The family behind Coughlan Homes
building Canterbury
home builder
100+
Custom Home Built
22 Years
in Canterbury
We started Coughlan Homes with a simple belief: that building a home should be one of the best experiences of your life
Twenty-two years on, that’s still what drives us. Here’s how we got here, and the people who make it happen.
100+
Custom Home Built
22 Years
in Canterbury
Member
Current Master Builders Member
Top 50
Top 50 homes – Abode Magazine 10-year edition
LBP Licensed
Active LBP License
Award Winning
2022 & 2026 House of the Year Gold Award
THE DIFFERENCE
Big enough to matter, small enough to care.
Pat grew up on building sites from the age of 13, worked his apprenticeship on some of New Zealand’s largest structures, and spent three years in London running large scale projects across a diverse range of work, including the restoration of a 600 year old building, before coming home to Canterbury to start the business with Vanessa in 2004. Twenty-two years on he is still across every build from the first conversation to the final walkthrough. He has served as president of Certified Builders Canterbury and now sits on the Canterbury Master Builders executive committee, because he believes a better industry makes for better outcomes for every client. He still comes back personally 90 days after handover to make sure everything is right. Outside the business, Pat is a former player and lifelong rugby fan, and a long-running sponsor of Burnside Rugby Club.
Pat Coughlan
Founder and builder
Vanessa was a teacher before stepping into the business full time when their first daughter was born in 2006. She has been the reason the client experience stays calm and consistent ever since. From the first enquiry through to handover and beyond, Vanessa keeps everything and everyone on track. She is the person most clients speak to first and the reason most of them feel looked after long before a single sod is turned.
Vanessa Coughlan
Operations
Lawrence has known Pat since they were at school together and joined the business during the earthquake years when the volume of work demanded someone with a sharp financial mind at the table. He trained entirely on the job with Coughlan Homes and is now a qualified QS. Lawrence is the person who prices every job in line-by-line detail, sits down with every client to walk through the numbers, and makes sure that when you sign a contract with Coughlan Homes, you know exactly what you are getting.
Lawrence Buckley
Quantity Surveyor, 15 years
Pat grew up on building sites from the age of 13, worked his apprenticeship on some of New Zealand’s largest structures, and spent three years in London running large scale projects across a diverse range of work, including the restoration of a 600 year old building, before coming home to Canterbury to start the business with Vanessa in 2004. Twenty-two years on he is still across every build from the first conversation to the final walkthrough. He has served as president of Certified Builders Canterbury and now sits on the Canterbury Master Builders executive committee, because he believes a better industry makes for better outcomes for every client. He still comes back personally 90 days after handover to make sure everything is right. Outside the business, Pat is a former player and lifelong rugby fan, and a long-running sponsor of Burnside Rugby Club.
Pat Coughlan
Founder and builder
Vanessa was a teacher before stepping into the business full time when their first daughter was born in 2006. She has been the reason the client experience stays calm and consistent ever since. From the first enquiry through to handover and beyond, Vanessa keeps everything and everyone on track. She is the person most clients speak to first and the reason most of them feel looked after long before a single sod is turned.
Vanessa Coughlan
Operations
Lawrence has known Pat since they were at school together and joined the business during the earthquake years when the volume of work demanded someone with a sharp financial mind at the table. He trained entirely on the job with Coughlan Homes and is now a qualified QS. Lawrence is the person who prices every job in line-by-line detail, sits down with every client to walk through the numbers, and makes sure that when you sign a contract with Coughlan Homes, you know exactly what you are getting.
Lawrence Buckley
Quantity Surveyor
Want to know if we’re the right fit?
OVERVIEW
Meet the builder behind the home.
Before you read anything else, hear it from Pat directly.
A Legacy of Award-Winning Construction
I grew up on building sites. My brother in law had a building company. I was on sites from the age of 13, doing all the odd jobs, learning the trade. I did my apprenticeship across some of New Zealand’s biggest structures, including Eden Park, Mount Eden Prison and Botany Town Centre. I got to see how large-scale, complex builds were run at the highest level.
After I qualified I went to England and spent three years in London, working on a diverse range of projects. Everything from the restoration of a 600 year old building through to shop fit-outs and new builds. London was where I got to run large scale jobs with a lot of stakeholders, and it was also where I saw how much waste there is in this industry. Clients kept in the dark about their own build. It gave me a very clear picture of what a builder should be. When Vanessa and I came home to Canterbury in 2004, we started the business with a simple goal: do it differently. Vanessa had been a teacher. I had a trade and a clear idea of the kind of builder I wanted to be. That was enough to get started.
Twenty-two years on, that same instinct drives everything. Here’s how it has taken us.
2004: Founded
We came home with a plan and a point to prove
When Vanessa and I got back from England in 2004, we had a bit of land, a trade, and a clear idea of what we didn’t want to be. We set up Coughlan Construction and grew faster than most. Within three or four years we had apprentices and a small team on board. We probably skipped a few of the usual steps. That suited us fine.
2010-11: The earthquake years
The earthquakes changed Canterbury and the building industry, including us
When the earthquakes hit, we got on with it. There were a lot of people in a really difficult situation and they needed builders they could rely on. We completed close to 200 repairs and emergency rebuilds across the region. It was controlled chaos, if I’m honest. But it hardened something in us. Reliability became non-negotiable. It was also around this time that Lawrence joined as our quantity surveyor. With the volume of work growing and the stakes getting higher, we needed someone with a sharp financial mind who understood how we wanted to operate. Lawrence trained entirely on the job with us and is now a qualified QS. He has been part of the fabric of this business ever since.
2016: First marquee build
The house that changed everything, in the best way
A premium build for a friend of ours on a high-profile corner site in one of Christchurch’s more affluent suburbs. Five bedrooms, 350 square metres, with a curved cedar fence that flowed right around the outside of the property. A lot of people saw it. We got a feature in Abode magazine off the back of it, and that same house made their top 50 homes across their entire 10- year run. It put us in a new bracket and the phone started ringing differently. We haven’t looked back.
2017-18: Global Recognition
Build Recognised By
Grand Designs Australia
A high-end architectural home in Christchurch, born from an earthquake rebuild project. It caught the attention of Grand Designs Australia magazine, who featured it as a marquee rebuild. It wasn’t something we pushed for. It found us. But it said something about the calibre of work the team was producing.
2020-21: COVID
COVID gave us time to get clear on who we really were
We took a step back and looked hard at the business. We did proper market research and realised that even our existing clients thought we did commercial work. That couldn’t have been further from the truth. We have only ever done residential. So we made a decision. We closed down Coughlan Construction and launched Coughlan Homes. Our ethos stayed the same. The builder who listens. Just a cleaner, clearer version of what we had always been.
2022: Master Builders House of the Year Gold Award
More than an award. It was personal.
We had been working on other houses on this 5000 acre sheep and beef farm for that family for a year or two before we ever touched the homestead. Pat and Vanessa got close with them, our team being hosted onsite throughout the build. By the time we broke ground on the main build, it meant something. One wall, 11 metres long, seven generations of family portraits going all the way back to Oliver Cromwell. We made sure every single set of eyes was at exactly the same height, the owner’s eye level, so when he walked through he felt like he was walking through his own history. Gold Award, Master Builders House of the Year 2022.
2026: Building The Team
Still the same family business
The team has grown to 10. Seven on the tools, three in the office. Most of our work is done by our own people, not contract labour. We build custom homes across Canterbury and have been the building partner for Ngāi Tahu Farming since 2013, one of New Zealand’s largest landowners, across the wider Canterbury region. Custom homes, rural homesteads, house and land packages. Still family-run. Still fixed-price. Still friends with most of the people we build for.
22 Years
100+ homes
13-yr Ngāi Tahu partnership
99% on time and on budget
What we stand for
Four things we've never compromised on, in 22 years.
02
Fixed-price means fixed-price
03
We build homes we’d be proud to live in ourselves
01
We’re always getting better
04
We’re invested in Canterbury, not just the next build
Why Coughlan Homes
What makes Coughlan Homes different from other Canterbury builders?
Big enough to matter, small enough to care.
Six things that make building with Coughlan Homes a different experience from any other Canterbury builder.
No surprise variations. Ever.
Lawrence prices every job in line-by-line detail before anything is signed. When you sign a contract with Coughlan Homes, the number on that contract is the number you pay. Variations only happen when you change the scope, and those are priced and agreed before a single extra nail goes in.
Your home is built by our people, not a rotating cast of contractors.
Our carpenters are directly employed by us, on your site, from start to finish. They know our standards because we trained them to it. When specialist trades come in for specific tasks, we manage their warranties and producer statements as part of the handover package.
You'll always know where your build is at.
Every Coughlan build is tracked on Buildertrend. You can log in and see exactly where your project is, any time. Weekly updates. A milestone-based payment schedule provided before we break ground so you can plan exactly when funds are needed. No chasing. No guessing. No mid-build cash flow surprises.
We won't play the cheap quote game.
We've lost work because we priced honestly while a competitor won on a low number and recovered their margin through variations. Our target client has seen that pattern before. Lawrence sits down with every client and goes through the numbers in detail so that when you compare us to another builder, you're comparing like for like.
"My biggest bugbear is companies that go out of their way to under quantify pricing. We don't play that game."
How we run our sites tells you everything.
Clients have chosen Coughlan after walking past an active build and seeing how tidy it was. Sites are cleaned daily. Neighbours notified in writing before work begins. Working hours communicated upfront. This is operational discipline and it signals what the finished home will feel like.
"If you can't keep your front door clean, what else are you hiding inside?"
We don't see it as a one and done.
Pat personally returns for a 90-day post-handover check on every build. We really get to know the people we work with. The 2022 gold award family are people we're genuinely friends with. No volume builder or franchise can replicate what 22 years of real relationships looks like.
"We've become friends with most of the people we build for."
Ready to talk about your build?
How does Coughlan Homes build your home?
Three things that define the way we work, from the people on the tools to the partners we trust and the philosophy behind every build
Pat comes back. Every time.
Pat and Lawrence walk through how a build works, from first conversation to handover.
Our trade partners
The people we trust to work on your home, and why those relationships matter.
Our employer philosophy
How we look after our team, so the people building your home are looked after too.
testimonials
What Our Clients Say
22 Years
100+ homes
13-yr Ngāi Tahu partnership
99% on time and on budget
Where We build Custom Homes
Canterbury and Greater Christchurch
Our home base. We build custom homes across Christchurch and the wider Canterbury region, from architectural builds to house and land packages. This is where most of our work is done and where we have been building for 22 years.
Canterbury
We have been building rural and farm homes across the Canterbury region since 2013, including a long-standing partnership with Ngāi Tahu Farming. If you’re building on a farm or rural property anywhere in Canterbury, get in touch and we’ll talk through what’s involved.
Start a conversation
Whether you’re 6 weeks away from being ready or 6 years, we’re happy to talk through what’s involved. No obligation, no sales pressure. Just an honest conversation about whether we’re the right fit for your build.