# Building a House - Costings



## Taxboy (Aug 23, 2006)

A quick question - I'm doing some back of an envelope number crunching here to see if building a house is worthwhile financially

The site currently has a scabby house of non-standard construction on it so looking to demolish and replace with a smart new version

Based on 4 bed 2 bath floor area 270sq metre, traditional brick construction

Demolish £10,000
Rebuild £300,000 allowing £20,000 for kitchen and bathrooms + £7000 for double garage
Architect + legal £10,000

Am I about on the money or have I missed something off. 

Build will be in Suffolk and looking for fully managed build

Any comments from people in the trade much appreciated


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## mickl (Dec 21, 2010)

Dont forget new builds are vat free.:thumb: subject to I R conditions
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/vat/sectors/builders/new-houses.htm#1

Good luck
Mick L


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## Rob_Quads (Jul 17, 2006)

So much variation its very hard to say. Local builder prices vary. The cost in SE will be NW etc

I would have thought you could easily get a 4 bed done for that sort of money


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## carl123uk (Jun 16, 2008)

£300k seems alot for the 270sq metre area


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## sean20 (Jan 17, 2011)

have you checked regarding to planing as i know in my area alot of people are doing similar but only demolishing part of the building and adding extensions ect as the builders say demolishing and starting from scratch opens a can of worms with the planing

but that mite just be in my area

good luck


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## Rob_Quads (Jul 17, 2006)

Same thing round here - they often keep some walls as then its not a new build which is much easier to get passed through planning


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## lofty (Jun 19, 2007)

It obviously depends on spec, but I think £1000 per M2 is an average cost.270m2 is quite a big house, approx the size of 2 modern 3 bed houses.My house is on 4 floors and is only about 180m2


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## R7KY D (Feb 16, 2010)

Good luck , I think £20k for kitchen and 2 bathrooms is a bit optimistic though


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## Taxboy (Aug 23, 2006)

R7KY D said:


> Good luck , I think £20k for kitchen and 2 bathrooms is a bit optimistic though


Thanks for that - any idea what might be more realistic ?


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## Rob_Quads (Jul 17, 2006)

All comes down to what quality / finish etc you want.

My brother has just done 20k on a kitchen alone as part of his extension.


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## WHIZZER (Oct 25, 2005)

Agree with the above- depends on quality and what you want - taps can range from a £50 upto thousands ! 

Kitchens again - you going for granite or stone worksurfaces these can be £ 2-3k 

What appliances ?


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## Rob_Quads (Jul 17, 2006)

Would personally recommend the composite stuff for a workstop. Couple friends have granite and even through its been fully sealed they are still having problems with it marking.

Really like the stuff my brother has gone with. When being installed they were able to melt/sand/blend the bits together so the thin splash back is all blended and there are no visible joins at all.


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## Buck (Jan 16, 2008)

Depending upon your aspirations for the kitchen, I think you need to allow £40,000 to include oven / fridge / dishwasher etc. I know ours cost £30k+ when all done.

Bathrooms are a similar money pit. At our old house we went "top end" and spent £7-8k on our en-suite - mind you it was fantastic but you can easily spend a coupl eof grand but then you might be disappointed in the end result and/or end up replacing a coupl eof years down the line.

Don't forget the Project Manager costs - they are worth their weight in gold and usually charge 10% of the build cost. It seems good savings to not have one but then money gets wasted by gear not being on site at the right time, specs not being adhered to etc.


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## Buck (Jan 16, 2008)

the other thing to factor in is the finish you are looking for. Chrome/Satin sockets and switches are very expensive in comparison to the standard white ones.

Are you cabling the house with CAT6 to 'future proof'?

Are you putting in PIR and centrally controlled lighting systems (worht every penny if you can afford the intial outlay)


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## Bero (Mar 9, 2008)

sean20 said:


> have you checked regarding to planing as i know in my area alot of people are doing similar but only demolishing part of the building and adding extensions ect as the builders say demolishing and starting from scratch opens a can of worms with the planing
> 
> but that mite just be in my area
> 
> good luck


You need to offset this against the added cost. If you keep any of the original building I'm pretty sure it's classed as an extension and you have to pay VAT on the whole 'extension'



Buck said:


> Depending upon your aspirations for the kitchen, I think you need to allow *£40,000* to include oven / fridge / dishwasher etc. I know ours cost £30k+ when all done.





Buck said:


> the other thing to factor in is the finish you are looking for. Chrome/Satin sockets and switches are very expensive in comparison to the standard white ones.
> 
> Are you cabling the house with *CAT6 to 'future proof'*?
> 
> Are you putting in PIR and centrally controlled lighting systems (worht every penny if you can afford the intial outlay)


The future will be wireless; I know people still say wired is better......but it's not really and wireless range and speed will only improve. The exception I would make is if you're doing a full centralised media cabnet and doing things like HDMI over CAT6....which I would love to do in a new build!


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## traplin (Feb 22, 2012)

£300k to build a house sounds do-able and should get you a nice bit of property. It's difficult to call the specific numbers though because of the level of quality you are after will differ.

I'd say your best bet is to start getting numbers in from people in the know. eg for the demo ask a local builder what he might charge...nothing concrete but just to get a feel. As for kitchen costs again take for example my kitchen. I stripped it out and re did it...tiled floor and appliances included it cost me £4.5k but that was b&q kitchen and all labour done by me (except the mitre joint for the work top) If I went for a top of the line kitchen but same layout my costs could have doubled or even tripled.

Really what you need to do is develop a rough plan of what you want to build so that people in the know can give you a better steer on rough prices...at the moment its a bit so subjective for you to get any good guide prices. :thumb:


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## R7KY D (Feb 16, 2010)

I'd allow £20k for the kitchen , we done ours last year got a HUGE rangemaster cooker , Everything built in , Underfloor heating , Quartz worktops , Couple of custom built cupboards , New floor tiles , plastering , Franke sink and taps , New fused spurs , Downlights etc etc , IIRC about £15K but I did shop around for everything and bought almost everything from a different place , Just as an example the place where we bought the units from wanted £6k for quartz worktops , Whilst doing the final deal I noticed a headed letter in the salesmans paperwork "quartz worktops direct" and that was their supplier so I googled them , phoned them up and got all my quartz worktops templated and fitted for under £2k !! , My kitchen is not small but it's not large , If I were doing a new build I'd build a very big kitchen and then probably be looking at £30k + for the kitchen alone ,

But as said above , What size are you looking at ?

Here's what mine was and how it ended up http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=241222&highlight=kitchen&page=3


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