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