Building Costs

Sorry if this has been addressed before but I did a few searches and didn't find exactly what I wanted.

I am an absolute noob on this topic so don't think that any fact is too obvious

If i was to build a house say with Porta Davis for base price of 200k, what would the likely end cost be, assuming i only made very basic improvements to the base house. What costs would there be in addition if I was to build in an established new estate. eg. lot costs, approvals, utilities etc.

On the same topic, for those that have built, what % was the final cost over the quoted base price and what did you get in addition to the basic house for that increase?

I know this is a nooby vague question but I really haven't found any good info on the web to explain the end costs and based on what people have said on this forum, people are often surprised by the final costs.

B

Hi, I am new here, and in fact this is my first post / reply here. and I guess you are asking how much will be the price to get the key and walk in your house and starting enjoy it? same though here, .

It's all about research and getting clued up on things before you jump into it.

Your questions are quite broad and and varied and would most likely vary in answers depending on which builder you go with and what promotions they might have running at the time. My best advice would be to ask the sales consultants at the display homes you visit and they will tell you what you get as standards and what will cost as extras.

When we were first looking we sat down with a Henley consultant and he told us what was included in the base price and whatt we had to pay extra for. It helped that we had a house in mind. The sales consultant we came across when we switched over to a Porter Davis house was just as helpful.

Generally, I've found that extras with house come with site costs, OHS, flooring, lighting, structural changes, driveway, fencing and upgrades on fittings.

In regards to land the extra costs are stamp duty, conveyancing fees, council fees and LMI.

Hope this answered (or at least partly) your questions.

bepo,

I'm starting off in building a new home and my reasearch indicates that you will be up for an additional $60,000.

For example, Clarendon Homes' Cambridge 37 has a "list" price of $239,800, but once everything is considered it comes to $316,000. Mirvac's Somerset has a "list" price of $124,400, but once everythign is considered it comes to $170,000.

These figures don't include demolition (another $12,000), driveway (another $10,000), air-conditioning (another $14,000 for ducted) or floor coverings (another $10,000 - $15,000).

Regards,
Casa

expect a fair increase in price for the total build.

We are building with clarendon homes, we budgeted for an extra $100k on top of the base build price. It has come within a couple thousand of that.

some of the charges are fair, others are an absolute ripoff!

Very interesting figures and good budgeting nc6000!

That Cambridge 37 works out about $1000 per sq.metre if you include the finished house but without demo.

I was being quoted $1500+ a sq metre for a custom built house. It didn't compare favourably with the raw price of a project home, but once you add in the "optional extras", the real prices start to make sense.

Thanks Bud977

Our build cost should come in slightly over $350-360k, however, a good friend is a builder and after looking at the plans/site/inclusions/variations etc, he would normally charge around $500k to build the house so we were happy with that.

BUT, one thing that we did not include was the amount of time spent dealing with the builder. You REALLY need to keep onto them to get things done + wait to actually get a response as they take some time to get things done. they also have proved to be a little bit of headache with modifying things. If you are not changing much, things would be easier.

The "Color Consultant" is a whole other story. I VERY much doupt they have any qualifications at all so we had to hire our own one.

The other thing you need to add in for a custom built house is all the costs before you even start building.

Your are looking at $30-50,000 before you even turn a sod. This is for the architect, environmental survey, Basix report, NATHERS certificate, hydraulic consultant, landscape designer, soil test, structural engineer, council fees etc. This wouldn't be included in a custom builders price.

Many of these items are included in the price of a project home.

Holy canolli - are we really going to be slugged that much extra? $100K!
We have a base price of $162K with M and are planning on an additional $30K in extras (including floor coverings, extra lights/points, better surfaces, etc)... are we dreaming? What are the additional costs that we won't have been quoted on?
The only things I can think of that we may have to pay extra for are termite protection, temporary fencing, and drives, paths, garden, fencing, window furnishings, etc that don't come with any house.

HELP!

Bud, we are building a custom built house, the price we were given before we started included all the above you mentioned so if we don't decide to change something half-way through there should not be any change to the quote. This was checked by myself with past clients of the builder. We are not building with one of the "big" builders though.

I was about to post the same question but since this thread is already here I'll add to this one.

I am in the process of building a duplex with a smaller builder and it will be a custom designed one. We've already gone to the architect to draw up a plan according to our specs, the entire duplex is around 400m2 so 200m2 per unit.

Base price has totalled to about $340,000 for the duplex itself, then theres the site costs which includes scaffolding, drainage, BASIX etc.

I was going to ask how much these costs normally are? Im sure theres some amount of variation from builder to builder but the site costs have totalled to around $75,000.

On top of that theres the inclusion upgrades which we haven't yet factored, demoltion, tree removal, driveways, landscaping and subdivision.

My main concern was that BASIX was estimated to be $25,000, is this normal? It sounds awfully expensive and is 1/4 of the site costs alone.

Looking at all the estimates, by the time we finish it would cost approx $500k+

Another thing was that one of our options was to have the duplex cement rendered, they've given us an approximate cost of $40,000. That sounds crazy!? I've read that other people have been paying around $25,000 so is this a rip off?

The Basix Certificate can be done on-line at no cost, if you want to learn how to drive the programme. It's not that hard once you get the hang of it.

The benefit of learning how to do it yourself is that you can avoid over-specifying, as happened to me with a "Basix Consultant" who had no idea what he was doing and would have cost me an extra $25,000 to build the house. However, you can overspecify yourself if you don't know the full implications of your selections.

http://sustainability.nsw.gov.au/inform ... nsw.gov.au

If you want to use a consultant, they will charge about $2000-$3000.

Perhaps the $25,000 is the cost to comply with Basix, eg. fit water tanks, low E glazing, high efficiency equipment etc.

Site costs vary greatly, depending on which costs are built into the house price and which are classified as site costs.

So getting this right, the certificate itself can be done free of charge online, however the rest is pretty much parts and labour to make it comply?

Yep, unless they are charging $25K for the certificate only

sublyme, yes the $25,000 would be to cover the cost of complying to Basix. I was given an estimate of $10,000 by Clarendon Homes for compliance to Basix. This is for such things as rain water tanks, electricity saving and improved thermal comfort. As others have mentioned you can do the Basix certificate yourself on line and it costs nothing. I like the concept of Basix. It measns that builders have to gear up to supply energy and water saving solutions at economical prices. I'm likely to go beyond the minimum Basix requirments on the grounds that this is not just another cost, but rather spending somethng now to gain every year. And I think enegry prices will rise much faster than inflation in the years to come.

Clarendon only add $3000 to $4000 to supple rendered verisons of their houses. The cost is not as high as you would initially expect since you recover three-quarters of the cost by changing from face bricks to common bricks.

On a more general note, from what I've researched and found in this thread, it looks like your typical $200,000 project home actually costs $300,000 to have. I don't know any other inducsty where you walk into a store to buy an item for X, but have to pay 1.5X!!!!

Thanks for that, makes things much clearer!

Now my next Q would be that after looking at the BASIX website, there is a cost benefit summary example which basically lists out the parts such as shower heads, toilets, rainwater tank, ceiling fans, insulation, clothes lines etc.

If a builder has a standard set of inclusions, would I be wrong in assuming that these are all going to be BASIX compliant hence if I was going to go with the standard inclusions then wouldn't that be a part of the base price rather than an added cost to making it BASIX compliant?

eg. if the base price cost $340,000 (with standard inclusions) where it lists shower heads, taps, insulation, clothes line etc. and the only thing missing is a rain water tank then wouldnt I just need to be paying for that + labour?

Otherwise im finding it abit strange that if the standard inclusions are BASIX complaint such as taps etc and you had to upgrade them then the standard inclusions would be worthless.

The builder could sell the same house in a number of areas, not all of which require Basix compliance. Hence, that would make Basix compliant equipment an option.

We are buidling with Adenbrook Homes and the base price for the Lakewood home is $176,000 roughly. Adding the necessary extras like site costs, rainwater tanks, tiling, carpets, pavers, driveway, letterbox, clothesline etc and some not so necessary like tinted windows/doors and solar hot water system (and a few other extras ), we are looking at $212,000.

Not so shabby, eh? Find a good builder and you will not be out of pocket $100,000.

Just a quick question, is BASIX a NSW 5 star thing, or is it something I should be aware of here in Melbourne?
I belive that all builders in Vic have to build to 5 star energy efficiency - which includes insulations, fittings, and either a 2000L tank or a solar assisted hot water system. These are listed in the inclusions of our builder, however they do state that they individual house will be evaluated (depending on the way it faces) and there may be additional costs if you need to upgrade what they class as the standard insulation, or even some windows are affected.

In response to my earlier shock - I can understand a designer home costing a lot more than the "base" price, but I didn't see that a major builder with good standard inclusions could charge that much extra on top... but then I have never built a home before, so was thinking maybe I was kidding myself! I suppose time will tell.

Ray.

Hi Ray,

Re the 5 star rating in Vic .. when you start upgrading features, just be very aware that a lot of things do effect the star rating. We got caught out big time on this and had a nasty shock in the mail with a post contract variation hitting us with additional charges due to our upgrades.

Perhaps when you do make a change to the standard, check with your administrator. And it's all kinds of things like doors, raising roof, wider windows etc.

Good luck!!

Amber

http://ourdreamhouse.blogspot.com