Cost of a Home

[Coldamus]

SWMBO has a block of land in an outer suburb of Toowoomba, QLD. It is a half-acre corner block with all services and is slightly elevated yet almost perfectly flat, so there should be no unusual site costs. She wants to build a home on it, either to live in or just to capitalise on the value of the land.

We've been to several display home villages here in Sydney to try to get an idea of cost to build. However it is hard to put any faith in advertised prices and Sydney builders won't do Queensland anyway.

Before asking a local builder for a formal quote, she needs a ballpark idea of how much to budget for. This is for a home to be fully built, complete with kitchen and bathroom fittings, carpets and light fittings but without furnishings. Nothing too fancy - reasonably stylish 3 br brick veneer with an ensuite, perhaps bay windows in the lounge and a double lug. - fairly spacious but no need for family rooms etc. as no kids involved.

She is hoping that someone here has gone through a similar exercise recently and can give her some idea of what cost to expect. $100K ??, $150K??, $200K??

What if she wanted to go split level with the bedrooms upstairs and an upstairs balcony to take advantage of the views? Another $20K??, $50K??

Thanks in advance to anyone willing to share their experience.

regards
Coldamus

[tinsmith2]

I have drawn up a few houses (I'm a draftsman) in the years. In general the details you have given us is not enough to estimate the costs, but for estimating we used $1400 per metre sq. for a brick veneer house, $1400/m2.

[Wood Butcher]

I have friends in Toowoomba that are building a house now. 4 bedroom, ensuite, double garage etc. $210k. I'll try to find out what size the house is next time I see them.

[Coldamus]

Thanks for the replies. I realise we haven't given enough detail for an accurate cost but we were only hoping to get a rough idea. From your responses so far, it may be somewhat more than we thought but that's why we needed to ask the question. Once we have a ballpark figure, SWMBO can settle on a size and design, get an accurate price and then start looking at ways to reduce it - such as doing some of the finishing work, internal painting etc. ourselves.

regards
Coldamus

[maglite]

I have no idea wether this is true or not but i have been led to believethat in general it is far more expensive to add something to the project home plans that it is to remove something (walls etc)

Worth thinking about, tho i could be wrong.