Budget and cost breakdown for building our house

Our aim is to build a small sustainable home which is also affordable. Not a very easy task with the current building boom and high prices in New Zealand and a limited availability of building products. The planned size of the house is 70 m2 and our budget is set to NZ$ 300.000 (€200.000 at current exchange rate, €180.000 when we moved to New Zealand a year ago…..).

After creating the work breakdown structure it was time to dive into some numbers and find out in detail the costs of different parts of the building process. My first round of budgeting, the work breakdown structure, came to $419.000. Only slightly above budget 🙂 but it also made clear that we really have to pay attention to every detail of the build or products we buy and be resourceful in keeping the costs down. The other option off course is to increase the budget but for now that’s not a direction we want to pursue. I revisited the numbers and came to the following breakdown of our budget:

High level divided over:

  • Overhead:          $39.195 (11%)
  • Site works:         $90.000 (26%)
  • House:                $136.000 (38%)
  • Builder profit:   $20.000 (6%)
  • Tax:                     $39.779 (11%)
  • Unforeseen:       $26.520 (8%)

Total $351,494 so still $51k over budget. I can’t see where to cut the budget more so we’ll take it from here and see in a later stage what the quotes from builders are going to be.

The detailed breakdown of the budget is as follows:

Overhead   $39.195
Consulting
Engineering reports/structural design site/foundation $4.000
Geotechnical report $3.500
Surveyor $1.400
Drainage, hydraulic engineering report $1.500
Quantity surveyor $2.000
Architect $17.000
Resource consent application $1.000
Landscape design $0
Resource consent? $2.000
Building consent $6.500
LIM report + title $295
Site works   $90.000
Excavation and foundation $50.000
Excavation
Retaining walls
Piles foundation
Groundworks
Landscaping and Infrastructure $20.000
Driveway
Parking
Paths
Stairs
Decks
Railings
Plants
Trees
Septic system $12.000
Water tanks $8.000
House     $136.000
Structure/framing $58.000
floor slab
wooden structure
roof
rainwater system
Exterior cladding
interior lining
insulation
flooring
doors interior
plastering
painting
door hardware and keys
Windows $20.000
Electrical $4.000
double power points througout
data connections
safety plugs several locations
lights, incl exterior
mains power
solar panels inst.
EV car
Domotica
Plumbing $7.200
main connection watertank
kitchen
1 x Toilet suites
1 x Shower
2 x Vanities
1 x Bath
1x outside shower
water heater
1 x 300 litre HWC
HVAC  $0
Wood burner $500
Heath pump  $0
Solar panels $7.000
Hot water heat pump  $3.000
Kitchen $15.000
top, cupboards, tiles, sink
tabletop
cupboards, cabinets
tiles
sink
tapware
Kitchen appliances
dishwasher $1.200
microwave $200
oven $1.500
refrigerator $800
cooktop $1.100
Laundry
washingmachine/dryer
Bathroom $15.000
shower
bath
vanities
tiles wall and floor
Mirrors
tapware bath, shower, basins
labor
Toilet $1.500
toilet
tiles wall floor
Garage/carport $0
Total building cost $265.195
Other     $20.000
Contractors site set-up, costs and (P&G) profit $20.000
Tax     $39.779
15% $39.779
Unforseen   $26.520
10% $26.520
Total project incl GST $351.494

 

This time next year we hope to be in the final stages of the build. We are very curious to see if we are going to laugh about what we thought we could achieve within the budget or if the final figures come close to our first estimates.

 

Margriet Geesink

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