Quick answer
If you are a private developer building three to ten townhouses, you can still get real trade pricing on the kitchens, the key is repetition, not raw unit count. Lock one spec, run it across the terrace, and buy supply and install on one contract so nobody is arguing over a measure. Sequence the fit after GIB and flooring so the kitchen is never the trade holding up your code compliance certificate. We build and install this work from our own East Tamaki workshop at trade pricing, no showroom markup.
Key points
- At three to ten units the money is in repetition, not count, run the same kitchen across the whole terrace and the per-unit price drops.
- One supply-and-install contract removes the seam where small jobs bleed money, measure errors, back-charges and finger-pointing between three suppliers.
- First-time developers under-budget install, benchtops and the appliance gap, rarely the cabinets, the cabinet line is the stable one.
- Lock one spec before the drawings go out, then hand it left and right, a mirrored plan is the same kitchen built the other way, not a new one.
- Sequence the kitchen after GIB and flooring so it never holds up your code compliance certificate, and stage claims per unit for cash flow.
Most of what gets written about developer kitchens is aimed at the big operators, the group builders, the QS-led shops, the outfits doing forty units in staged releases. If you are a private developer doing a single small terrace, three, five, seven, maybe ten units, that advice half fits and half does not. You are buying at a different scale, you are carrying the programme yourself, and you probably have not done this exact thing before. So this is written for you, the first-time or small developer, and the habits that actually matter at your size.
The short version: you can still get genuine trade pricing at five to ten units if you standardise, one contract for supply and install saves you more than a sharp cabinet number ever will, the lines you will under-budget are install and benchtops rather than the cabinets, and the kitchen should be sequenced into your build so it is never the last trade standing between you and your code compliance certificate. Get those four right and the kitchen stops being the line that surprises you.
You are a small developer, not a group builder
The distinction matters because it changes how you buy. A group builder has a standing supply chain, a QS pricing every line, and enough volume that suppliers chase them. You have a one-off terrace, your own money or a development loan on the clock, and a programme you are managing between your day job and the site. That is not a weaker position, it just means you buy differently. You lean on a supplier who has done small terraces before, you standardise hard to earn the volume rate, and you keep the moving parts to a minimum because you are the one coordinating them.
Getting real trade pricing at five to ten units
The honest answer on pricing is that repetition moves the number harder than count does. Five identical kitchens price better per unit than eight different ones. At three to four units you are mostly buying trade pricing, which is the showroom markup coming off rather than true volume. From about five repeating units up, standardisation starts to compound and the per-kitchen cost drops in a way you can see on the quote. We lay out where that threshold really sits in when bulk kitchen pricing actually pays off, and the same logic holds at the small end of the scale.
The lever you control is how many distinct kitchen types you carry. A terrace of seven drawn as seven slightly different kitchens prices like seven jobs sharing an invoice. The same seven collapsed into one or two types, same doors, same benchtop, same hardware, prices like a production run. That collapsing is free, it costs nothing but a decision made early, and it is worth more than any haggling you do later. If you want to see the gap between what you pay at trade and what a retail buyer pays, trade vs retail kitchens sets it out, and our pricing guide shows how we structure a developer number.
| Lever | Effect across 3 to 10 units | When to lock it |
|---|---|---|
| Number of kitchen types | Fewer types, sharper rate, the biggest free lever | Before drawings go out |
| Benchtop material | Laminate to stone swings the whole terrace at once | At spec lock |
| Door finish | Melteca to 2-pac, matched to buyer not show unit | At spec lock |
| Supply plus install as one | Removes measure disputes and back-charges | At contract |
| Install sequencing | Wrong window means return visits you pay for | When you set the programme |
One contract beats juggling three suppliers
The most common way a small developer loses money on kitchens is not the cabinet rate, it is the seam between three suppliers. Buy cabinets off one firm, a benchtop off another, and book an installer off a third, and you own every gap between them. When a benchtop turns up 10mm out, the cabinetmaker blames the templater, the templater blames the installer, and you are the one standing in the unit with a job that does not fit and a settlement date coming.
One party owns measure, make and fit.
On one contract, the crew that built the boxes in the workshop is the crew that templates and fits them on site. Measure, manufacture and install sit with one party, so there is nothing to argue about and one number to call when something needs a fix. On a small job with no QS and no clerk of works riding herd on the trades, that single point of responsibility is worth far more than shaving a few dollars off the cabinet line. Appliances, plumbing and electrical still sit with your own trades, and how appliances by others works in a kitchen contract explains where that line falls so nothing gets missed.
Lock one spec, then hand it left and right
A terrace is the friendliest shape there is for standardising, because the units are usually mirror images or straight repeats of each other. Lock one kitchen spec, doors, benchtop, hardware and module widths, then hand it left and right across the row. A mirrored plan is the same kitchen built the other way round, it uses the same doors, the same top, the same everything, it just flips. Resist the urge to tweak unit by unit, because every small variation is a new setup in the workshop and a new puzzle for the crew on site.
Where a unit genuinely differs, say an end unit with a longer sink wall or a three-bed with a small scullery, keep the components identical and let the layout carry the difference. Same doors, same top, same hardware, different arrangement. The buyer reads a coherent product across the terrace, and the workshop reads a run it can batch. The discipline of standardising the kitchen line is the same one that carries a bigger job, and budgeting kitchens across a multi-unit development walks through it at scale.
What first-time developers under-budget
The cabinets are almost never where a small developer gets caught, because the cabinet cost is stable and easy to quote. The lines that bite are the ones carried as a round number eighteen months out and never revisited. Install is the big one, it gets treated as an afterthought and then costs real money when it is booked badly. Benchtops are the second, the swing between a laminate top and an engineered stone top with an undermount sink is large and it multiplies across every unit.
The third is the appliance gap, the quiet mismatch where the feasibility assumed appliances were in the kitchen number and the quote excludes them, or the other way round. Decide early whether appliances are in the kitchen contract or on your own supply account, and write it down, because the gap surfaces at the worst possible time. Anyone quoting you a precise per-unit figure without seeing drawings is guessing, and a guess on a development is an expensive thing to inherit.
Cash flow: deposit and progress claims per unit
On a small terrace your cash flow is tighter than a big operator's, and the kitchen contract should be structured to suit that rather than fight it. The clean way is a deposit to secure the production slot and cover materials, then progress claims tied to units or blocks as they are delivered and installed, rather than one large payment at the end or the whole lot up front. That keeps your outgoings tracking with the drawdowns on your development loan, and it means you are paying for kitchens as the units that carry them get finished.
Talk this through with your supplier early, because a maker who does developer work will already run claims this way and can line the payment stages up with your build programme. It also protects you, because you are not handing over the full kitchen budget before a single box is on the wall, and the supplier is not carrying the whole job on their own book. On a job with real trade pricing and no showroom markup, that shared, staged structure is normal, and our developers page sets out how we work with small developers on exactly this.
Sequencing so the kitchen never holds up your CCC
The kitchen is one of the last trades into a unit, which makes it one of the easiest to let become the thing that holds up your code compliance certificate. The fix is to treat the kitchen as a sequenced item in the programme, not a job you book three weeks out. It lands after GIB and flooring, benchtops are templated off the installed carcasses rather than the drawings, and the cabinets and top are fitted in a coordinated pass so the unit is finished clean.
Kitchen lands after GIB and flooring, templated off the wall, ready for sign-off.
Plumbing and electrical to the kitchen are part of your building consent and have to be signed off toward the code compliance certificate, so the rangehood ducting, the dishwasher plumbing and the circuits all need to land where the consented drawings say. A late layout change ripples straight into services that were already signed off. A supplier running ten-plus kitchens a week can stage the fit block by block or unit by unit as each comes ready, and being Site Safe qualified means the crew is not turned away at the gate on the day you need them. That is the difference between hitting your settlement dates and explaining slippage to the bank.
A real job: seven townhouses in Mount Albert
This is not a hypothetical for us. We work with a private developer doing seven townhouses in Mount Albert, with more projects behind it, and it is exactly the shape this article is about. Seven units, a first serious terrace, one person carrying the programme. The kitchens were collapsed into a small number of types sharing one door finish, one benchtop and one hardware set, so seven units were built as a short production run rather than seven separate jobs.
Supply and install sat on one contract, so there was one party responsible for the measure, the manufacture and the fit, and one number to call. The fit was sequenced into the build as each unit reached lining and flooring, benchtops templated off the installed carcasses and fitted in the same pass. Payment ran as a deposit plus claims against units as they completed, tracking the developer's own drawdowns. The kitchen was never the trade holding anything up, and because the spec was locked once and repeated, unit seven matched unit one.
His biggest fear was the kitchens turning up wrong across the row and blowing the settlement dates. We locked one spec, built it seven times, and templated every top off the wall it was going on. Same kitchen, seven times, no surprises. That is the whole job on a small terrace, no surprises.
What to send us
To price a small terrace properly we need enough to see the repetition. Your unit count, how many distinct kitchen types sit inside it, a rough benchtop and finish preference, and your build programme so the fit can be staged. Even a basic schedule and one representative kitchen drawing is usually enough to give you a real trade number rather than a guess. The fewer distinct types you carry, the sharper the rate, so it is worth asking whether two of your layouts can converge before the drawings lock for consent.
Frequently asked questions
Can I really get trade pricing on only three to ten kitchens?
Yes, though the driver is repetition more than raw count. At three or four units you are mostly getting the showroom markup removed, which is real money on its own. From about five repeating units up, standardisation starts to compound and the per-unit rate drops visibly, especially if you carry one or two kitchen types rather than a different kitchen in every dwelling.
Why is one supply-and-install contract better than buying the cheapest cabinets?
Because on a small job with no QS or clerk of works, you personally own every gap between separate suppliers. Split cabinets, benchtop and install across three firms and you carry the measure disputes, the back-charges and the finger-pointing when something does not fit. One contract puts measure, manufacture and fit with one party, so there is one number to call and nothing to argue about.
What do first-time developers most often under-budget on the kitchen?
Install and benchtops, rarely the cabinets. The cabinet cost is stable and easy to quote, so it is the line people get right. Install gets treated as an afterthought and costs real money when it is booked badly, and the benchtop swing between laminate and engineered stone multiplies across every unit. The appliance gap, where the number wrongly assumes appliances are in or out, is the third.
How do I keep the kitchen the same across the whole terrace?
Lock one spec before the drawings are finalised, doors, benchtop, hardware and module widths, then hand it left and right across the row. A mirrored unit is the same kitchen built the other way round, not a new one. Where a unit genuinely differs, keep the components identical and let the layout carry the difference, so the workshop still batches it as one run.
How should I structure payment on a small development?
The clean way is a deposit to secure the production slot and cover materials, then progress claims tied to units or blocks as they are delivered and installed. That keeps your outgoings tracking with your development loan drawdowns rather than a single large payment up front or at the end. A supplier who does developer work will already run claims this way and line them up with your programme.
Will the kitchen hold up my code compliance certificate?
Not if it is sequenced properly. The kitchen lands after GIB and flooring, with benchtops templated off the installed carcasses and fitted in one pass. Plumbing and electrical to the kitchen are part of your consent and need signing off toward the CCC, so a late layout change is what causes trouble, not the kitchen itself. Book the install window into the programme, not three weeks out.
Do appliances come with the kitchen or do I supply them?
Either works, but decide early and write it down, because the mismatch is where budgets get caught. Many developers supply their own appliances to get sharper pricing at volume. If you do, the kitchen still has to be built around the exact models, oven, hob, rangehood and dishwasher dimensions all drive the joinery, so hand your supplier the schedule before production, not after the boxes are made.
Send us your unit count, your drawings or even just your brief and intended buyer mix, and we will come back with trade pricing inside 24 hours, plus GST, with the levers laid out so you can see where the money sits. We have supplied and installed over 2,000 kitchens across Auckland from our own East Tamaki workshop, 23-plus years of it, 10-plus kitchens a week, head kitchen contractor to developers like Spencer Henshaw, Laminex NZ accredited and Tōtika Performing. On a small terrace, done right, the kitchen is the line you never have to worry about again.