Costs of building a house rise

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.