The Arcadia 22 is one of Metricon's volume sellers in Melbourne's western growth corridor — a 207-square-metre, five-bedroom, single-storey home built on a minimum 12.5m × 28m block. Truganina, Werribee, Tarneit, Point Cook, Wyndham Vale: it's the home that goes up next to itself, twenty times a street.

It's also the home most likely to land on a Melbourne homeowner's kitchen table as a 60-page fixed-price tender priced somewhere between $750,000 and $820,000 in 2026. That number is roughly fair. The risk is not in the headline. The risk is in what isn't in the headline.

This article is what we'd tell you if you brought us the Arcadia 22 tender for an independent audit. We've published it because the same gaps appear in nearly every project home tender, and the same negotiation points work on nearly every Metricon contract. You can copy the language directly.

Quick navigation: What the Arcadia 22 is · Cost breakdown · Standard inclusions · What's missing · 2026 price-shock · Negotiation script

What the Arcadia 22 actually is

The Arcadia is a five-bedroom, two-bathroom, double-garage single-storey home designed for Melbourne's growth corridor demographics — young families upgrading from a townhouse, multi-generational households, anyone who needs a study plus four real bedrooms.

Specification Value
Total area 207.03 m² (22.28 squares)
Bedrooms 5 (3, 4, and 5-bed variants exist)
Bathrooms 2 (master ensuite + family bath)
Garage Double, attached
Minimum block 12.5m wide × 28m deep
Construction Brick veneer + Hardie linea cladding accents, Colorbond roof
Collection tier Metricon Freedom range (mid)

What it isn't: a custom home. The Arcadia is a stock plan that Metricon has built thousands of times. Their crews know it, their suppliers price it, their site managers schedule it. The plan itself is genuinely value-engineered — there are no surprises in the build, which is part of why Metricon can price it competitively.

The surprises live in the contract, not the design.

Real cost breakdown — 2026 calibration

Our calibration runs against current Bunnings and Reece pricing, supplier price-increase letters from March–May 2026, and the actual cost ledger from a comparable Aboriginal community housing project we audited.

Here is what an Arcadia 22 should cost to build in 2026 in Melbourne's western suburbs, line by line. The columns show low-mid-high cost range; the rate column is per square metre of GFA where applicable.

Element Quantity Rate (mid) Subtotal (mid)
Bulk earthworks + cut/fill (avg 0.3m) 85 m³ $60/m³ $5,100
Termite treatment 1 item $800 $800
Concrete waffle slab (Class M soil default) 207 m² $240/m² $49,680
Timber wall frame F5 MGP10 165 m² $115/m² $18,975
Hipped truss roof, 22.5° pitch 220 m² $95/m² $20,900
Colorbond custom orb roof + battens 220 m² $78/m² $17,160
Anticon R1.3 blanket + R4.0 ceiling batts 207 m² $36/m² (combined) $7,452
Colorbond fascia, gutter, downpipes item — $4,900
Brick veneer external wall 110 m² $230/m² $25,300
Hardie linea weatherboard (feature) 38 m² $145/m² $5,510
Hardie texture cladding 17 m² $148/m² $2,516
Wall insulation + sarking 165 m² $20/m² $3,300
Aluminium windows (12) 12 $1,400 $16,800
Sliding doors (2) + entry + garage 4 items — $7,500
Plasterboard, paint, cornice, skirting 587 m² $73/m² (combined) $42,800
Tiling (wet areas, entry) 73 m² $145/m² $10,580
Carpet (bed + living) 142 m² $85/m² $12,070
Vinyl plank (kitchen, dining) 30 m² $95/m² $2,850
Internal doors, hardware, skirting item — $13,000
Kitchen (mid-spec) 1 $18,500 $18,500
Bathroom + ensuite + laundry fit-out 3 items — $16,900
Plumbing rough-in + DWV 1 unit $19,700 $19,700
Gas instantaneous HWS 1 $3,990 $3,990
Tapware + WELS sanitaryware 1 unit $2,640 $2,640
Electrical (mains, board, lights, GPOs) 1 unit $13,580 $13,580
Split A/C × 2 (lounge + master) 2 $3,400 $6,800
NBN, smoke alarms, data 1 unit $2,000 $2,000
Driveway (60 m² standard) + crossover 1 set — $14,640
Alfresco + entry path concrete 1 item — $9,240
Direct construction cost $424,503
Preliminaries (6.5%) $27,593
Builder margin (17%) $72,165
Cost escalation provision (5%, build > 6mo) $26,213
Builder warranty insurance (DBI 0.6%) $3,303
Subtotal ex GST $553,777
Plus site costs allowance $52,000
Plus client-selected upgrades (typical) $55,000
Plus PC/PS sums (typical) $48,000
Total ex GST $708,777
GST 10% $70,878
Total inc GST $779,655

If your Metricon Arcadia 22 tender comes in around $770,000 to $790,000 inc GST with comparable site costs, you're in the fair range. Above $810,000 with no site complications is upper-band tier-1; below $730,000 is suspicious and worth examining.

What Metricon actually includes

Metricon's "Better Starts Here" promotion (running through 2026 in most catchments) bundles roughly $30,000 of inclusions into the headline price for their Inspire range and $50,000 for Affinity. Standard inclusions typically cover:

This is genuinely a competitive inclusions package. We are not telling you Metricon underdelivers on standard inclusions — they're tier-1 for a reason.

What isn't in the tender — and should concern you

Here is where every Arcadia tender we've seen has gaps. None of these are scams. They're industry-standard exclusions that the homeowner is expected to discover, query, and resolve before signing. Most homeowners don't.

1. Soil classification (worth $15,000–$30,000)

The slab in your tender assumes Class M soil (moderately reactive) at most. Truganina, Werribee, Tarneit, and Wyndham Vale all sit on highly reactive basalt clay. Class H1 or H2 is common in this part of Melbourne.

Each step up in soil reactivity adds $10,000–$15,000 to the slab. If your tender doesn't have a geotechnical report attached, you're signing a fixed-price contract on a guess. Either get the report or insert a price-adjustment clause with a defined cap.

2. Council infrastructure charges (worth $15,000–$22,000)

If your block is in Wyndham, Melton, Hume, or Casey, you're in a Growth Area. The Growth Areas Infrastructure Contribution (GAIC) plus Open Space contribution can add $15,000 to $22,000 per dwelling, payable to council at building permit stage.

Metricon's tender legitimately may not include these — they're paid by the landowner direct. But you need to know whether they're due, and when. Get this in writing.

3. Rise-and-fall clause (uncapped on residential)

VIC's Building Legislation Amendment (Buyer Protections) Act 2025 caps rise-and-fall at 5% on contracts of $1 million or more. Yours is $780k, so the legal cap doesn't apply automatically. Without an explicit cap in the contract, your builder can pass through any supplier increase that occurs between contract and completion. Given current supplier conditions (see next section), this is the single largest financial risk in an Arcadia contract right now.

4. Driveway scope (worth $3,000–$6,000)

The standard inclusion is typically 60 m² of concrete driveway. The actual driveway, apron, side path, and turning area on a 14m × 28m block usually totals 85–100 m². The 25–40 m² gap is billed at variation rates of roughly $165/m².

5. Tile PC sum (worth $3,000–$8,000)

The "tile allowance" in your inclusions list is a PC sum (Prime Cost) — an allowance for you to spend on tile selection. Metricon's default PC sum for tiles is often around $30/m² supply, which is at the bottom of the range. Most homeowners select tiles in the $60–$120/m² range. You pay the difference as a variation.

This isn't fraud — it's a legitimate way to keep the headline price low. But if you assume the inclusion covers your aesthetic, you'll be wrong by ~$5,000 across kitchen splashback, two bathrooms, and laundry.

6. Tile underlay (worth $1,500–$3,500)

AS 3740 requires specific waterproofing membranes under wet-area tiles. Builders sometimes treat this as a "variation upgrade" when in reality it's a code requirement that should be in the base price. Confirm in writing.

7. Window furnishings (worth $4,000–$12,000)

Blinds, curtains, or any window furnishing is almost never in the base tender. Budget for it separately.

The 2026 price-shock most tenders haven't priced in

Between March and May 2026, multiple major Australian building suppliers issued formal price-increase notifications attributing the rises to the Middle East conflict and Red Sea shipping disruption. These are not forecasts — they are signed letters from named suppliers, dated, in our files.

Supplier Effective Category Increase
Vinidex (by Aliaxis) 18 Apr 2026 HDPE pipe & fittings up to 36%
Vinidex 18 Apr 2026 Twinwall corrugated stormwater up to 31%
Vinidex 18 Apr 2026 PVC pipe & fittings up to 27%
Reece (reported AFR 24 Mar 2026) April 2026 Plastic pipes up to 36%
Bianco Reinforcing 1 May 2026 Steel rebar +6%
Bianco 1 May 2026 Mesh & wire +7%
Bianco 1 May 2026 Accessories +8%
Adbri Concrete 23 Mar 2026 Fuel levy on all deliveries +$8.70/m³
NT Link 31 Mar 2026 Fuel levy formula 1% per $0.04/L diesel over $2.00/L
Master Builders QLD (industry alert) May 2026 Across all categories forecast 20–50%

These supplier letters explicitly state the price increases apply to existing projects, not just new quotes.

What that means for your Arcadia tender: if the tender was priced before April 2026, the PVC drainage allowance, brassware allowance, steel reinforcing, and concrete are all likely to be 8–15% under current market. Your builder will either eat the gap (if their margin allows) or invoke rise-and-fall (if your contract permits).

This is the strongest single negotiation lever you have right now. It is impossible for any tier-1 builder to deny these supplier letters exist. You can cite them by name.

Seven negotiation points that actually work

These are ordered by likely return. The first four are non-negotiable in our view — without them, you're signing a contract that materially exposes you to cost overruns. The last three are upside.

1. Cap rise-and-fall at 5%

"Please cap rise-and-fall at 5% of the contract value, in line with the protections legislated for contracts of $1 million or more under the Victorian Buyer Protections Act 2025. Given that named Australian suppliers (Vinidex, Reece, Bianco, Adbri) have issued formal price-increase notifications of 6–36% citing the Middle East conflict, an uncapped rise-and-fall clause represents a material risk to us. The 5% cap is the legal benchmark and we expect it to be applied here regardless of contract size."

Expected outcome: agreed. Most builders include this when asked, especially on contracts under the $1M legal threshold.

2. Geotechnical soil classification confirmed in writing

"Please provide the geotechnical report under AS 2870 confirming the soil classification used in the slab design. If the report shows the slab requires upgrade beyond Class M, we want the contract to specify either (a) the upgrade is included in the fixed price, or (b) a price-adjustment clause with a defined dollar cap. We will not sign a fixed-price contract that excludes a known and quantifiable site cost."

Expected outcome: builder either provides the report or accepts the cap. Either way you're protected.

3. Council infrastructure charges clarified

"Please confirm in writing which Wyndham council infrastructure charges apply to this lot, what stage they are payable at, and by whom. Specifically: Growth Areas Infrastructure Contribution (GAIC), Open Space contribution, headworks. If any of these are in addition to the tender total, please itemise them so we have a true all-up cost."

Expected outcome: builder provides clear written breakdown. This information often surprises homeowners who thought the tender total was the all-in number.

4. Materials pricing refresh confirmation

"Given that Vinidex, Reece, Bianco Reinforcing, and Adbri have all issued formal price-increase notifications between March and May 2026 — citing the Middle East conflict and Red Sea shipping disruption — please confirm whether your tender pricing has been refreshed against current supplier costs as of {today's date}, or whether you intend to invoke rise-and-fall on any of these specific categories. We need this in writing before signing."

Expected outcome: response varies. A confident answer says "all current." A hedged answer is a tell.

5. Driveway to include full m²

"Please include the full driveway area (approximately 95 m² on this block) in the base price, not the standard 60 m² inclusion. We don't want to discover the gap at variation rates after signing."

Expected outcome: usually agreed for a small additional cost upfront — far cheaper than variation pricing later.

6. Lift tile PC sum to a realistic level

"Please increase the tile PC sum to $80/m² supply so we have a realistic range of options without forcing a variation. This is cost-neutral if we don't select tiles at that level."

Expected outcome: usually agreed. Cost-neutral but locks in flexibility.

7. Defects liability extended to 180 days

"Please extend the defects liability period from 90 days to 180 days. This is industry-standard for premium project home builders and gives us adequate time to identify post-handover issues."

Expected outcome: most builders agree because it costs them nothing to commit if their work is good.

What a fair Arcadia 22 contract looks like at signing

After working through the above, here's what you should have in your hand:

If you can get all seven, you're signing a genuinely good deal. If your builder agrees to two of seven, you've still meaningfully improved the contract.

The honest summary

Metricon's Arcadia 22 is a fairly priced, well-engineered, family-suitable project home from a tier-1 Australian builder. The risk in signing is not that you'll be ripped off on the headline number — you almost certainly won't. The risk is that 2026's supplier-cost environment, combined with industry-standard contract clauses, lets several thousand dollars of cost flow through to you between signing and handover.

Spending 30 minutes negotiating the seven points above is the single highest-ROI hour you'll work on your $780,000 contract.

If you'd rather have someone do the audit work for you — line-by-line, in 24 hours, signed by a human reviewer, for $249 — that's what Tender Check exists for.