Over the past six months of buyer qualification data from PreQual™, a clear pattern has emerged: House and Land packages are not only the most popular build type by volume, but they're also delivering the highest qualification rates of any build category. Understanding why reveals something important about the current Australia buyer market.
The numbers
Across all buyers who completed the PreQual™ qualification flow between August 2025 and February 2026:
- House & Land packages: 58% of all qualified buyers
- Knockdown rebuild: 21%
- Custom build: 14%
- Townhouse / terrace: 7%
But more interesting than the volume split is the qualification rate by category. H&L buyers pass the full 7-step qualification filter at a rate of 64%. Custom build buyers pass at 71% — higher quality per buyer, but far fewer of them.
Why H&L is booming right now
1. Finance certainty
H&L packages offer a fixed land-plus-build price, which makes finance assessment straightforward. Lenders are comfortable with the structure. Buyers can get conditional approval based on a clear number. Custom builds, by contrast, involve cost estimation uncertainty that makes lenders nervous — and buyers who can't get finance certainty often stall or drop out.
2. Speed to occupancy
SEQ buyers are acutely aware of rental market conditions. H&L in established estates often has a clearer timeline to occupation than a custom build that requires council approvals, design iterations, and longer construction schedules. Buyers with a 6–12 month timeline are heavily skewed toward H&L for this reason.
3. First home buyer concentration
H&L packages are the primary vehicle for first home buyers accessing government grants and first home guarantee schemes. With Brisbane's First Home Owner Grant applicable on new builds under $750k, H&L packages in the $500k–$700k range hit the sweet spot for a significant cohort of buyers who are currently actively transacting.
4. Display village infrastructure
Volume builders have invested heavily in display villages as a sales conversion tool. Buyers who visit a display village and can walk through a physical representation of what they're buying convert at significantly higher rates than those working from plans alone. The H&L format — where the design is defined and the land is secured — lends itself to this model. Custom builds are harder to show in a display context.
What this means for your marketing
If you're a builder with both H&L and custom build products, your marketing mix should reflect the volume opportunity in H&L while protecting the higher-margin custom segment. Specifically:
- Drive volume H&L campaigns via Google Search and Meta, with PreQual™ qualification to filter for finance-ready buyers
- Use LinkedIn and niche display advertising for custom build — the audience is smaller but the deal size justifies higher CPL
- Don't let H&L volume crowd your sales team capacity for custom enquiries — route them to separate specialists from the first contact
The H&L market is performing because buyers are ready. Your job is to make sure the buyers reaching your sales team are actually in that group — not the curious browsers who will circle back in two years.