How can we help?

Prestige Living is the second dwelling arm of Katana Building Services, a registered Melbourne builder since 2003, working under Domestic Builder (Unlimited) registration DBU-20641. We build across Melbourne's eastern and south-eastern suburbs and the Mornington Peninsula, and every home is custom built on your block by our own trades — never assembled in a factory and craned in.Families come to us because:The build quality and the custom finishes are a step above the standard productThey want a parent or an adult child close by without living on top of each otherA well-built second dwelling adds real value to the propertyA granny flat can be a genuine source of rental income

Usually, yes. What decides it is not whether your block is big enough but where a second dwelling is allowed to sit on it. In Victoria a second dwelling on the same title needs a building permit, and depending on your council and any overlays it may need a planning permit as well.The things that shape what will fit:Setbacks from each boundaryPrivate open space requirementsOverlays — bushfire, flood, heritage, significant landscapeEasements running through the propertyExisting trees, and whether any are protectedSend us your address and we'll run a desktop check — title, overlays and easements — and tell you what your block can take before you've spent anything.

Each home is custom crafted on your site, so you watch it come to life rather than waiting for a finished box to arrive on a truck. The structure is an all-steel frame — straight, termite-resistant, and no structural timber harvested. Experienced tradesmen handle every trade, with quality control monitored daily.Every job runs the same six inspected stages:Base — stumps and base completeFrame — floor, wall and roofLock-up — roof, walls, windows and doorsFixing — linings, cabinetry and fixturesPractical completionHandoverDouble-glazed windows, feature tiling, engineered flooring and a 7-star energy rating are standard across the range, not upgrades.

Construction runs 12 to 14 weeks on site for most designs, starting from the point where layouts, finishes and fixtures are signed off and the deposit is paid.The build is the shortest part of the project. Design, soil and site testing, documentation, engineering and council approvals all come first, and how long those take depends on your block and your council — particularly whether a planning permit is required.We publish what each stage costs and how long it takes on our process page, so you can see where the time actually goes.

More than most. Every model is a complete home — full kitchen, full bathroom, and finished to a standard you'd expect in the main house rather than a studio out the back. Anything that counts as an upgrade is named as an upgrade, in writing, before you choose it, so there are no open-ended allowances buried in the contract.Standard across every model:All-steel structural frameDouble-glazed windows throughoutFeature tilingEngineered flooringFull kitchen and bathroom7-star energy ratingYour choice of five interior fit-out themesYour choice of four external claddingsAsk us for the inclusions sheet for the model you're considering and you'll get the full list, line by line.

Yes — we can point you to someone. We work with a finance specialist we're happy to recommend, who handles the application and deals with the lender so you're not doing it alone. There's no obligation to use them.We're builders, not financial advisers, so we won't tell you what to borrow. What we will give you is a fixed-price contract with documented inclusions and a stage-by-stage payment schedule — which is exactly what a lender asks to see before releasing funds.

We do. Prestige Living prepares and lodges the documentation required for your building permit, and where your site needs a planning permit we manage that application through council as well. Statutory fees are charged at cost and itemised in your written proposal, so you can see exactly what goes to council and what comes to us.Supporting reports we arrange where a site needs them:Land capability assessmentBushfire or flood overlay reportsArborist reportSite feature surveySoil classification and wind rating

Any of our themes and claddings can go on any of our floor plans, so the layout that suits your block never limits how the home looks.Five interior fit-out themesFour external claddingsBeyond that, colours, finishes and fixtures are chosen during the selections stage — a proper sit-down with Bec rather than a form to fill in. Structural changes to a floor plan are possible on most sites, and if yours isn't one of them we'll tell you early rather than late.

Not in the published price, because connections are the one cost that genuinely can't be known in advance. How far the build sits from existing water, sewer and power, what's already in the ground, and whether street services need upgrading all move the figure — and it differs block to block, even in the same street.We price connections properly after the site survey, and that figure goes into your contract as a fixed amount rather than an allowance you find out about later.

Yes, deliberately. The frame is all steel, so no structural timber is harvested. Through the fit-out and external finishes we use engineered materials from sustainable sources wherever they're available. The footing system is designed for minimal disturbance to your property and the ground around it, which matters on established blocks with mature trees.Every home is built to a 7-star energy rating as standard, so running costs stay low without anyone having to pay for an upgrade to get there.

Yes. Any of our models can be adapted to run completely off grid and self-sufficient, with solar and battery storage, rainwater collection and on-site wastewater treatment in place of mains connections.It suits a bush block or a rural property where bringing services to the building envelope costs more than going without them, and it works well where the home is intended to earn an income as short-stay accommodation.Tell us the property and we'll tell you honestly whether off grid is the cheaper path or just the more appealing one.

Usually, yes. Our footing design handles sloping sites and the reactive or unstable soils that stop a conventional slab-on-ground build — which is why we can work on the steeper blocks common through the Dandenongs, the Yarra Ranges and parts of the Mornington Peninsula.It's always subject to site investigation. The soil classification and site feature survey tell us exactly what the ground needs, and we'd rather establish that early and price it properly than discover it once machines are on site.