Can you build a 4 bed house for around £150,000-200,000?

[MimiDaisy11]

I’m curious if anyone here has built their own house and if they did it on a reasonable budget? I’m not counting land cost in the figure. Just for the construction and permits etc.
I unfortunately don’t have any skills in building a house, bricklayering, electrician etc but I do have time and could do menial work and project management.
I’m just starting to look into so would appreciate if anyone has any tips on online sites, books etc.

I really like the straw bale houses....popular in ireland and usa....cheap and fabulous insulation etc.....i would like to do one....have been on a few courses etc but no futher research....

Why aren’t you counting the land cost, out of interest?

I think much would depend on the spec and finish you want, and where you are in the world - labour costs vary massively.

I'm pretty sure on self build websites and magazines they give you a guide of price per square foot, depending on spec. Judging by the cost of extensions and renovations I think that might seem quite low for a full build.

I think that figure might be on the low side. We built ours, not including the cost of the site, for about €250k euro but that was 20 years ago and in Ireland where self build isn't unusual. I have the impression it's far more expensive in the UK and the cost of raw materials has gone up hugely recently. It will also depend where you live. In Northern Ireland or Scotland your money will go further, in SE England you'll get a lot less for your money.

With the current cost of materials ans the speed that cost continues to rise. Combined with a labour shortage pushing those costs up, if you can’t do anything your self in a word. No. Not to any decent standard anyway.

No chance! We’re building our house in Germany so prices will be different. Here the average cost of a standard house is €2,650 per square meter for house construction alone. Then additional costs such as land, garage, planning, utilities, landscaping, surveys etc etc come on top.

£200,000 would get you around 88 square meters, so nowhere near a 4 bed house. A 4 bed would need at least 120 m2 and that would be pretty small. 140-160 m2 would be likely needed.

I also wouldn’t advise project managing something yourself if you have no experience in construction!

You could look at kit houses, which are actually often of a very good standard, especially the German companies that build in the UK. If you have a look at their websites it should give you a good idea of turnkey prices.

We built ours for less than that, 4 beds and a study/box room. But that was 15 years ago!!

Short answer - no. Unless you are doing the majority of the building work yourself. People’s numbers from 15-20 years reply don’t count. You couldn’t even go by what things cost 15 months ago. To do full renovation/extension of a 4 bed would easily cost £200k these days.
Where in the country are you? What’s on the land now? How far is the nearest house? Are utilities already connected? How big in sq.ft will the house be? To get a decent answer of how much it will cost, you need to share this detail.

Maybe but where? I looked into building a house but land prices are high if you can build. It's much easier to buy a home that's in need of repair and convert it to what you want.

As others have said the current cost of labour and materials is crazy so unless you can do any of the work yourself it's unlikely.

I recently got a couple of quotes of a two storey (boring box) extension just adding an extra living area and a bedroom - the quotes were all around £145k without fittings. A quote for just the brick/breeze block shell (no windows/doors/electrics etc....) Was £90k. I live in the south east.

Thanks for replies. I was thinking that the current climate with labour shortages etc wouldn’t be good for it. Though it’s not the best for buying a house either what with all the demand (recent house we viewed went for 20% over asking price!) hence I’m looking at all options.

To answer some of the questions. I live in Scotland. I didn’t include land costs in my figure here as I was factoring it into my overall budget and was just interested in costs for the actual house building.

Thanks again for replies.

A lot of information here,

urbanistarchitecture.co.uk/cost-to-build-a-house-uk/

Building costs in the UK start from £1,750 per square metre.

And, In 2021, a cost estimation for a house is anywhere between £1,750 and £3,000 per m2.

It's not just the cost of building and land but also the costs of supplying and conneting services - water, electricity, drains, septic tanks, driveways/parking places (most planning permissions are quite fussy about these) . And also gates and fencing. Planning permission/building regs fees/ architect's fees are also quite a consideration.
Also - which some people often forget - houses have to be built to building regs standards. These exist for a good reason, but mean that you can't just build anything you want.

Depends on so many factors. Assuming you have a flat site with easy access for vehicle and electric etc at the boundary of the site you may be able to construct a property especially those partially factory built - I've seen them on tv at that price point but usually the home builder is doing the interior. Kitchens alone cost from £5k to £100k +!

Prices definitely vary. Take a look at Danwood homes, I saw them linked on a thread here some times ago. They do turn key service, so prices are for this. They don’t include kitchens though so you would have to arrange that yourself. Lots of designs and sizes available. According from their site £200k is just about doable. Also they have a base in Scotland, Galashiels.

www.dan-wood.co.uk/en