Blinds for a new build in Albury.

The handover surprise.

Window coverings are a standard exclusion in volume-builder contracts. It is in black and white in the schedule, and almost nobody reads that far, which is why a familiar scene plays out across the Albury growth estates every month: keys collected on a Friday, family moves in on the Saturday, and by Saturday night there are bedsheets taped over the bedroom windows because the house is a fishbowl. Check your contract now rather than at handover. If there is a window-covering allowance it is usually small and tied to the builder's nominated supplier, and most people are better off taking the exclusion and organising it themselves with the full range available to them.

Decide this before the plasterboard goes on.

This is the part that cannot be undone later, and it is the most common regret we hear. If you want hardwired motorised blinds, there has to be power at the head of each window, and that goes in at electrical rough-in while the frame is still open. In NSW that is licensed electrical work to AS/NZS 3000, so it is your sparky's job, and it costs very little when the wall is open. Once the plaster is on, your choices are battery motors, which are genuinely fine and what most people end up with, or chasing and patching a freshly painted wall, which nobody enjoys. The same timing applies to recessed pelmets and ceiling-set curtain tracks: they need to be framed and set out at rough-in, not requested at handover.

Never measure off the plans.

Someone will offer to quote from your floor plan so you can have blinds on day one. Do not do it. Real openings routinely differ from drawn ones, reveal depths vary with how the plasterer finished, and architrave positions move. A made-to-measure blind built from a drawing is a made-to-measure mistake, and it is not returnable because it was made for you. The right sequence is: architraves fixed and painted, then measure, then install after you have the keys. That usually means the measure lands two to four weeks before handover. Book the appointment slot early, because that costs you nothing, then confirm once your builder gives you a handover date you actually believe.

Why new estates are harder on windows, not easier.

People assume a brand new home needs less sun control than the old place. In Albury the opposite is usually true, for two reasons. First, there is nothing outside helping. An established West Albury or East Albury street has sixty years of mature trees throwing shade across western walls by four in the afternoon. A new lot in Thurgoona, Hamilton Valley or Baranduda has saplings, and the neighbouring block may still be bare dirt. Second, new homes carry far more glass than the houses they replaced, and much of it faces whatever way the lot dictates rather than whatever way is sensible. On a 40 degree Riverina afternoon, west-facing glass with no external shade and no tree cover takes the full load, and the blind is the only thing between it and your living room.

Your BASIX certificate does not cover this.

New NSW homes are built to a BASIX certificate, and the thermal standards were lifted in October 2023. That certificate deals with your glazing, insulation and any built shading. It is not a promise about how the room feels at 5pm in January, and window furnishings sit largely outside what it credits you for. So the comfort gap between what the certificate models and what you experience is yours to close, and on the western rooms of a new estate home that gap is real. Worth knowing if you are building in Wodonga instead: Victoria works to the 7-star NatHERS standard rather than BASIX, a different scheme with the same practical upshot at your window.

Worked example: a four-bedroom Thurgoona build.

Thirteen openings, double-storey, with a tall stairwell void window and a west-facing open-plan living area. Blockout rollers to the four bedrooms, sunscreen to the kitchen and dining, and a double roller across the western living glass so the sunscreen handles the day and the blockout closes it down at night: that lands around $2,400 to $4,800. Motorise the stairwell void window and the two highest living blinds, because nobody is getting a ladder out weekly, and add roughly $450 to $1,050 plus $150 to $350 for the hub. Front rooms in plantation shutters instead, if that is the look, adds $350 to $650 per square metre. The full ranges are on our Albury cost guide.

Two things people forget.

First, check your estate's design guidelines before you choose a fabric. Many Australian estate covenants have something to say about what window coverings look like from the street, typically requiring the street-facing side to be a neutral colour. It is a two-minute read and it beats redoing the front rooms. Second, plan the lead time. Shutters run six to ten weeks and blinds two to three, so if you want anything other than bare glass on move-in day, the conversation starts well before handover. Our guide to the best time to order blinds in Albury covers the factory shutdowns that can wreck a handover date, and how to choose window furnishings works through matching product to room before you commit.

Frequently asked questions.