Costs of building a house rise
Survey shows higher land prices are pushing up construction costs
BUILDING a house today costs more than it did five years ago and the price of land is a major part of the rise.
A construction industry survey said increased land prices had pushed up costs as an average plot cost €15,000 more than in 2011 – hitting an average of €97,280 against €83,900 five years ago.
The construction costs for an average house project have reached €155,280 when the same house would have cost €138,000 to build in 2011 (although the RT2101 building standard has been introduced since then and will not have helped keep costs down).
It now costs €1,512/m2 on average to build and this is €200 more than before.
Not only this, but the houses being built are smaller and less well-equipped as the ForumConstruire.com/QuelConstructeur.com said people were trimming the work to meet their budget, using cheaper finishings, leaving the garden for a later project, choosing less expensive white goods etc.
The average house being built in the third quarter of 2016 is under 120m2 – it costs around €150,000 for a 100m2 house – and ForumConstruire said more and more builders were offering houses from 55m2 as expensive land plots were being divided into smaller lots.
In all, the survey found that an average project cost €97,280 for the land, €155,820 for the construction and €25,470 for decoration, plus the garden and surrounds.
Nine out of 10 of houses are built with traditional brick and parpaing breeze blocks but timber construction has fallen back from a peak of 11% in 2013 to just 6% this year.
