Approach
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A home built at this level should be genuinely felt, not just finished. PEMA offers one way of working.
It is integrated by design, and that integration is the reason the outcome is different.
Design + Construct
Most clients arrive at a builder after months, sometimes years, with an architect. By that point the vision is fully formed, the drawings are complete, and the budget conversation is already overdue.
PEMA comes in at the beginning. Before a single line is drawn, vision and budget are aligned, so the design process that follows is building toward something achievable, not away from it. Design development, planning approvals, construction and delivery all run through one team, with one set of eyes on the end result throughout.
Post Design Entry
Some clients arrive after design has begun, plans drawn, direction set, but nothing locked. If a builder hasn't been engaged and the design still has room to move, this can be the right moment to bring PEMA in.
An honest read of where budget and vision currently sit, and the same integrated process applied from that point forward. What PEMA won't do is step into a project where a third-party builder is already on site. Partial involvement produces partial outcomes.
01
Before anything else, a genuine conversation about the project, the vision, and how the clients actually live. PEMA also uses this to assess fit. If it's not the right match, that's said plainly.
02
Vision and budget reconciled before design begins. Not approximately, precisely. It's a harder conversation to have early, but it's a far harder one to have after six months of design fees.
03
Design brought to life alongside PEMA's architectural partners, with cost accountability in the room at every stage.
Planning, documentation, authority approvals, all handled. Clients are involved in the decisions that matter and shielded from the ones that don't.
04
Marty on site throughout. Peter across everything off it. Open costs, clear communication, direct access to both.
The home delivered is the home that was agreed to build, not a compromised version of it.
Info
Most builders know what a project costs. Most clients don't, until it's too late. PEMA operates on an open-book, cost-plus fixed margin contract. Every cost is visible: supplier invoices, trade quotes, variations. The margin is agreed upfront and doesn't change. No incentive to inflate. No ability to hide.
For clients who've spent careers knowing exactly what things cost and why, this isn't novel. It's simply how a high-trust relationship should work.
PEMA works with a select group of architectural practices — Architecton, Rise Architecture, and Mason Bright Architects — who share a view of what a home at this level should be: resolved, considered, and designed around how it will actually be lived in.
These are ongoing collaborations, not transactional referrals. The consistency of the relationship is part of what keeps the quality consistent.
Martin Soto holds a Registered Domestic Builder Unlimited licence under the Victorian Building Authority — the highest classification available, with no limitations on project size or value. PEMA is a member of Master Builders Victoria and was nominated in the 2025 MBA Excellence in Housing Awards across two projects.
Every project is covered by full statutory warranty: seven years structural, two years non-structural. Full construction and public liability insurance is carried across every project. Marty remains personally involved through the defect liability period.