Bainesy36

Hi there everyone,

Whilst browsing around the new MLS site, I accidentally came across land for sale as I'd forgotten to specify houses in my search. This just got me thinking ! So, I'm just curious as to what it would cost roughly to build a 2000/2500sqft detached property with double garage excluding services etc. Does it work out as '$x' per sqft? Would the services be very expensive on top of this, or is that dependant on location/availability?

Thanks in advance,
Nige.

Almost Canadian

Rule of thumb is that the cost of the house will be x 2 the cost of the lot.

Obviously, quality of fittings will have a huge impact, but the above is what most builders here would suggest

Atlantic Xpat

That will hugely depend on the price of a lot. For example here you could buy a lot for $30k but it will cost a huge amount more to build a house.

Rough estimate I've heard is anywhere from $100-200 a square foot depending on finish. R I C H will weigh in soon I guess as he recently built (although in BC).

MB-Realtor

Between $175 and $250 per square foot, this would normally include the cost of an insulated basement, finishing the basement is normally between $25,000 to $50,000.

You could of course spend a lot more depending on you tastes.

Bainesy36

So that's anything from $100 - 250 per square foot! Or for a 2500sqft home, $250,000 - 625,000 In the middle of those, it's $175 per square foot or $437,500 just for the build!

Could be quite a costly exercise then, but I guess the finished property would reflect the build/plot cost? I'd noticed some plots just south of the city around the 4 acre mark for approx' $250,000 and thought if you could build for the same cost, then it would be much more appealing than a crammed in 2000sqft family home within a popular community.

How do the plots work? Can you build straight away and to virtually any design or do you have to apply for planning etc as you do in the UK? Can you split the lot up into parcels (1 acre each) and sell off what you don't want after you've bought it? How do mortgages work in this situation? It's always appealed to me to build our own home here in the UK, so it would definitely appeal on a large, picturesque plot in Canada!

Lots of questions and I appreciate all your replies!
Nige.

R I C H

Our 2050 sq/ft home (plus 550 sq/ft garage) cost roughly $650k to build (excluding land price). Photos #24 onwards if you want to see what that buys you http://ranchesonly.com/listing.php?Listing_ID=145 More photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fieldst...7602709087458/

This previous thread might answer some question: http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...building+house

Posidrive

As some of the posters have already said, there can be quite a variation in prices, but note that you probably get what you pay for.

Where we live lots go for around the 250k mark and the developer is advertising the the entry level for lot plus home is $750k. The minimum allows house size I believe is 2000 ft2 so this equates to about $250 per square foot for the construction of a property with a double garage. They are with good quality builders though.

Ardara

Hi all

We brought land back in 2000 and built our own house whilst living in a mobile home. OH did everything other than connect the gas & electric and piling the footings - costing approx £27 square foot. This was done over approximately 12 months whilst holding down a full time job.

We collect our PR in 9 days - putting house up for sale and hoping to do the same again but on a much larger plot in either BC or AB. Are the costs mentioned on this thread for a company to build a house for you? If not, they seem horrendous

We need to find out about planning, service connection costs, architects fees, zoning, material prices, etc.

Anybody out there who literally built their own home???

Any advice welcome.

Roos here

Minimum parcel size for a "country dwelling" (i forget the actual term in the development plans) for both Md foothills and Rockyview is 2ac. as others have said there are minimum house sizes and also maximum number of buildings per plot (also max number of horses) I have copies of the development plans for both foothill/rockyview if you have any more questions.

(building cost in Calgary seems to be coming down at the minute so you could probably get a good deal)

R I C H

My costs were for employing directly all the trades required to build. I guess I saved about $75K by doing a lot of the finishing carpentry and painting/staining myself.

Almost Canadian

Sorry, I thought the OP said Calgary, in Calgary, that is the rule of thumb

jericho

Dont discount the ridiculous labour shortage in Alberta.
You'd probably struggle to find the tradesmen to do the job....

Canada2006

I was told by the insurance broker that the replacement cost for my home 15 year old house, which is between 2500 and 3000 sqft including the basement was around $415 000.

We didn't pay anywhere near that.

Steve_P

Not so much of a shortage any more, contractors have been laying off.

Posidrive

15 months ago when we moved into our 2500 ft2 house in Cochrane the replacement cost according to the insurance company was 480k, this year it was revised to 590k.

I get the general impression that the worst of the trades shortage in Calgary is over now but this probably primarily helps the bigger builders who can offer mutiple job contracts. The trade shortage 2 years ago was a nightmare for us as we saw some properties in our development being completed in 7-8 months while ours took 18 months because we used a small builder who couldn't offer multiple jobs to the trades. Getting trades to build on an ad hoc basis for yourself could still be a nightmare. Especially good guys since there were some real cowboys around a couple of years ago. We've heard of the municiplaity inspectors refusing to approve the framing on some houses.