How much does it cost to build a house?

I know, I know: "how long is a piece of string".

As someone who mooches on Daft, MyHome, works loosely around property, etc. I know what the 'going rate' for a typical house is in many areas.

If you mooch on MyHome long enough, you figure it out and you know roughly what a house is worth in an area. Among the many houses in house estates, you see the detached ones, that are built on a little bit of land that are skirting around the edges of towns and villages.

You get an idea on the asking prices, and you also see land for sale separately in different areas.

What I don't know the answer to, is, however: How much does it cost to build a 'generic' house? It almost seems secretive. For example, you'll often see land for sale, with planning approved for a house to be built on it, and you'll see the plans for the house, but never a guide price on what it might cost to build the house.




Here's a random house I've plucked off Daft. (I deliberately chose one outside Dublin and it's basket-case mini-economy)

https://www.daft.ie/louth/houses-for-auction/ardee/ballybonia-lh9057f-reaghstown-ardee-louth-2722276/


This seems a fairly generic house design that appears over and over around the country. €115k is a starting price for an auction, so it'll likely achieve a good bit more in my opinion, but if Joe Soap wandered onto that land, and there was no house on it, and you wanted to build that house.. what would it set you back?


I know there's an element, as I mention above, of 'how long is a piece of string' but we're ignoring Dublin, and trying to work out a rough guideline price on building a house.



(My background is; i near-own a nice house in a rough area, worth about 150k. If it was a plausible thing to do, id not be against the prospect of buying a little land and leaving it sitting for a while, to build up a few more euro and either sell this house or use it as collateral against a mortgage to build something a little further afield).

For a long time I've thought it'd be great to buy a cheapo house, and renovate, and i'm forever hearing "sure you'd build one cheaper", but the prices on these kind of things seem near impossible to figure out.



Apologies for the lengthy post.

Smee_Again

Here you go

Just under €163K.

Its let to tenants which may have a negative impact on the price. It's also in Ardee which will definitely have a negative impact on the price.

Smee_Again

Smee_Again wrote: »

Here you go

Just under €163K.

Its let to tenants which may have a negative impact on the price. It's also in Ardee which will definitely have a negative impact on the price.

Well I wasn't picking that specific house because of it's price, more-so because that design seems fairly common and figured it'd be more relatable.


Thanks for the link, by the way. Never seen that before!

Smee_Again

Deleted User wrote: »

Well I wasn't picking that specific house because of it's price, more-so because that design seems fairly common and figured it'd be more relatable.




Thanks for the link, by the way. Never seen that before!

Ah yeah, I get ya. I'm just trying to be smart, I live close to Ardee and it's grand.

It might be worth mentioning that building costs are increasing, the rebuild cost for my house has increased from €170K in late 2018 to €190K this month when I renewed my insurance. So whatever value you get now, might be different in the future.

Gumbo

Smee_Again wrote: »

Here you go

Just under €163K.

Its let to tenants which may have a negative impact on the price. It's also in Ardee which will definitely have a negative impact on the price.

Deleted User wrote: »

Well I wasn't picking that specific house because of it's price, more-so because that design seems fairly common and figured it'd be more relatable.


Thanks for the link, by the way. Never seen that before!

That doesn’t take account of a site purchase and planning costs, contributions, and connections.

It assumes you are rebuilding on an existing site.

Cuddlesworth

Gumbo wrote: »

That doesn’t take account of a site purchase and planning costs, contributions, and connections.

It assumes you are rebuilding on an existing site.

It's also a minimum by design, if you could hit that your doing well.

Its also worth noting, you can do a bathroom for 1500 quid(toilet/sink/shower/tray) or you can do a bathroom for 40k. Or anywhere in between. Same for most rooms. Even basic things like electrics, white plastic over metal finish, metal wall boxes over plastic, chargers included etc. It all starts to add up in inflated build costs.

awec

According to the Society of Chartered Surveyors, it costs about 170k on average to build a ~120sqm house these days, but this is just the direct construction costs of the physical house.

It does not include land costs (this is a big cost), legal costs, VAT, drawings / planning costs etc.

Cheers for the replies folks.

With those comments and prices in mind... Derelict houses, here I come.

ted1

Planning can cost 20k
Council charges 10k+
Irish water charge 6.5k if the distance is less than 10m
ESB 2+

omicron

There's a prices and costs forum in the building section with more detail, but the general consensus seems to be for a finished house including fees etc but not including the site, somewhere between €150-200 per square foot, higher end of that in Dublin.

bobbyy gee

about 200k

Graham

Deleted User wrote: »

if Joe Soap wandered onto that land, and there was no house on it, and you wanted to build that house.. what would it set you back?

My guess would be significantly more than €115k.

There are still a few areas around the country where there are effectively no new builds, the main reason being the build cost would be higher than the current market value.

bobbyy gee

Try here

https://selfbuild.ie/

Ray Palmer

ted1 wrote: »

Planning can cost 20k
Council charges 10k+
Irish water charge 6.5k if the distance is less than 10m
ESB 2+

Why would planning cost so much? Is this a breakdown of the 20k?

ec18

Ray Palmer wrote: »

Why would planning cost so much? Is this a breakdown of the 20k?

planning probably includes architect and other professional fees?

Danny552

Hi folks myself and parnter are looking to build our own home aswell in kildare we were given over 20 acres, so will be only useing a an acre or 2 to build and leave the rest of the future and maybe sell to use as our pension.

We are hoping to build for around 250k maybe less should build a decent size house. Would be bigger then most houses in dublin going for double the price .The foundation will be done by her father so will save money there aswell.

sydthebeat

Ray Palmer wrote: »

Why would planning cost so much? Is this a breakdown of the 20k?

first off the poster said "can cost 20K"

lets assume a 250,000 build cost

RIAI fee structure suggests a level of between 9 -11 % for the design team from initial conception to completion. It also suggest about 50% of that is for deign and planning stages. info from here

so lets assume then that 5% of 250,000 is for the design team to planning stage, thats €12.5k.

on site EPA report and testing is approx €1k

if a traffic impact assessment is needed you could be looking at €4k

if a flood risk assessment if required you could be looking at another €4k

if its planning on or near a protected structure you may need a conservation architects report ... again another 2- 4k

Bat survey could be required..... Natura 2000 Assessment could be required...... all these costs are in the realm of €1000s

an appeal to An Bord Pleana can cost 1000's

so planning for a one off house can run to more than 20K easily enough depending on the situation.

and thats just planning... put other professional fees such as a solicitors 1.5% on mortgage conveyancing and your looking at another 4K.

the other 5% for the design team to bring the project from planning to completion is another 12.5K

so theres over 40K worth of professional fess alone, before you start to look at connection fees / council development contributions etc

Ray Palmer

sydthebeat wrote: »

first off the poster said "can cost 20K"

lets assume a 250,000 build cost

RIAI fee structure suggests a level of between 9 -11 % for the design team from initial conception to completion. It also suggest about 50% of that is for deign and planning stages. info from here

so lets assume then that 5% of 250,000 is for the design team to planning stage, thats €12.5k.

on site EPA report and testing is approx €1k

if a traffic impact assessment is needed you could be looking at €4k

if a flood risk assessment if required you could be looking at another €4k

if its planning on or near a protected structure you may need a conservation architects report ... again another 2- 4k

Bat survey could be required..... Natura 2000 Assessment could be required...... all these costs are in the realm of €1000s

an appeal to An Bord Pleana can cost 1000's

so planning for a one off house can run to more than 20K easily enough depending on the situation.

and thats just planning... put other professional fees such as a solicitors 1.5% on mortgage conveyancing and your looking at another 4K.

the other 5% for the design team to bring the project from planning to completion is another 12.5K

so theres over 40K worth of professional fess alone, before you start to look at connection fees / council development contributions etc

That is a lot of stretching and quite exceptional.

The RIAI are of course going to suggest paying the most profitable way to its members. The % pricing is such a con. Building costs vary depending on materials so why should an architect get paid more because you decide on more expensive materials?

If you decide to make the footprint bigger requiring minimum architectural drawing changes they get paid way more. It made some sense before when it meant a lot of manual drawing but now it doesn't.

You are bringing other expenses not related to planning.

I have seen many people ripped off by architects with overcharging. Common one is to overcharge for auxiliary work from a 3rd party. Not uncommon to double the costs to the client because the architect sourced it. Dirty business relying on consumers being unfamiliar. Not unlike how tradesmen work.

Fine when you are working on large projects but gauging on an individual level. I went to college with architects and drink with them regularly still and they tell of how they make money abd why they bump up costs to clients. Simple after the initial work the additional fixes to their work aren't worth it as they see it just as cost. Where reality is they didn't complete the job correctly in the first place. I did webdesign for a while abd I get the continuous changes from customers after agreement so I see the sense.

Danny552

I would say most people know an architect be it a family member or friend or friend of family. I know 3 Architects 2 are retired and 1 is in the business over 10 years . I will be getting one of them to design at a good price. Not worried at other costs , we are in good hands with people we can trust and that have experience building there own homes over the last number of years.