To ask how much it will cost to build a house?

[Chocoholic26]

I know this is a bit of a ‘how long is a piece of string’ type question but due to our growing family we need to buy a bigger house. Unfortunately there really is nothing in our area that is coming up within budget (we’ve been looking for 4 years) or if it is within budget then it needs so much money spent on it. Is there anyone who is in the industry (or is currently building) who can advise how much approximately a 4 bedroom family home would cost to build? We are in Scotland and in a rural location. Our budget is probably £250,000 max! Preferably £230,000. This would have to include everything! House wouldn’t have to be huge in terms of square foot but rooms wise we would like 4 bedrooms (1 ensuite), family bathroom and separate wc, open plan kitchen/dining/living space and it would be lovely to have an extra room for a playroom/snug/office/guest room if money allowed. I understand cost of materials have gone through the roof so no idea if this is doable. We don’t have family or friends who could do any work so this would very much all need to be contracted out. We are fortunate enough that we have a plot of land but just no idea if we can afford to build on it. I’d like a nice airy family home but it doesn’t have to be high spec in every detail. Am I living in a dream world with this budget or is it doable? I just don’t fancy approaching planners, architects or builders etc if I’m completely way off in terms of cost 🤔. I hope that’s enough information and would really appreciate anyone who is building or has recently built that could give me a rough idea. Thank you ☺️.

@lastqueenofscotland what about kit houses? Are these more affordable than having an architect etc? I’m currently obsessed with heb homes kit houses.

@confusedlots fab, good to get a rough idea of costs. I think we are definitely going to be pushing it especially when we can’t really do any of the work ourselves. I’m unsure I could cope living in a caravan with three kids

It is worth getting the planning permission as by doing so you immediately add value to the site.

I work for a house builder in the North, it costs us £190 - 220k but that's excluding any cost of the land.

Don’t go for a septic tank, they are being phased put and if ypu are building new its silly to put something in that you know will be non permitted in under 10 years, go for a biodigester.

We built 20 years ago in Ireland and it cost us roughly your budget plus the cost of the site for a 2k square foot house. Although we are quite rural, services were in place so there was no extra costs there. I'm not sure what costs would be like in Scotland, it might not be comparable.

I think you should look at whether you'd get planning first. If you can't get outline planning permission there's no point spending any money on plans etc.

I hope you can do it. Despite the stress we ended up with a nice house that cost us a third less than it would've done if we'd bought it as a complete house. It's worth it.

[quote Chocoholic26]@confusedlots fab, good to get a rough idea of costs. I think we are definitely going to be pushing it especially when we can’t really do any of the work ourselves. I’m unsure I could cope living in a caravan with three kids [/quote]
We're in our caravan with 2 kids and a cat, it's really not too bad!

@Tellthemagain oooh this is interesting…want to come and build mine?

I'd kit build in a second in these circumstances, much cheaper.

I love this website www.self-build.co.uk/home/affordable-timber-frame-home-scotland/

I'm skint as fuck though so just look at it to be nosey

@DramaAlpaca thank you, I really hope we can too

@TheCanyon oooh thanks, I’ll go have a look. I’d totally be up for a kit house!

If you have the site already then I definitely think it’s achievable depending on the size and spec of house you design. I’d recommend getting a recommendation for a couple of local builders and architects and sounding them out - they’ll have the best idea of the current market. As others have mentioned if the site is rural connections may be expensive.
We’ve just built in Northern Ireland and were luckily able to afford to stay in the house we were living in (actually worked out cheaper than buying a caravan and living on site!). Our house is mid to high spec, 3,600 square feet and cost around 365K to build. When we were planning the design we were told £100 - £140 per square foot is a rough guide, but depends totally on your design and spec and our architect has said if we were starting the process now it would be much more. It’s been a fun thing to do (albeit stressful at times!) and we could never have afforded to buy the same house on the open market. Good luck if you do decide to go ahead. No harm applying for planning permission even if you don’t, will only increase the value of your site.

@Chocoholic26 someone had a post up on the property bit here in the last few weeks about kit houses. Cottages something it's called. I'm just away to sleep or I'd search it out for you.

Ikea are doing them somewhere (not the uk I think) how easy would that be, aye I'll take them walls/roof/sofa/fridge/duvet. Done.

Thanks everyone. All really helpful replies

Friends built a 5500sq ft house 5 yrs ago for £350k all finished. They sourced all
the fittings themselves.

Factor in at least a 25% contingency, 50% would be sensible the way things are at the moment.

There are so many factors here but as a ballpark we have recently (1 year ago) finished a build in Wales which was approx £220k excluding land for a high spec 4 bedroom house. However, to get it completed for this price meant negotiating on architects price to be fixed fee, us project managing the build and my husband helping on a fair bit of the build. As a PP has said, go for biodigester or sewerage treatment plant and look at sustainable or renewable options on the build

Oh, and we took a loan to secure the land, then sold our old home to obtain build mortgage and rented til the build was complete; moved in asap to save on rent but just couldn't face caravan with 2 kids!

Just adding fwiw, on the subject of materials cost, I work in construction supplies and no they won’t go down especially due to rising energy and fuel costs, the only way is “up” on those I’m afraid, best we’re hoping for is stabilisation.

I think you would really struggle on your budget if you’re not going to be doing any of the work. Kit houses can come up expensive too when all the costs are factored in.

You need to find out if you would realistically be able to get planning permission first. Speak to the planning department.

We did a self build. It was a nightmare tbh. I definitely wouldn’t do it again.