Cost Effectivness - Build Costs

[steve77r]

Hello, I am new to the site and looking to do my first self build. I have been interested in doing a self build for over 10 years but until now never had the funds, I am now in a position where I can purchase a small plot of land and hopefully complete my own first build. That said I have been looking into the costs and from the estimates for the build of the house I am struggling to prove it to be cost effective for what I am hoping to build and the area etc. So as a basic rule of thumb I have always been lead to believe that if all goes to plan the final value of the house should be 35% land cost 35% build cost with about 30% savings at the end. I appreciate this is a very simplistic way of looking at it and there are many factors that will affect this but overall if everything goes to plan there should be a decent saving.

 

I'm looking at a plot in the NW around Bolton, Asking price £40k, currently does not have PP but application has been submitted and looking at it I don't see why it wouldn't get approved. the idea of this build would be to build a family home that I could live in for a few years and build some equity then maybe do another build in a few years. The plans submitted are for a 2 story 50m2 footprint 3 bed detached so 100m2 overall. Going by the calculators and estimating on the lower quality, nothing too fancy about the design at £1400 per M2. That's coming out at a build cost of £140000, which seems very high for the value of the plot and also taking into consideration the area and the expected sale value upon completion.  I also see other new builds in the area of a similar style, size and quality going for a lot less.

 

Is there any members on this site building a similar size home that could share there anticipated build costs or anyone that has completed a similar project in the past? I know the best way would be to contact a few builders and get some valuations but before I waste their time I'd like to get a general idea about costing the builds.

 

Thanks

 

 

[Jeremy Harris]

Welcome.

 

I would guess that most self-builders rarely make a saving in cost over buying a house ready built, TBH.  Build costs vary a lot, depending on how much work you do yourself, but a typical self build, with no frills, is likely to cost around £1500/m² total floor area.  The really big advantage of self-build is that you get exactly the house you want, where you want it.

 

The old "rule of thirds", 1/3rd for the land, 1/3rd for the build, 1/3rd profit is long gone.  Even the big developers, who can build at much lower costs than self-builders, rarely get more than about 15% profit, and some work down at around 10% to 12%.  It's really tough for a self-builder to come in at less build cost than a developer, unless doing a great deal of work yourself, and not costing your labour.

 

Some here have built for less than £1000/m², but they are all people that have done a large part of the work themselves, in at least one case including all the brick and blockwork.  We used a ground works contractor to level the site, etc, then a timber frame company that laid the foundation and erected the house, including fitting the insulation and doing the airtightness stuff.  I purchased doors and windows from another company, on a supply and fit basis, used a roofing contractor for the slates and used a plasterer to board out and plaster the interior.  I bought the cladding and employed two guys on a day rate to fit it, and also employed an electrician to do the wiring.  I installed all the plumbing, some of the wiring, the heating system, most of the internal joinery, the kitchen, utility room, bathrooms, WC etc myself.  With all that work we managed to get our build cost down to £1380/m², but it was a lot of hard work, spread out over a long time.  Being retired I was able to put in the hours, though, so my time was effectively free.

[nod]

Welcome 

We are in Preston So not that far away 

We have made a simalar saving to your calcs 

The price of your plot is throwing a spanner in the works 

With planning I would exspect you would be closer to a 100 for your plot 

We paid 185

Spent 200

valued 750

We could have saved 30 if we were just looking to sell on 

As you have probably realised 

Finding a viable plot is a challenge 

[Conor]

54 minutes ago, JSHarris said:

 With all that work we managed to get our build cost down to £1380/m², but it was a lot of hard work, spread out over a long time.  Being retired I was able to put in the hours, though, so my time was effectively free.

 

Really hope you are in the south of England because I'm hoping to come in around £750-£1000/m² in Northern Ireland!! Will be taking similar approach as well, plus we have a lot of materials from the demolition that we can use - roof slates, bricks and timbers.

[Jeremy Harris]

5 minutes ago, Conor said:

 

Really hope you are in the south of England because I'm hoping to come in around £750-£1000/m² in Northern Ireland!! Will be taking similar approach as well, plus we have a lot of materials from the demolition that we can use - roof slates, bricks and timbers.

 

We are.  Prices in NI seem lower, @Declan52 came in at around the sort of price you're looking at, but IIRC he did practically the whole build himself,

[Ferdinand]

Welcome.

 

It s not clear whether this is self build may for what you want to live in, or potentially to sell.

 

I think that you probably need to cost up your basic core structure (not poor quality, but perhaps to second fit without the gold plating finishes and gadgets you would like in an ideal world), and expect to build to that then consider the rest depending what happens.

 

Ferdinand

[Declan52]

@Conor I came in at £490 m² but as has been mentioned I done a lot of the work myself. More or less everything except the plastering, plumbing and electrical work. 

Took nearly 2 years on my days off work and to be honest I was physical and mental wreck by the end. 

A lot of materials are much cheaper here esp things like concrete and blocks due to the amount of quarries we have. As yours is going to be ICF the price you can negotiate for your concrete will have a big impact on your final price. You have stoneyford , ready use, ready mix, carryduff concrete and northstone all close by so you should be able to get a good deal.

The big cost will be labour so everything you can do yourself will save you some money. But be realistic with what you can actually do.I worked on sites for near 15 years so had plenty of knowledge of all the different trades that need to be done.

 

 

[Conor]

Thanks @Declan52. I'm considering taking a few off months to manage the job after the main contractor has done the ICF. I'm a project manager on large infrastructure projects... This should be a doddle lol!!

[steve77r]

33 minutes ago, Ferdinand said:

Welcome.

 

It s not clear whether this is self build may for what you want to live in, or potentially to sell.

 

I think that you probably need to cost up your basic core structure (not poor quality, but perhaps to second fit without the gold plating finishes and gadgets you would like in an ideal world), and expect to build to that then consider the rest depending what happens.

 

Ferdinand

Hi

 

This is exactly what I was planning, the area that the land is in is typical post war semis, ex council houses so anything beyond the basic developer quality build would be a waste of time. The plot itself is reasonable size at 400m2 but I'm even questioning if the size of the house at 100m2 makes sense or a smaller property and lower build cost would equate to more value, I don't see many people wanting to spend 180+k on a house in an area that's surrounded by houses in the 120k region. The house certainly wouldn't be a keeper for me but more an opportunity to build some equity and hopefully fund another build after a few years.

 

As for the amount of work I can do myself, I have done most things when it comes to home renovation and some building work, my main issue is currently I'm working out of the country so it would have to be left to others. My plan would be main contractor for water tight shell and then when complete contract out the final internals fixtures and fittings.

 

What % of overall cost would usually be attributed to watertight shell in a standard build?

 

Thanks

 

[Ferdinand]

I am still not clear whether this is for you to live in or to sell:-).

[Moira Niedzwiecka]

This sounds like a must to avoid to me.

Fraught with all sorts of risks.

The plot is cheap for a reason.

Do you know anything about the ground conditions or service connections?

You only need a few problems along the way to end up with a house that is too expensive for the location.

Resale could be difficult.

You may be better finding something you can add value to, ie refurb or extend.

[K78]

My budget is nowhere near what some have on here. Redundancy ruined my mortgage. 

 

Keeping skilled labour to a minimum and doing a lot yourself helps keep costs down. DIY ICF or having it built from concrete block seem the cheapest options. 

 

Most builders put a substantial mark up on materials they supply, so source your own. 

 

Quotes of upto £50k for a retaining wall nearly ruined my build. SE’s have also been a pain. Charge a fortune and ridiculously over engineer everything due to cheap insurance. 

[steve77r]

51 minutes ago, Ferdinand said:

I am still not clear whether this is for you to live in or to sell:-).

 

Live in, I have no other residence in the UK, it will be my home but not the home I hope to have after a few years. But I feel with me not been resident in the UK currently I will need to be very carful with VAT reclaim, I need to get some advice on where I will stand with this as I'm not sure if it applies to non residents.

[steve77r]

32 minutes ago, Moira Niedzwiecka said:

This sounds like a must to avoid to me.

Fraught with all sorts of risks.

The plot is cheap for a reason.

Do you know anything about the ground conditions or service connections?

You only need a few problems along the way to end up with a house that is too expensive for the location.

Resale could be difficult.

You may be better finding something you can add value to, ie refurb or extend.

Ground survey was included in the PP, Land not contaminated or in an area that has been mined, plot is flat, has services, its infill between two current houses. Only issue I'm aware of is a drain that need re routing around the house as currently it runs straight through where the house is planned to go.

[Moira Niedzwiecka]

That's a bit more encouraging.

However, I still think the issue is location.

100m2 is not very big for a family house.

I think you would be doing very well to do this for less than £1000 pm2 (ex plot cost), even if it was fairly basic & you could do some work yourself.

You would really need to nail down costs before starting.

Don't forget the ancillary costs site insurance, warranty, scaffolding, skips, utility connections, working drawings, structural engineer calculations, legal fees, mortgage application fees (self build mortgages are more expensive than normal residential ones).

As you say yourself there are similar new properties for less than £140k in the area.

I think you run the danger of ending up with a house that cost more to build than it will be worth.

If the idea is to achieve a return this is not the one.

 

[Ferdinand]

38 minutes ago, Moira Niedzwiecka said:

100m2 is not very big for a family house.

 

100m2 is at the upper end of the 84sqm to 102sqm requirement under the London space standard (which tries to be generous) for a 2 or 2.5 storey, 3 bed, family house. It says 84sqm for 4 people, and 102sqm for 6.

https://www.london.gov.uk/what-we-do/planning/london-plan/current-london-plan/london-plan-chapter-3/policy-35-quality-and

 

100m2 is a reasonably generous 1930s semi.

 

More is nice, but that could be OK - dependent upon your expectations, unless you are the chap coming from St Ives.

 

F

Edited May 2, 2019 by Ferdinand

[Moira Niedzwiecka]

I suppose it depends on expectations.

My current house is a 2 bed cottage at 79 m2 & is really quite small.

I think 84m2 for 4 people would be very tight.

@steve77r said there are similar 100m2 sized houses in the area for a lot less than £140k so even if he built smaller it would be difficult to make it add up.

Especially as he says one of the main aims is to live in it for a few years & build up some equity.

 

[Jeremy Harris]

Oh dear.  Our two bedroom house is 130m²...

 

Mind you, our old three bedroom bungalow was only around 90m², and we found that a bit cramped, even for just the two of us.

[Mr Punter]

If it were me I would spend more on a better area. Maybe a small cottage in a decent village where you could extend would be a better bet. You will never make money in a poor location.