Who is Geoffrey Moyle?

Geoffrey Moyle AAIQS, Principal Cost Planner and Managing Director

His knowledge and insight consistently delivers almost unbelievable on budget and on time results in an industry where cost over-runs and time delays are commonplace. Whether it’s for a homeowner who gets the home they want, a community group wanting a sports pavilion or a giant organisation planning a re-development, Geoffrey gets projects on track and keeps them there.

Geoffrey’s organised, resourceful and intelligent approach ensures his clients get responsible and valuable professional advice to help them deliver the innovative (and often highly acclaimed) results they seek. It is his straightforward and trusted attitude with his clients that consistently provides effective solutions for the projects he works on.

Geoffrey Moyle got the ‘Animal House’ on budget and out of the ground. He merged a librarian and an engineer’s dream with an accountant’s budget to ensure a stunning solution for Monash University’s Building 72 & Hargraves Library. And now, after having completed a long design, planning and cost planning process, he is currently keeping the St Kilda Foreshore Promenade project on budget during a staged construction.

Even on tiny projects, his advice is valued … Bocce players would praise him if they knew his contribution to their clubrooms in North Carlton … that was built to suit a very modest budget.

Bringing design ideas and practical budgets together to meet the needs and aspirations of his clients’ is Geoffrey Moyle’s mission. Solid advice is backed by more than 25 years of involvement in challenging projects and a rigorous academic schedule ... gives him great insight into a complex area of the construction process… the technical bits:

• Affiliate Member of Royal Australian Institute of Architects
• Associate of the Australian Institute of Quantity Surveyors
• Registered Building Practitioner
• RMIT Diploma of Quantity Surveying with Distinction

What is Cost Planning?

So, why a Cost Planner? Why not an Estimator? Or just get a Builder’s verbal ball-park figure … that they may or may not stick to…? Or ask your brother-in-law or even your Bank Manager (…they should know about costs, after all, they lend money all the time). And of course, you could always do nothing. But, really, what would that do for you? Will you get the help you need? Or just hear what you want to hear?

It is the Cost Planner who PLANS a project’s potential costs and budgets. Cost planning uses estimating as a tool, but this is only part of the process.

In my view, estimating prices what can be seen (which is essential), and cost planning prices and budgets what can and what can’t be seen. It means questioning what is still unknown, what hasn’t been drawn yet, what hasn’t been considered, asked or answered. Planning is the important bit here. In other words, it is to

• Look ahead and forecast the intent of the design,
• Consider its outcomes, uses, activities and even its disposal … and to read-between-the-lines,
• Understand what it might look like when finished, and how long it may take to build,
• Think about where it is going to be on a site and assess the cost implications of this,
• Judge the implications of decisions, options, alternatives and unknowns,
• Ultimately plan, calculate and inform how much it should cost AND how much do you think you might like to spend…

The guidance received from good Cost Planning should give the client and the design team the confidence to continue forward … creating a project more likely to be built as it was intended… And not be put on-hold, binned or re-documented in a hurry, delivering a much compromised response, where little pleasure is gained, and little profit is got.

This is most important early in design - when you may be seeking funding, setting budgets, looking for a site, or just thinking about the scope, scale and needs of your project… this is when Cost Planning can help you the most.

When it comes down to money (as it usually does) … Cost Planning doesn’t just mean being cheap

Proper cost management doesn’t mean just finding the cheapest solution. Anyone can do that! You don’t need me to help you with that.

When do you get a Cost Planner involved? Well, quite simply we do our most effective work at the early stages of design. Getting a Cost Planner involved sooner rather than later is when we’re best at pointing a project in the right direction.