Size and cost

How directly related is size (in squares) and cost ? Because of materials, insulation, flooring etc is it always inescapable that big=expensive ? What are the best ways to reduce the cost of a big house ?

Cabinfever,

I would have thought that the cost per square metre of a large house should be significantly less than the cost per square metre of a small house. The main reason is that there are certain fixed costs such as Survey Plans, design cost, kitchens, etc. I would like to see any large house cost more than $1800 per square metre for a full brick concrete slab high quality fittings (but not necessarily fancy designer labels) and finishes. That is a high quality large (350 m2 plus) house should be no more than $1800/m2. Smaller houses would be more per square metre.

This is consistent with what custom builders are asking (with the appropriate number of upgrades). For some reason, the same house through an architect is $2500 to $3000 per square metre. Yes, exactly the same house! I suspect there is going to be shake-up in how architects price their services (with much more efficient computer aided design (CAD) packages, a slow down in the building industry (at least in the eastern states) and more public awareness (though the internet, etc).

I guess it also depends on where the extra size is going. A very large kitchen would not reduce the per square meter cost as much as a large garage or large open plan living area.

I’m going for full brick concrete slab with top quality fittings and materials and know that $1800/m2 will do it well. I’ll skip fancy designer label fittings, which use the same materials but charge more for a unique design, which will only date quicker anyway.

Cheers,
Casa

Hi Cabinfever,

There are certain basics that a house has that are fairly unavoidable. Floor (not floorcoverings), be it a slab or raised floor, brick outside walls, internal walls, roof, ceiling etc. Increasing the floorplan on these items should be straight forward and roughly proportional.

I think that the problem is that many builders take the total area and the total base price and divide. This is unfair as certain areas are very expensive (Kitchen/bathroom) and certain areas are very cheap (bedrooms/lounge).

You can cut costs a bit by leaving things out but you'll probably want to do them later so it is more of a deferral of costs. This is what I have been doing. For instance instead of putting in a top quality bathroom we have gone largely with the standard and will upgrade it several years down the line when the kids have grown up a bit and we win lotto

Last place we built, we went without doors on all WIRs and some other less critical ones. Problem was that it would have been nice to have them and although when we did put them in we saved money, it did not save that much money and it was a lot of hassel.

The house we are about to build had a garage which we removed and will have a carport instead (which we will put in ourselves later). Truth is that we don't really need a brick garage, much as it would be nice and besides, council wouldn't have allowed. We saved about $10 000 by removing the garage. Note that to add one later would be more like $30 000 so this is not a do later item.

In Perth, there was one company that had a reputation of building Sh1tty homes but very big sh1tty homes for cheap. Very much a bogan thing but could be adapted as I think the structure was sound, rather the design and styling/fittings let them down. If you can get someone like that to build a smaller home, that might work. The company I am with now builds cheap but the building is sound, just cheap fittings, few inclusions as standard and little advertising. We started with a base price of $125000 - you don't want to know what it has ballooned to thanks to council requirements and some specific site requirements.

Not sure if I have answered any of your questions but I sure did ramble.

3xb

Hi 3times. Some of those ideas are the things I'm looking at. Ways to chop out extras...

@Casa, surely those costs are off somewhow ? $1800 per square meter works out at $630,000 for 350sq/m, and just over $1million for the architects version... ? But $1800 per sqaure doesn't seem right either - that's $63,000 for 35 squares. Are we talking Australian dollars here, or maybe HK$ ?

Cabinfever,

The $1800 per square metre cost is indeed in Australian dollars. If you go to custom builders the total cost for a 350 square meter house will be $630,000. This is for full brick concrete slab and good quality finishes and fittings.

I've been talking to custom builders all weeks and this is the median price. The price range for full brick concrete slab houses is $1500 to $2500 per square meter ranging from good quality to prestige. This is the all up cost including architect, engineer, council fees and, of course, house.

But here is the funny thing. Ask any architect how much it costs to build a house and they will say $2500 to $3500 per square metre. I've seen these houses and the bizarre thing is that the quality is the same as the $1500 to $2500 per square metre from the custom builders. Who is pocketing the extra $1000 per square meter?

Also, an architect wants a further 10% for the design. Yes well over $50,000 for something the custom builders charge only $15,000 extra for.

Is it a case of how much does a house cost? Whatever you want!

I would be interested in feedback from anyone who has used a custom design builder or architect + builder to let me know if what I've been told is correct in practice.

Cheers,
Casa

Good Lord ! So you're telling me that you basically pay * DOUBLE * for a custom design over what you'd pay for an off-the-shelf design ?

A project home will cost about $1200 per square metre once you add the magical site costs and perform the minimum of upgrades to get half decent quality. If my numbers are correct, this makes a custom design about 1.5 times as much. But wait and see what happens once you get an architect to run the show!!!!!

I can confirm a custom home cost in the region of $1500-$1800 per square meter.

Project home builders are able to offer a cheaper home by building the same thing quickly and cheaply (construction materials and fittings)

So I believe the best way to say it is not that a custom builder costs twice as much but rather a project builder builds for half the cost.

pasey,

Thanks for the confirmation. Where abouts are you located?

I'm in Melbourne

Pity, I was hoping you were in Sydney. It would be great to have some people in Sydney looking for a custom builder so we could compare notes in finding a good custom builder.

It would cost you a little bit below that here in Wagga.I"ve just had a quick look at our costs and what we sold our last "spec"home for approximately six months ago(in a reasonable good market)and it worked out that the people paid around $1220 a sq mtr including double garage and pergola area.We only do two or three spec homes each year to supplement our sub-contract building work so probably don't get any hugh bargins on materials or labour but our costs were appox $900 sq mtr.We are well into building the same plan again with a few minor changes to the facade (Portico etc)so will let you know how it costs out this time.The land cost an extra $10,000 more than the last block (but the next release is $12000 above that and we've had this block for awhile so we pick up a bit that way)and the market is sliding but my son says he will keep this one for awhile anyway.Regards Terry.

We are building a custom designed house at around 1050$/m2. Some inclusions are not standard (as in hydronic heating, double glazed windows) but other things, like basins, are from Reece.

Looks like I'll have to move to Melbourne or Wagga Wagga. Every custom builder I've spoken to has been in the $1500 to $2000 per square metre price range for the whole package. Admittedly, I'm after full brick and suspended concrete slab, but nothing too exotic.

Terry, I assume you're not including things like council costs, temporary fencing, etc.

mek, a custom house for $1050/m2 is great to hear. Is it a modified project home or something designed just for you from the ground up? Also does it include site costs and all the other odds and ends?

would you mind saying who the builder is?

Hello Casa,Regarding the council costs ,yes,they are in the pricing although they are saying that there are big increases coming up for developers in the next financial year which will be passed on by them in turn to builders and owner builders plus some I would think.I'm not sure about this yet but the stories in the local paper say that the costs could be up to $12,000 per block more than they are now.As for going full or solid brick as we call it ,yes,that would cost out more than brick veneer but probably not a hugh amount for us as we are(myself,son,nephew)bricklayers as well as licenced builders.Maybe you should be building in WA almost all the houses over there are solid brick and the prices for tradework are quite reasonable (especially as they cement render and then"white set"all their interior walls (a great finish)Pitch all their roofs (no trusses)etc.I thought that if you were building in Sydney this would be the time to be doing it as things have been fairly quite down there,but obviously I"m off the mark.Regards Terry.

Terry,

Thanks for the info.

I think you've hit the nail on the head when you said "that if you were building in Sydney this would be the time to be doing it as things have been fairly quite down there". With building starts in NSW at the lowest level in 23 years prices should be good at the moment. I think I just need to get some competition going for my dream home. Custom builders like to offer you a design service for $3000, but you must build with them (that is, no competition). I think I'll pay a bit extra for the design and get an architect/building designer to put something together that I can get prices from several builders.

Cheers,
Casa

Hello Casa, The way we approach it is to get a floorplan "roughed"out at home.We look at alot of floorplans for ideas(including our previous houses) and to see to see what the others are doing (bathroom ,en-suite layouts etc)And then gradually refine a floorplan that we think should work .We then go to a housing designer and he draws a proposal for us to consider and alter if necessary.I don't know if you are experienced in looking at plans but it helps if you are familiar with standard or acceptable room sizes.Then if the plan is too big you know where you can "shrink"a bit here and there etc.Peter Clarkson's site could be a good starting point for you if you have the time as it is very informative and well set out.Peter often answers queries in these forums.In summing up Casa if you could get enough infomation for a housing designer to draw a proposal for you that should be enough for suppliers and sub contractors to price from.

Opps,I didn't mean to post just yet .Here is the link to Peter's site http://www.ausdesign.com.au/ It will be interesting to see how you get on Casa.When do you hope to billd?Regards Terry.

I am building a house that is 437.52sqm and based on the calculations above (at $1500 per sq metre for a good quality home) this should be costing me $656,280.00???

Anyone care to tell me how my wife got this past me without noticing??

I have always worked on a good this as a theory:

$4500 per sq - for a basic finish
$6000 per sq - for a good finish
$7500 per sq - for a great finish
$9000 per sq - for the extravagant

My definition of great would be better than average tap fittings, granite (or equiv.) benchtops, tiled showers, spa bath etc etc.

So if I am building a 47sq home (approx 437msq) this should cost me around $352,500.00 which is a lot more reasonable.

This is also working on a normal slab etc. Allowances for piers, suspended slabs would need to be added.

Matt