In Wellington Region, is it possible to build a house for $400k including section

Hi Sandhu It is. It all depends on how big a house you want to build, whether you use a group home builder and a standard plan with little or no changes, who are generally cheaper than a bespoke design and build project, and your choice of materials. At a rough price of $2000 per m2, that will get you a 100 m2 house if the section costs you $200,000, however, that price has to include all the fitouts, compliance costs (Building Consent, Resource consent (if required), etc., and design costs, engineering, drainage, and so forth. Smaller houses cost less to build, fewer materials and less engineering requirements. There are companies who offer house and land packages, too, but realise that if you want to build cheap, you end up getting what you pay for. Check out http://www.buildingguide.co.nz for some critical information around building. Our new site launches in a week or so, too.

A question around the $2000/m2 price that is often quoted. If I am looking at a 200m2 house including an attached double garage, say that garage is 40m2, should I still be expecting to pay $2000 x 200, or $2000 x 160 for the house, and a lower price per m2 for the garage?

That’s a good question. The problem is each house is so different. The $2000m2 is a very rough guide – it will depend on whether you use concrete slab or timber floors, what claddings you use, the kitchen/bathroom fitout, lights and everything else. While the garage may well cost less than the main house, you’re then looking at the level of fitout in the garage – insulated doors, garage carpet, laundry/workshop fit out. A bare uninsulated garage with exposed framing and manual pull up garage door doesn’t really cut it anymore so you may well be surprised at the cost per m2 of your garage!

$2k a square is a hell of a price for a house. I would expect level 5 stopped walls, grade 3-4 carpets and top quality hardware and tall stud. To answer your query about the $2k into the garage…yes it purtains. The reason is the square metre is a fairly accurate way to work out the average cost against the build. $1400-1600 per square will get you a very nice house these days. $2k should be top of the line but its not just the house. $2k should get you the best experience with your builder money can buy. And i say should loosely.

For a group home $2000 a sqm is plenty. Even architectural that indicative cost is getting up there. I would expect $2000-2200. Remembering, the work in a house is down to the finishing, BUT, the taps and shower boxes and toilets are much in a muchness that a group home builder will install. In fact, more than likely the exact same, its the buying power of a group home builder that makes them cheaper for those products. Now remember, group homes are about speed, money in money out. You will find the typical margin on a group home build to be approx 20% of the build value. Your $400k dream home makes them $80k gross profit. Obviously remove franchise fees, overheads, salaries etc. 20% is huge compared to the market whereby you might find a typical builder will charge 10% but the point is, that builder wont have the buying power on the finishing items so the 10% left over from the margin is quickly eroded into the end cost items. Especially if you like the $300 tap vs the $100 tap for example. At the end of the day, the more research you can find on the builders building the home rather than the franchise itself the better. Get the bank to back you on the contract and help protect you and above all else, read the fine print. Quite often they put the contract in front of you and dont show you the project addendum. The addendum supersedes the contract. Get your lawyer to re-do the specifics of both and add in goals like milestone dates with financial implications for not hitting them. Liquidated damages are a good one to add for a completion date. Point of experience from two group home builds, dont take the contract at face value, once your in, your in. It is so so hard to get out. Once your in the build push for weekly site meetings and weekly updates, hold them to the time frames and basically be a pain in the arse. Hold payments if things are not complete and / or get independent evaluations of progress (hence the bank backing you). Be a bully as they will bully you first. Happy to advise people free of charge if your local in Tauranga and have questions re quality (I can site visits to aid you) or problems with contracts etc.

Here is some further clarification regarding m2 pricing. As Mark said, $2,000 is a rough guide only. The industry standard figures fluctuate quite a bit for each major city but the QV Costbuilder and Robinson rates (industry standard rates based on statistics and inc GST) are as follows: “House 100-250m2 with Concrete Slab, kitchen, bathroom, WC, ensuite, Coloursteel Roof, Medium quality fittings, Linea Weatherboard; Auckland $2,041-2,271; Wellington & Waikato $1,926-2,156; Christchurch $2,099-2,329; Dunedin $1,869-2,099; Palmerston North $1,984-2,214. Quantifying and Estimating. Generally speaking, the smaller the house the higher the m2 rate as economy of scale comes into play. There are certain fixed costs in every build you cannot avoid and these get “diluted” or spread out in larger builds. If you half those figures you get a rough idea for a kitset which still includes kitchen, plumbing fittings and supply & install of roof, spouting and floor coverings. Should also point out that margin calculations are <10% and our turn around is about 40 houses per year.

Great to see comment from a builder in here but I do think Skilled Builder is on the light side of the costing exercise. In large part it depends on your build approach – you’ll be very lucky to get an architecturally designed house for anything like the price they mention above, but if you go with a low-cost builder like Keith Hay or A1 then it’s possible. But, as they say, you get what you pay for.

Wow ..love those comments. You are right about being a bully first.. We have just moved into a Keith Hay Home. The builder they contracted was awesome but he was pretty much beholden to their building schedule .We just had to keep at them and at them.. they delayed and delayed and delayed and delayed … took us 16 months from start to finish to get into our house which was a 115 sqm basic house . The price per sqm was well over the 2000 and that was before we paid for the balustrade and septics. The interior is pretty cheap to be fair but that is keith hay. Good on you for your comments.. keeping at them and being a pain in the arse is the best way to go.#

20% margin – You’re Dreaming…

Hi Skilled builder, we are looking to build with Classic Builders at their Kennedy Ridge new subdivision at the Lakes. Are they someone you would recommend? Thanks~

We paid close to $2,700 per sq m for our home and we sure didn’t get what we paid for. Still having major issues 3 years after building, and the people responsible for this and who charged us a 15% management fee, have just one a Master Build Award. Honestly, something should be done about these builders who take people’s money, negatively affect their lives and take no responsibility. And as for the Master Build Association – appalling.