Estimating Cost of New Build House?
Discussion
Mrs Fish said:
James here:
A STANDARD build wimpey esque house will cost about £32000 for a 2 bed terrace to £70000 for a 4 bed detached. This is finished includes kitchen and bathrooms etc. It EXCLUDES externals drainage fees roads S106 land etc.
We would expect to do a full site including everything bar land for late £70/ft to £85/ft dependant on spec and unit type.
Apartments and 3 storey increases costs as well as high spec finishes.
Hope that helps.
I'd say that them figures are still at least 10% high for the type of houses you talk of, especially in current climate. However, whether your average 'joe bloggs' could build for anything like this is very unlikely.A STANDARD build wimpey esque house will cost about £32000 for a 2 bed terrace to £70000 for a 4 bed detached. This is finished includes kitchen and bathrooms etc. It EXCLUDES externals drainage fees roads S106 land etc.
We would expect to do a full site including everything bar land for late £70/ft to £85/ft dependant on spec and unit type.
Apartments and 3 storey increases costs as well as high spec finishes.
Hope that helps.
For the OP, I'd suggest would work on £85/sq ft and assume this includes for something like a 10k kitchen & 'average quality' sanitaryware, so just add from there what you think you're additional costs will be.
Suppose the other thing to condiser is the VAT element on certain items, and whether you are in a position to be able to claim this back. If not then build costs will obviously go up. For example, the kitchens in a new build new be zero rated apart from the appliances which attract VAT. Not everything is zero rate just because its a new build.
Thanks...We're just at the kick off stage of self building, so haven't yet got to the point of costs spiralling out of control ;-) (Plug - here's the blog: http://lockfarm.blogspot.com) Here's a little of what I've learned so far.
1. Planning is never simple. If it's not within the village boundary, overlooks people, has anything listed anywhere near it, doesn't have clear and open vehicle access, is on a flood plain, has protected trees, bats, owls, newts or any other of a long list of plants and animals you could have a long, long battle ahead of you. Our experience of early contact with planners was that they were incredibly blasé about our plans ("you shouldn't have any problem"). They then turned them down flat and it took four more years to sort out something they were happy with. If you've found a 1 acre plot at low cost that no-one else has developed, you might need to ask why.
2. Developers build cheap houses by stamping down multiple copies of the same box across the country. They avoid anything that might cost extra - so the preferred building is a square box, brick and block, with a bog standard central heating system, basic insulation, cheap windows and basic kitchen and bathroom. They keep all other costs to a minimum - they avoid difficult ground conditions, sites where mains services are difficult to connect to and so on. They also only pay architects fees, planning fees and so on once for a few hundred houses.
3. You cannot do much of the above if you're building a one off house. The moment you are properly specifying your own home you'll probably want to improve some things a little, or make more effort to build a house that reacts to the site that it's on. You probably don't want a standard square housing estate box in the middle of your one acre dream plot. You might want to do more about reducing the running costs - and it's possible to do a lot that standard developers don't do - as fuel prices are getting worse each year.
4. Mark Brinkley's House Builder's Bible covers all of your options, explains the build process and gives examples of benchmark houses to show where the money goes. The eighth edition has just come out and it's a book vital for anyone even slightly interested in house building.
5. The self build magazines have cost charts at the back. Depending on your location, the size and quality of your build, standard self-build costs are typically between 800 and 1200 pounds a square metre. You can only get near the low end if you do a good amount of the work yourself - which is a non starter if you have a job and want the thing built in less than five years. You can go three or four times over the high end if you want to. Developers will always tell you they can do it cheaper - but it's their job and if you asked them to build you a house at their quoted cost price, they'd turn you down flat.
6. Everyone's an expert, just the same as when you're buying a new car.
1. Planning is never simple. If it's not within the village boundary, overlooks people, has anything listed anywhere near it, doesn't have clear and open vehicle access, is on a flood plain, has protected trees, bats, owls, newts or any other of a long list of plants and animals you could have a long, long battle ahead of you. Our experience of early contact with planners was that they were incredibly blasé about our plans ("you shouldn't have any problem"). They then turned them down flat and it took four more years to sort out something they were happy with. If you've found a 1 acre plot at low cost that no-one else has developed, you might need to ask why.
2. Developers build cheap houses by stamping down multiple copies of the same box across the country. They avoid anything that might cost extra - so the preferred building is a square box, brick and block, with a bog standard central heating system, basic insulation, cheap windows and basic kitchen and bathroom. They keep all other costs to a minimum - they avoid difficult ground conditions, sites where mains services are difficult to connect to and so on. They also only pay architects fees, planning fees and so on once for a few hundred houses.
3. You cannot do much of the above if you're building a one off house. The moment you are properly specifying your own home you'll probably want to improve some things a little, or make more effort to build a house that reacts to the site that it's on. You probably don't want a standard square housing estate box in the middle of your one acre dream plot. You might want to do more about reducing the running costs - and it's possible to do a lot that standard developers don't do - as fuel prices are getting worse each year.
4. Mark Brinkley's House Builder's Bible covers all of your options, explains the build process and gives examples of benchmark houses to show where the money goes. The eighth edition has just come out and it's a book vital for anyone even slightly interested in house building.
5. The self build magazines have cost charts at the back. Depending on your location, the size and quality of your build, standard self-build costs are typically between 800 and 1200 pounds a square metre. You can only get near the low end if you do a good amount of the work yourself - which is a non starter if you have a job and want the thing built in less than five years. You can go three or four times over the high end if you want to. Developers will always tell you they can do it cheaper - but it's their job and if you asked them to build you a house at their quoted cost price, they'd turn you down flat.
6. Everyone's an expert, just the same as when you're buying a new car.
Almost finished our 3 bed bungalow, build costs (incl drive, drainage, architect fees etc but excluding land was about 1450m2.
That was with UFH, piled foundations, vaulted living room with full glass gable end, walnut and marble floors, walnut vaneered kitchen (Crown) granite worktop with top of line neff appliances and vileroy and boch bathroom and ensuite.
Alot depends on the work you do yourself (i project managed the latter half of the build) but an average self build id guess would be around 1200m2 as mentioned before, to get down below this you will be building a wimpy style home with no nice features, that said, if your able to dedicate your time to it, costs can be reduced alot, me and my wife both work in London and our selfbuild was in suffolk, 2 hours, away which made it differcult to project manage effeciantly.
Good luck and enjoy the experiance
That was with UFH, piled foundations, vaulted living room with full glass gable end, walnut and marble floors, walnut vaneered kitchen (Crown) granite worktop with top of line neff appliances and vileroy and boch bathroom and ensuite.
Alot depends on the work you do yourself (i project managed the latter half of the build) but an average self build id guess would be around 1200m2 as mentioned before, to get down below this you will be building a wimpy style home with no nice features, that said, if your able to dedicate your time to it, costs can be reduced alot, me and my wife both work in London and our selfbuild was in suffolk, 2 hours, away which made it differcult to project manage effeciantly.
Good luck and enjoy the experiance
Edited by satans worm on Monday 20th April 14:09
satans worm said:
Almost finished our 3 bed bungalow, build costs (incl drive, drainage, architect fees etc but excluding land was about 1450m2.
That was with UFH, piled foundations, vaulted living room with full glass gable end, walnut and marble floors, walnut vaneered kitchen (Crown) granite worktop with top of line neff appliances and vileroy and boch bathroom and ensuite.
Alot depends on the work you do yourself (i project managed the latter half of the build) but an average self build id guess would be around 1200m2 as mentioned before, to get down below this you will be building a wimpy style home with no nice features, that said, if your able to dedicate your time to it, costs can be reduced alot, me and my wife both work in London and our selfbuild was in suffolk, 2 hours, away which made it differcult to project manage effeciantly.
Good luck and enjoy the experiance
So as a thumb in air guess I wasn't too far the wrong way, was I? Better to end up with a bit left than a bit short.That was with UFH, piled foundations, vaulted living room with full glass gable end, walnut and marble floors, walnut vaneered kitchen (Crown) granite worktop with top of line neff appliances and vileroy and boch bathroom and ensuite.
Alot depends on the work you do yourself (i project managed the latter half of the build) but an average self build id guess would be around 1200m2 as mentioned before, to get down below this you will be building a wimpy style home with no nice features, that said, if your able to dedicate your time to it, costs can be reduced alot, me and my wife both work in London and our selfbuild was in suffolk, 2 hours, away which made it differcult to project manage effeciantly.
Good luck and enjoy the experiance
Edited by satans worm on Monday 20th April 14:09
mrmaggit said:
satans worm said:
Almost finished our 3 bed bungalow, build costs (incl drive, drainage, architect fees etc but excluding land was about 1450m2.
That was with UFH, piled foundations, vaulted living room with full glass gable end, walnut and marble floors, walnut vaneered kitchen (Crown) granite worktop with top of line neff appliances and vileroy and boch bathroom and ensuite.
Alot depends on the work you do yourself (i project managed the latter half of the build) but an average self build id guess would be around 1200m2 as mentioned before, to get down below this you will be building a wimpy style home with no nice features, that said, if your able to dedicate your time to it, costs can be reduced alot, me and my wife both work in London and our selfbuild was in suffolk, 2 hours, away which made it differcult to project manage effeciantly.
Good luck and enjoy the experiance
So as a thumb in air guess I wasn't too far the wrong way, was I? Better to end up with a bit left than a bit short.That was with UFH, piled foundations, vaulted living room with full glass gable end, walnut and marble floors, walnut vaneered kitchen (Crown) granite worktop with top of line neff appliances and vileroy and boch bathroom and ensuite.
Alot depends on the work you do yourself (i project managed the latter half of the build) but an average self build id guess would be around 1200m2 as mentioned before, to get down below this you will be building a wimpy style home with no nice features, that said, if your able to dedicate your time to it, costs can be reduced alot, me and my wife both work in London and our selfbuild was in suffolk, 2 hours, away which made it differcult to project manage effeciantly.
Good luck and enjoy the experiance
Edited by satans worm on Monday 20th April 14:09
One thing garanteed, it will suck every penny you've got including contingency, i've had to sell my porsche and now the TT, left with a 7 year old Focus
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