[multiman]

We've built a couple of decent sized houses in the UK, the first coming in at 180 square metres, the second at 220 square metres.

We live in the South East where it's a bit more expensive for labour. If anyone wanted to build a decent sized house here to a decent standard, with good finishes, but not going over the top on bespoke kitchens and the like, I'd tell them to budget about £1,000 per square metre. Obviously that's just for the house. It doesn't include buying the land or landscaping the garden and stuff like that.

So would it be fair to budget $2,000 per square metre to build a 200 square metre house in Australia? Or are they cheaper because they can be built to lower standards of insulation, double glazing, etc?

[fran]

Hi,

A good place to start would be the AVJennings website that has designs and land for sale. The prices shown for the homes are for the kit only and you will need to employ a builder to build it for you (or do it yourself -owner/builder which is a lot more usual here than in the UK). The cheapest kit house they have (land and building works excluded) is $99,500 which is for a 130sqm home.

http://www.avjennings.com.au/VIC/HomesToBuild/SingleStorey.aspx

There have lots of other designs as well. Also they sell lots so you get an idea of lot prices. Prices seem to start around $140,000 in Melbourne and are very variable depending on area and lot size.

Sorry, but I don't have any idea about how much a builder would charge to complete the home. A very rough guess looking at the completed prices on their website would be around about the price for the kit.

[dusty]

For a complete cost of a built home then I would look at a builder such as Simonds http://www.simonds.com.au/. There website has many plans and designs and the prices quoted are for the built property. Apart from the cost of the land you will have other fees, but it will give you a 'ball park' figure to have in your mind.

From their website, for one storey, 200 sqm home prices are at around $150,000 - $200,000.

http://www.simonds.com.au/

[multiman]

Thanks for those links and the info fran and dusty. It looks from Simonds like it'll be a bit cheaper to build in Australia than in the UK, which is good news.