want to build again? They say, Yeah, we want to build again because it's easy. So we want to not only build a house, we give the better experience for our clients. So they have a smooth journey, and the relationship is at the end is good. So that's my goal. Whatever when we talk before signing the contract, I want to stay on the same terms with my clients. And that's why like I have a family relationship actually with my all my clients. They invite me on house parking party, they invite on the kids' birthday. So, and that's we built a family relationship. And Canberra is a small community, everyone knows each other. So, especially I'm doing from last year. Whenever I go everywhere, like people know us by name, um, you know, as a person, so which is good. It I feel proud. Whenever I go to shopping center, my wife always complains because 10 people come to me and say the hi. And she said we came for the shopping, you still meeting the people. But I'm I'm like that type of social person. And I want to keep the relationship is more important than money for me, even with doing a business for the money, and people pay the money if you do the right job and write to them.
SPEAKER_01:Now, there's been um a lot of talk in the media over quite a long time about the the so-called housing crisis here in the ACT and um the the levels of housing construction, dwelling consents are at an all-time low or close to it, I think. What's holding us back as a city from getting more houses built and built quickly?
SPEAKER_00:Um I think there's a couple of factors, not only one factor. So interest rate is one of the biggest factors, which is uh, you know, pushing away the investors from Canberra. So investors going to Brisbane or Perth or Adelaide or two other cities. Uh, other things like you know, time to get approvals also slow down. So, for example, if I want to build 20 townhouses, maybe it takes two years before I start. So you have a DE approval process, then you have B approval process, a lot of uh, you know, uh clearance we need. So approval time is more in uh A C T as compared to whatever I compare in with like a Victoria. I think we need uh recently maybe you heard in the media New South Wales announced like they have a set of plans for the houses which you can use and you can get approval in one or two weeks, you know. So I think we need something like that for the standard size block. If we have a pre-approved plans and client want to choose, and then you can get in uh you know approval in two months. But here in ACT we spend three to four months to get approval. And uh, we finished a house in five months from start. So time to approval is uh you know nearly equal, basically, some time to build a house. So we have to plan very early on everything.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. Um What about prefab components to houses? Um there's a lot of talk about how um prefabrication um and assembly on site can can help reduce costs and get things done more quickly. Do you have a view on that?
SPEAKER_00:I think in the future, yeah, it will grow and it's growing on a significant stage. But in Canberra, what I have seen, it's not working because the land topography is different. If you go to Sydney or Melbourne, it's flat land. So you have the same size block, you can put a same house again and again. But in Canberra, I built more than four, five hundred houses. I never built a house same again because every block is different. Every block has a different dimension. So I think from development point of view, they need to work on that. You know, if they really want uh that pre-built or pre-cast houses, the block size should be the same. Then you have the same type of plans which can fit. So I I think in Canberra clients are a bit different, I have seen. You know, like uh every client wants customization, and that's what the problem is. You know, when you want to speed up the uh construction, they don't like you know pre-design, you know, plans sometimes. So that's another challenge we see in Canberra. Like every client is different. Um I don't know we're giving them too many options, but uh I have never built the same house. If I build 500 houses, every house is different, different inclusion list. So Canberra is a bit different, and there will be a challenge always in Canberra or pre-cast houses. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So so what's what's the scope of what you do? You do the construction, but you do the design as well, is that right? So yes, yes.
SPEAKER_00:So from start, when client buys the land, we help them to buy the land as well. So they buy decent land, not like too much slope, which can cost them side costs. From start, then we help them to design the house, whatever they want to do in the house according to their requirements. And then we build, and yeah, up to the handover. We also we don't do landscaping and other stuff, but um we help them clients uh to get that done as well. We uh we know like people who are reliable, we recommend them so they can like go with the good trades so they don't see any problems in the future. So really a good end-to-end service.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, yeah. What's um what's your take on the new developer licensing rules that are coming into play? Are they going to impact your business?
SPEAKER_00:Uh I don't think so too much because like if you there's always it's like a you know, people say another red tape, but uh quality is also important, you know. Like uh in when COVID came, this was a lot of new builders came in the market and quality really gone down. And at the end, humor, you know, faced uh, you know, all the consecuences. So it's good. Like I don't mind, I know it's a little bit paperwork, but um for the quality, for the peace of mind for the people who buy the apartments uh and you know townhouses, I think if they're spending that much money, they need a little bit uh, you know, um security or you know, sense of security, like they going in the good hands. So I know it's a bit uh like a red tape, but I I think if I have not applied yet, I'm going to apply that, but I have not seen the process. Is it simple or is it complicated? So, but uh I'm I'm happy with that, like you know, because I want to do a good job. And if some someone is doing a good job, I think that's what the government wants.
SPEAKER_01:Well, good luck if you you navigate through that process. Um tell me um about zoning rules as well. Um, we've seen changes announced uh to zoning rules for RZ1 blocks. Um, do you think they're going to make a difference to getting things built quickly?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I I think so, yeah, because you know it takes a bit of time to do the like a new greenfield site. And uh whenever a client asks him why land is expensive in Canberra, and uh and I did talk to other people, and they said the development cost is pretty high because we have a lot of hills, rocks, you know, so it takes uh time plus extra cost to build those greenfield sites. So I think uh filling inside uh it will be quick because infrastructure is there. Um but I think uh only thing what we want from government is to make that process simple. So it shouldn't take like one year to get a DE approval or something. Either they should have a dedicated team for that so they can get approval quick. Um but I I'm happy with the you know, minister, I have seen the in the news. So but I think it they should speed up the process so we can build more house uh, you know, inside. But uh some of our senior cities are not always happy because they're living in the same suburbs from a long time and they don't want to see the development. But if we want new house, we have to do that.
SPEAKER_01:So outside the red tape associated with getting development approvals through and getting houses built, um do you enjoy being a business owner?
SPEAKER_00:Uh yeah, that's the most difficult part. You know, approval processes are always you know complicated, you know. And uh like, you know, for me, if you say I I have some townhouse development going in approval, you know, it's going back and forth and takes time, which obviously pushing back the delivery of the houses is costing me the money because I'm holding a land. And it's for everyone, all the bed is the same process. Sometimes you take one year for the de approval. Now maybe they improved a little bit, but I'm doing two developments one year for the de approval, then still they put some conditions from icon, water, and other entities, and then you have to clear that another six month. So it took nearly two years to start the project. Means you're paying like$100,000 in the holding cost. And also you can't get to the new houses as quickly as from the ground. So I think we need to streamline somehow that process. Either we need a more staff. I don't know, like sometimes whenever I was calling the department, they say we don't have enough people, you know? So I I think we need a more staff and simple process to get it. If we know like we can build two houses a day, it should not be too much drama there because the government already approved to build two or three houses. This zoning is already there. If we're doing billion zoning, I think that should be like the percent should be one, two months. I don't know why they just check in, like hundred of check in the place, and they say, yeah, everything is good, but we're still checking. Everything is good, we're still checking, which takes like one year, you know.
SPEAKER_01:It's a very long time.
SPEAKER_00:It's very long time. It costs money as well. And at the end, you know, if I'm paying the interest or holding cost, I have to add that to the end user. And that's why people complained why houses are expensive. Because if if I'm doing a business, I want to make some money out of it, isn't it? And if I spend certain money and then there's a holding cost extra$300,000, I have to add on every zone$60,000. And there's a lease variation charge of like$30,000. I know government also needs some money to run, you know, because they don't have money. But uh I think um they should reconsider dropping those fees. Some of the news where I heard someone was talking last week in like a Red Hill or Narabandha, there could be in hundred thousands if you want to develop uh to the like a two house on one because of the U value is high, and yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and that has to be a disincentive to getting more development done, right?
SPEAKER_00:Yes, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Um what what do you find is the average cost of of sorry, not the average cost, but when you when someone comes to you and says, Oh, I want to build a house, um you you sort of talk about a range of so I think you said 400,000 to 3 million, the three million must get you an amazing house. Yeah. Um but like where where's where are most of the the builds that you do sitting in terms of price range?
SPEAKER_00:Um mostly build are between 500 to 600,000, um, because that's uh like like after one million is a uh luxury uh houses, you know. And we do like not a lot of numbers of those, but we still want to do that because there's a consumer demand and there's not enough builders sometime in that market as well. Uh and you know our clients' friends, they're happy they want to build those type of houses. So but mostly client between five to six hundred, um like maybe sixty, seventy percent.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. And what what size house are you getting for that sort of money? If we've got a listener who's got to spare half a million dollars in the bank and thinking I might go build a house, what what would you get?
SPEAKER_00:It's standard like a 250 square meter house, you know, with four-bedroom, double garage, ensuite, journal standard feature. And our inclusion list is not a very basic. Um we never build a basic house. You know, we have a like medium above medium range house. Yeah, so you can get a decent four-bedroom, good house. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Excellent. All right, well, thank you very much for joining me on the podcast today.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you for inviting. Uh it was a pleasure to talk to you.
SPEAKER_01:Um, great to have you here, Suman. I'm Greg Harford from the Canberra Business Chamber, and I've been talking to Suman Dillon, the CEO of Taz Building Group, uh, based right here in Canberra. Um, great to talk building. Uh, and if you want to check out uh uh upcoming episodes of the Canberra Business Podcast, don't forget to follow us on your favorite podcast platform. We'll catch you next time.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you.