Extension costs These Days

[Cramlington567]

Am in the north west (south Manchester) and wondering what the latest extension costs are these days including VAT.

Looking at getting a two storey side extension. I gather this would be cheapest per square meter to have just a square rectangle about 3m x 7m footprint so 84k if for example 2k per square meter. Hoping to get a 4th bedroom and extended kitchen/utility for that.

However I would like to go out a bit on the ground floor into the garden 2 or 3 meters and have pitched roof with skylights. However,I am doubtful our budget would stretch. We could go to 100k total really including VAT. Not doable is it?

I know prices were crazy around COVID and last year but with interest rates being so high is this meaning builders are getting less work and pricing to get the jobs. How about material costs,?

Thanks.

A friend of mine (we are also in south Mcr) had a two storey side extension recently quoted at £225k+ VAT and that was for a bog standard finish. That was the cheapest of three quotes. So I think you're way off with £100k sorry.

Wow. That is nuts. May have to give up on the dream.

We are South Manchester and had 2 storey side extension and a single storey one to replace an 80s conservatory completed last year and we paid £3k per square metre. I would imagine costs have decreased but probably not by enough to bring your extension in for £100k unfortunately.

Traditionally it was always cheaper to extend than move, I think we’ve now hit the point where that’s absolutely not the case.😢

Yes, @Heyhoherewegoagain bought the house partly because it had scope to extend as couldn't afford a bigger house.

Always thought moving costs which could be 20 or 30k or whatever was a waste but someone said to me 'well you pay 20% tax on an extension' which is probably more . Never thought of it that way .

@Cramlington567 its hellish just now, we’re not long finished a whole house renovation and the cost has been eye watering. Yes we’ve made it the dream house, but I do grudge what it’s cost and it’s seriously affecting how I feel about it, but I can’t tell anyone that because no one can see past how “amazing” a job we’ve done ….

I think you’re looking at least double that cost or even triple if you want higher end finish/new kitchen included.

I just can’t fathom how this is all going to end. Homes need to be maintained but how on earth are people going to be able to afford it. Are we going to end up with most houses in such a dire state or no one being able to renovate or move??

I think it’s a case of having to do more sections at a time.

For example extend out the back first so you have kitchen/ diner extension or whatever that is. And just make sure it’s designed so you can easily add the two storey side extension at a later date.
Or maybe you only add a smaller back extension of max 2m, not 3m so you can get a high equality finish on the 2m not 3m out.
Or only do a single storey side extension.

Look at whether it’s more cost effective to go into loft for example or keeping house smaller but housing office space in garden pod.

Our current house we bought 7 years ago, and it’s taken 6 of those to get to a renovated standard (mostly). Still some areas to do, but we couldn’t afford to do say a €150k project at once, so have had to do just and area at a time, then save another year before next area.

Do you have any contacts elsewhere? We had a "friend of a friend of a friend" in the building trade in another part of the NW come to quote who didn't add on a "south manchester" premium. We agreed extras to account for a bit of travelling / shorter days, but was still much cheaper than the usual building firms you see locally. As others have said, much will depend in the spec and internal finishes, plus how much internal re-configuration is required. I would just get some quotes.

Yes.

Then something will break, because it has to.

I’m having a new kitchen fitted, work begins next week and I was stunned by the cost! My sister had hers refitted three years ago and even though my kitchen is smaller than hers, mine has come in at more than double the cost!

Getting quotes is a bit frustrating, half of builders aren't interested unless you have drawings (understandable they must get a lot of time wasted with non serious people).

Even ballpark quote you get can seemingly change hugely. So to get an actual quote you need to get the drawings done. So talking about paying one or two grand just to get real quote and if that is woefully beyond budget then you just paid a grand just paid a grand or more to find that out. Hence me asking on here.

Anyways, thanks for the responses.

I would say you can easily double that. We’re currently pricing a small one storey extension and the prices are hugely over and above what you paid pre Covid.

Prices for basic building materials are not as expensive as people think, not including kitchens/ glazing flooring , but for blocks ,sand cement bricks,timber and so on are just a small % of the cost of extending. The biggest costs are labour/ profit and it will vary from builder to builder as in how much they want/ think to charge.

Were in the Midlands, doing a single storey extension to include a second bathroom/shower room, and kitchen diner( but estimates and quotes don’t include the kitchen as we are planning to get that that done directly by the manufacturer).

When we started the process at the end of last year we gave the initial architect’s drawings to three builders and their best estimate at the time was £2,500 per sq metre.

Finally got planning permission, after a massive delay caused by a backlog at the planning department. Same plans, but with full drawings and spec from architect (nothing that wasn’t discussed at initial meetings with builders) and the actual quotes are coming in at just under £3,000 per sq metre, to just over and that’s ex vat.

We’re now having to seriously think about whether to go ahead or what we can cut back on, as the extra cost cuts into our contingency which makes me very nervous and leaves us less than we had hoped to pay for living elsewhere during the build. (We can’t live on site during the build as the house is tiny, so there’s nowhere to escape to, no room for a caravan or similar on site, dh wfh and I am also at home full time caring for a disabled dc. It’s so frustrating, as it means factoring in 6 month’s rental costs as part of our build budget and of course rental rates are sky high right now as well.)

I have been waiting almost 20 years to get this work done and it is desperately needed, as we need to stay where we are, but can’t afford to move to a bigger house in this area.

Historically our plans were much grander, but then the mortgage rates put paid to how much equity we could release at a reasonable cost, so we were already doing a lot less than we’d hoped for and one year on even that’s not enough for the scaled down plans.

I’m so down about it today. Feels like we’ve had such a long battle to get to the point of actually agreeing which builder and booking a date in (should be next March/April if we are actually be able to go ahead) and now it feels too risky.

Please Don’t let this take over your life, it’s is meant to be it will happen and if not, maybe is for the best. I don’t mean to put you off but if you feel insecure there is no harm in waiting a bit longer and see what happens with labor cost/profits which I feel are unsustainable.
we recently finished a big renovation in our house After 7 years talking about it and our plans grew bigger over time. And in total honesty I wish I could go back in time and cancel everything. At the moment labour cost are absolutely stratospheric, financially it’s just not worthy once you factor all delays, rent, vat, many different surveyors…of course it will be nice to live in the house of your dreams but in my case I resent it, not only because the huge cost (near 1m, we are in prime london) but mainly because it has taken two years of my life to end up with a house that I actually dislike, and I feel bad in it,but that a story for another threat.

Best of luck with whatever you decide

@Evangelinemore The problem is we can’t wait any longer to have the work done. It’s needed to accommodate the needs of our family, as we now know one dc will need to live at home indefinitely and another is unlikely to be moving out for at least the next 5 years. It’s very different living as parents plus 3 small dc to the current situation which is essentially 5 adults in a tiny house (one is an older teen).

Since I posted we have had more quotes, including from family and friends who have all used the same person who manages a trusted team of individual trades, rather than doing the whole build themselves. He seems extremely reliable and we have been able to see the quality of the work produced by the ‘team’ of contractors he manages. He’s coming round for an in-depth talk with us today, so fingers crossed we can work out a way forward. Still talking late March, early April as a start date if we can make it work.

That’s good to hear, I really didn’t mean to put you off, we all have different needs in our life, my case was quite the opposite, we didn’t need to do the job, our house wasn’t perfect but fine as it was and I just got carried away.

And from now to March it might be possible that labour cost have cooled down, as I believe, whatever they say, there is a lot less demand now than just a few months ago. At least in my part of london it was a lot going on for years and suddenly it has all go very very quiet.

I also have three teens and two of the will be going to uni soon, the house will be too big for us and we will be selling it next summer and taking a loss. Timing couldn’t have been worst to do renovations 🙈

again good luck all the best with your DC
keep us posted

Yes, in Essex we're doing a single storey, 8x3m, requires piling because of nearby tree 😕£61,000 ex VAT. So that's around £2.5k per sq m. Most quotes were in the 70s/80s. Considered moving but we like the house and still think it will add the value but it was/is borderline stuff.

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but I was just wondering what those who were contemplating an extension last year decided to do?

We are in that position at the moment and I feel stuck. We don’t know whether to take the plunge and take on the work now (having to borrow more on our mortgage, which will make will make our monthly payments very tight, seeing as the cost of EVERYTHING has gone up) or fix our current mortgage for another two years and look at borrowing more and doing the work in 2026 in the hope that we will have saved more money in the meantime and interest rates will be better (maybe that’s wishful thinking…)?