Average Build Cost

O

osok

Guest
Hi,
I am lucky enough to have a free site to build on from my fathers family land but I have no idea how much it will cost to build a house on it. I want to build a 4 bedroom house of about 2000 square feet. I have returned to college as a mature student and my wife is pregnant with our third child so I dont think I would have the time to manage a self build project properly, or would I? Is it a big undertaking, I have heard both good and bad stories about it, one friend says dont even think about it, another friend says dont think about not doing it!!!
We are also lucky enough to have bought our house 4 years ago before the prices really went through the roof, is now the time to sell? If house prices fall will house building prices fall also?
Basically I want to know the average price these days of building a new house if anyone can help me.
Thanks.
 
I've heard people say you can save between 10 to 20% of the build cost if you go the direct labour route.

My opinion is that direct labour is really only very successful where you have the basic knowledge of building that is necessary and where you have the ability to be available for supervision of various tradesmen a good deal of the time.

I had a builder contracted to build my house and even at that found the build to be quite time consuming as you still have to be available to for eg point out where all the sockets/tv points/phone points go and all the other obvious things. I found myself doing something every evening and weekend for the house towards the end of the build. I can't imagine what it would have been like if we had been doing it by direct labour.

Certainly direct labour will also take longer so you must also factor in the cost of interest on mortgage payments and rent where necessary to see if it is worthwhile.

If I were building again I definitely wouldnt go direct labour but I know my limitations- both my husband and I work full time- and although he is fairly knowledgeable in general terms about building works we feel that would be beyond our capabilities, especially as we also have young children.

Some friends of ours did go the direct labour route but in both cases that I know of one of the couple was not 'working' and was able to supervise and be involved in the build on a full time basis. There is no doubt that it saved them a great deal of money though.
 
It is helpful when going direct labour if you can agree a fee with somebody to oversee the work, if you don't have the required knowledge on construction. I know people have done this typically with retired builders etc who won't cost a fortune and will have a good idea if anyone is taking short cuts etc
 
Hi there,

For a standard house build E90/E100 for sustainable build expect to pay up to E142 per sq foot which would be more or less turnkey. A lot depends on the specification. You have to decide whether it be block, timberframe, poroton, ICF - then down to windows, heating systmes etc. My husband and I hope to build sometime next year, we got alot of different quotes mainly for sustainable build, some were outlandish and some were normal. One of the normal quotes we got was for E127 per sq foot and that was for poroton block, aluclad windows double glazed with argon, concrete floors, concrete stairs, external entrance wall, geothermal and solar panels and so on. Hopefully this helps.
 
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