Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Oct 30, 2008 3:55 pm I live in Melbourne's east and am currently getting prices to build our first home (we already have a block of land). Initially we were hoping to get it built for under $200K. We have plans already, and it's approximately 24 squares including garage. Due to the unusual block size, we couldn't go through any of the big builders as none of their plans could be easily altered to suit.
We've spoken to one custom builder who we liked which priced approx $240K (which we didn't like). Just a question, i know this is probably hard to answer, but is it possible to build a house this size for under $200K? Or are we kidding ourselves? Also, have prices gone up a bit over the last 2 years? I look forward to hearing any responses. Lee Re: Cost of Building a House 2Oct 30, 2008 4:06 pm I don’t know how much a custom builder will charge to build your house but I can tell you that the cost of building has gone up quite a bit in the last 2 years. Costs have been driving up by the ongoing trade skills shortage and the resources boom that has driving up the cost of materials.
http://fromevetoeternity.blogspot.com/ Re: Cost of Building a House 3Oct 30, 2008 5:44 pm With a volume builder it is easily achievable to build a 24 sq house for that money. The problem with custom builders is they cannot compete on price with the larger builders due to the unknowns of a one off build and the extra work involved in specifying everything. 10k per sqare is actually not bad for a custom builder and if someone can do it for less I'd be starting to wonder what kind of job you can expect.
Besides searching through all of the volume builders plans I'd be looking at some of the smaller builders who offer spec homes and seeing if any of them can be modified - this may be cheaper. I have talked to one builder that would have built a house that size for 200k but this builder would have been an absolute nightmare to work with. I'd also consider a smaller two story home if you need a small footprint - there a a few builders that have houses that may suit - not sure if they'd be this price though. I'd also look carefully at what you are getting for your money - 40k can be eaten up very easily in extras such as driveways and flooring. Does you budget include these things and if not have you excluded them from your custom builders spec. Sometimes custom builders will charge alot extra for things that they don't really want to do so it may be worth excluding anything that you can arrange later. Re: Cost of Building a House 4Oct 30, 2008 8:17 pm Hi Lee28
When we first started looking at builders we also hoped to get our house built for under $200k. Whilst I think it is possible, once we added all the things we felt we 'needed' that couldn't be added easily later (eg high ceilings, upgraded bricks, nice floors etc), it added up to much more than $200k. Re: Cost of Building a House 5Oct 30, 2008 10:14 pm Our house is 23sq and has come in at 187k. It had to be customised due to the odd shape of our block.
That price includes everything except for blinds/curtains. ie, carpets, tiles, driveway, brick letterbox, footpath around the back, concrete to alfresco, all concrete coloured, clothesline, security doors, flywire screens on windows, site costs for cut and fill, h class slab, etc. So we thought it was a pretty good price for what is basically a custom designed home... It is based off one of their designs but there certainly won't be anyone building the same house as us. Re: Cost of Building a House 6Oct 31, 2008 12:31 am wakeboardandy Our house is 23sq and has come in at 187k. It had to be customised due to the odd shape of our block. . hi wakeboardandy, customised as in - example - kitchen shift to the rear, bedroom at the east? not according their standard layout designs? Did you chose one of their original plans and tweak a bit here/there? may i know which house plan did you chose? I am thinking of using one of their original single storey plans(h3nley) and subsitute the garage with a living room while having a carport instead- cos i will be installing security gates. will it cost more or less? Re: Cost of Building a House 7Oct 31, 2008 7:11 am snipfer hi wakeboardandy, customised as in - example - kitchen shift to the rear, bedroom at the east? not according their standard layout designs? Did you chose one of their original plans and tweak a bit here/there? may i know which house plan did you chose? My house is a modified 140 caraway. The 140 is only 18squares so I added 5 squares onto the house with the modifications. It is more to the caraway 175 design but still different to that as well. You can see my plan on my house page: https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.p ... highlight= Re: Cost of Building a House 8Oct 31, 2008 7:57 am Hi Lee,
We are in a similar position to yourself, Melbourne East, block of land, unusual shape for building envelope set by council. Budget of around 200K. We just got our first draft sketch two days ago of our dream home about 27sq and now we are going to see a few customer builders and volume builders that are happy to change their designs or do custom designs as well (such as JGKing). Which builder have you received a quote from? Re: Cost of Building a House 9Oct 31, 2008 12:13 pm wakeboardandy snipfer hi wakeboardandy, customised as in - example - kitchen shift to the rear, bedroom at the east? not according their standard layout designs? Did you chose one of their original plans and tweak a bit here/there? may i know which house plan did you chose? My house is a modified 140 caraway. The 140 is only 18squares so I added 5 squares onto the house with the modifications. It is more to the caraway 175 design but still different to that as well. You can see my plan on my house page: https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.p ... highlight= alright thanks, will be "studying" your thread. Re: Cost of Building a House 10Nov 01, 2008 11:46 pm Your going to struggle for less than $10k per square, even through volume builders unless one of their plans happen to fit with simple customization as you know. i've had quote done with JG king and still well over such budget when you finally compare apples with apples. Just searching this forum will show that there are many people who think they are on a good deal and then find there are many items not allowed or underestimated in contracts, be very careful and always seek independant advice, get a building designer or architect to look at your quotes for advice. When everything is ok then only sign with any builder. But inreality your budget is very small and limited to just a small number of hopeful builders. Wish you all the best, hope you get what you need. Re: Cost of Building a House 11Nov 02, 2008 1:01 pm Mine was just over 8k per square and that is included driveway and paving. So it can be done.. but I do know that JG King have put their prices up since I signed and do charge extra now for customisation.
I can recommend a good SC who can help you with customisation if you want to get a quote. Re: Cost of Building a House 12Nov 03, 2008 2:08 pm We initially spoke to Buzzbee Homes in Bayswater. We were shown one of their houses over the weekend, it was done beautifully, but they might be out of our price range, although we haven't finished negotiating price and they have come down a bit from the initial price.
We also spoke to East West Homes over the weekend, but I asked about them on another thread, and someone heard they were going under. The quote from Buzzbee was inclusive of everything such as submitting revised plans to council and driveways etc. Whereas East West's prices obviously didn't include anything like that and I don't know if the end result will be that much cheaper. We have to pay $600 for a quote from East West, which I daresay would be pretty standard, they wouldn't really comment on prices at all, they only showed us the base prices for similar sized houses, and a list of costs for the non standard inlcusions shown at the display home we saw there. We need to get a proper quote before we make any decisions because unless it came out significantly cheaper than our other quote, I wouldn't be keen to build with them. Any thoughts? Re: Cost of Building a House 13Nov 03, 2008 3:00 pm I just had a meeting with my custom builder (Creations by GMH) so while there I asked the question if they were able to build something around 24 squares for $200K.
The reply was yes as long as you are reasonable with your expectations and not expect a fully decked out spec you find in say a porter davis Prestige home. The $200K should hopefully get you a comfortable custom home! PM me if you like and I will pass on the mobile number of who I am dealing with. He's actually a decent guy and said he is more than happy to have a chat. So far for service and quality I have no complaints whatsoever, they have been professional and very friendly the whole way through the process. As I have found there are decent builders out there who do quality built custom homes and do get very close to the major project builders in terms of price. The guys I am using say they do pride themselves on being in the same ballpark total price range of Porter Davis per square for their custom homes. My build price certainly reflects this! Finally Designing and building the home I always wanted to! Re: Cost of Building a House 15Nov 03, 2008 6:54 pm With a tight budget of around $200,000 you should be getting a soil test and contour survey done on your block of land asap to determine site costs before signing any building agreement. Use the survey and soil test with getting prices from a couple of prefferred builders. Most builders in that price bracket have very small profit margins so don't expect any major cost saving negotiations. but site costs can be huge if not investigated asap. When discussing costs with a builder ensure you also ask the following as a minimum:
1. cost of footings to suit soil test report and bore hole depths. Cost of revised conc slab. Cost of extra engineering 2.cost of site cut and retaining walls if required and aggy drains with stormwater pits, Extent/length of retaining walls. Determine where the site cut will end. Cost of engineering the retaining walls. Cost of removing rock etc 3. Cost of sewer/stormwater connection to LPD. 4. Cost of 5 star energy rating to suit your site. do you need double glazing to comply with regulations. 5. Cost of outdoor flooring, steps and decking if required. Many times the floor to an alfresco is not included and if its more than 300mm off the ground who is paying the extra costs. 6. Check who is paying crossover deposit and council asset deposit. 7. Cost of conc pump for slab. 8. Cost of temporary fencing, check with council. These are just basic items that often don't get asked with no experience and subsequently get caught with extra major costs. Builders generally always want to do the right thing, they want to build you a very nice home, but sometimes things are not fully worked out or are let down by missleading sales consultants who can misslead both the builder and the client, doesn't always happen but does happen. Look after yourself by asking just few extra items in writing before you sign with any builder and both you and the builder will be very happy that all has been worked out and construction progresses smoothly knowing that you have allowed for the extra costs. good luck there is a few calculators you can use if you just google it 7 4692 custom probably not. Volume, most defiantly, but spec would vary. If youre doing a knock down, there additional costs associated with that that will eat into your budget… 1 8287 multiple occ properties are always billed by trades at a premium, rarely per sqm for the lot. You either have trades you know whoe will do by sqm or youre going to get… 1 1060 |