Not really sure what I’m looking for here - maybe to see if anyone has been in the same boat or thoughts on what you’d do?
We bought a house in January that was not habitable and requires complete renovation (it hasn’t been touched since the 50s, no central heating, rewiring, everything out and everything new back in plus a side return and loft extension).
When we were due to make an offer on the house we tried to get builders to come out to give us ‘ball park’ numbers and had no success. We went to a local architect who gave us a rough quote based on a similar house they were doing 3 streets away from us, similar condition etc. They were also able to get the builder from that project to come out who gave a slightly higher estimate £20k but not a huge variance from what they said given the overall project value.
We made an offer on the basis of this quote and it was accepted. We got keys end of January, applied for planning end of February and got planning permission 3 weeks ago. About 8 weeks ago the same builder who came to the house (who we’d hoped to use) called us and said materials costs had risen hugely since January and he wanted to make us aware. With his restated number we said we wouldn’t be able to work with him and said we’d go out on a formal tender when we get planning permission. So we did…
On Thursday, Friday and today I’ve had 3 quotes from 3 separate builders and the lowest one is a 80% increase from the quote in January. The other two are 100% - completely doubled. Two of them are higher than the quote we had from the original builder who came out to see the house and who’s now booked. We are gobsmacked, shocked, devastated - the list goes on. I’ve been harpering on to our architect for the past month that I was terrified the costs were going to be crazy different - she didn’t really say much other than don’t worry.
We’re now in a position where we have no idea what to do. 1) Sell our house (our flat is due to exchange in the next 1-2 weeks) and take the £20k hit we’ve spent on surveys, structural engineering fees and architect fees and either move out or London (we both work here) despite neither of us wanting to and we need more space or stay in our flat (even though we got offered crazy money for it) 2) Go ahead with the renovation and spend £100k (possibly more) than the house will be worth and be here for 5-10 years. I cannot say whether this is our ‘forever home’ as I don’t view life in that way - things change, circumstances change - but my husband would happily stay in it until retirement.
This also assumes we can borrow the additional money we’ll need and afford the mortgage payment given interest rates have gone up since we met with our broker in January. FWP but my god this isn’t for the faint hearted. I can’t stomach we’ve bought the most amazing house in the perfect location and we might have to let it go - we are both so wedded to it emotionally.
Has anyone else been at the hands of the increase in costs in the last 6 months - if so what the hell did you do / are doing?!