The team here at Long Island Homes has won Victorian House of the Year 14 times, and Australian House of the Year twice. Both awards are judged annually by the Master Builders Association, assessing homes against every other entry in their category that year. 

That’s a different kind of claim to the usual builder marketing line. It’s an outcome decided by independent industry judges, not a tagline. So what actually goes into winning one, and what does a track record like this tell you about the builder behind it?

What Goes Into a House of the Year Win?

A House of the Year award isn’t handed out for kerb appeal alone. Winning entries tend to stand out across a similar set of qualities:

• Design: How well the floorplan works, how spaces flow into each other, and how the overall aesthetic holds together
• Workmanship: The quality of the finish, joinery, detailing, and the kind of execution that’s easy to miss unless you know to look for it
• Livability: Whether the home actually functions well day to day, not just on a display home walkthrough
• Degree of difficulty: Whether the build involved genuine technical challenges, such as a complex site, a structural feature like a void, or a layout that’s harder to get right

It’s this combination that makes the award meaningful. A home can look impressive in photos and still fall short on livability or workmanship. 

A Track Record Built Over Time

Long Island Homes’ 14 Victorian and 2 national wins span years of entries, not a single standout project. Some of the most recent examples of that pattern include Portsea and Miami 420, both recognised at the 2022 MBA Excellence in Housing Awards, and Newport 420, a 2025 winner.

These aren’t our first or only wins either. They’re just the most recent additions to a longer history of recognition. Looking at what these projects were judged on can give you a useful, concrete sense of what “award-winning” actually looks like in practice.

Inside Recent Winning Projects

Miami 420 (Mount Duneed) took out Best Display Home in the $500,000–$750,000 category at the 2022 awards. It’s a double-storey design built around a striking void, with the scale to suit a growing family across multiple living zones. On the current floorplan, Miami 420 includes:

• 5 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 2 garages across 42.03 squares
• A central void opening the home up and drawing light through the main living areas
• Five separate living areas plus a dedicated home office and theatre room, giving the household room to spread out
• An alfresco space for indoor-outdoor entertaining
• A 14-metre minimum block width making it suited to a broader range of standard lots

Newport 420 won Best Display Home in the same price category in 2025. It’s also a double-storey design, but built with more flexibility for how a family’s needs might change over time. On the current floorplan, Newport 420 includes:

• 5 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 2 garages across 41.34 squares
• An optional void over the living room for homeowners who want that extra sense of scale and light
• A flexible ground-floor bedroom option useful for multi-generational living or a home office
• A second upstairs bedroom near the master suited to a nursery or a growing family
• A 14-metre minimum block width keeping it accessible for a similar range of block sizes to Miami 420

Portsea picked up Best Display Home in the $350,000–$500,000 bracket, also in 2022, showing the same standard of judged recognition extends across price points, not just the flagship designs.

What Sets an Award-Winning Build Apart?

None of this happens by accident. We build on fixed pricing with standard inclusions, and every project goes through the same quality control process from start to finish, whether it’s a $350,000 build or a $750,000 one. That’s not something we do differently for a display home we’re hoping will win an award. It’s just how we approach every project. Which is probably why the recognition keeps showing up year after year, rather than being a one-off.

We know most people walking through a display home aren’t thinking about joinery tolerances or how square a cornice line is. You notice the space, the light, whether the kitchen feels right. After all, that’s what a home is for. But it means the harder stuff to see, the workmanship and the consistency behind it, is hard to assess by yourself, even after multiple visits. That’s really what these awards do for us: they’re an outside check on the things a walkthrough can’t show you.

Why This Matters When Choosing a Builder

Buying a home is one of the biggest financial commitments most people will make, and a lot of that decision comes down to trust in a builder you may not have worked with before. Testimonials and photos are great, but they only tell part of the story.

A sustained track record of independently judged awards offers something different: evidence, assessed by a third party, that the standard of design and workmanship holds up year after year. It doesn’t replace doing your own research on a builder, but it’s a meaningful data point when you’re weighing up who to trust with a build of this size.

See It for Yourself

The best way to judge any of this is in person. Miami 420 and Newport 420 are both open as display homes, so you can walk through the exact projects that picked up these awards and see the standard for yourself, rather than take our word for it. If you’re planning a build of your own, get in touch and we’ll walk you through what goes into it.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many Master Builders awards has Long Island Homes won?

Long Island Homes has won Victorian House of the Year 14 times, and Australian House of the Year twice, both awarded by the Master Builders Association.

What do Master Builders judges look for in a House of the Year award?

Judges assess entries on design, workmanship, livability, and degree of difficulty, comparing each home against other entries in its category and price bracket.