This is the first question you are going to ask yourself if you have the idea of building your own house. Building a house always creates many uncertainties and the most important one is the relative to which total budget you will have to attain. It is easier to achieve your budget if you control it from the beginning, since building a home is a complex process in which many variables are involved.
It is absolutely essential to have the help of an architect who not only is suppose to help you, in the design of your house and in the production of documents such as the bill of quantities , in which all the work units that will be necessary to carry out must be considered, according to the requirements that you have previously requested from him.
Any idea shown in concept design, structures, installations, must be included in the bill of quantities. The budget for the construction of a house is highly variable and adaptable to time, but we will describe the basic ideas that have to be as clear as possible when you contract the services of an architect.
When we talk about the price to build a house, experts refer to the price per square meter of construction, without taxes or licenses which will need to be added to the final budget. The budget is presented divided into the work chapters that are necessary for the building works. This construction budget has all the unit prices necessary to carry out each element of the work units that appear in the detailed project carried out by the Architect.
This budget depends on factors that intervene in the construction, some as important as topographic characteristics and characteristic of the land, the area of the house, the quality of the materials, the area of the urbanization, the finishes you choose, the complexity of the geometry of the house, and finally, the construction company itself.
Price per square meter of construction.
The construction budget for a single family home has risen considerably this last year from about €1.100/m² to 1.300€ -1.500€/m2, and this is without using expensive finishes. We are talking about relatively standard materials.
You must take into account all these variables:
The total covered area
The price per m² is not the same if it is a house with an area of 100 m² or if it is a house of 300 m², in the latter case the price is reduced, since we increase the area of materials. It is not the same to buy 100m2 of floor tiles than to buy 1.000m2.
One or two floors?
Distribute the house in one or two floors is decisive in the total budget. From 150 m² it's more profitable to build in two floors than in one, since the impact of the foundation and roof sections is reduced.
A house with unique volumes, such as cantilevers, terraces, creating changes outgoing and incoming façades, pushes up the budget since the area of the enclosures is increased. The same applies to the indoor climate: a compact volume is quite efficient. Ultimately the economic volume is a house with prismatic geometry.
The flat roof is much cheaper than a sloped roof.
The impact on the final budget of a house, if designed with facing brick or ordinary clay brick to be rendered, is quite considerable, although it is true that eventually the facing brick is more economical long run because it requires no maintenance for many years, and the render is finished with a painting that have to be replace every 10 years or so it is initially cheaper to build with a plastered and painted rendered or using coloured render.
Building a basement has a lot of impact on the total price of building a single-family house, making it expensive, although it is also true that it improves the insulation of the ground floor of your house and provides the property with additional area of construction, however it is better to d without it if possible
Other variables to pay attention.
Let's suppose that your house has 150m2 and we want to design it within an economic budget, the solution is to design a house with a square volume and two floors, a flat roof and the façade with normal hollow brick rendered and painted.
In this solution the budget would be around €1.100/m², and if you project your house with unique volumes, sloping roofs and special materials for finishing, you increase the budget to €1,300/m². In case you want to have a basement you can reach €1,500/m². In any case, Pacheco & Associates Architects will help you reduce this estimated budget to the minimum.
Technical fees for detail project may require up to three technicians:
The topographic study carried out by a topographer, consists of drawing in a plane to scale the exact geometry of the lot where the house is built, with its level curves to see the movement of lands to be made. The price stands around € 400 depending on the situation and the ground area. This may not be necessary unless the ground is too irregular.
The Geotechnical Report, which is carried out by a geologist, and gives us the resistant characteristics of the ground and helps to calculate the adequate foundation . Its price stands around € 800.
The design, detail project including structural calculations and bill of quantities carried out by the architect, usually stands at about 7% to 10% of the actual cost of construction. Here we take into account the actual size of the property and the complexity of the project.
Site supervision of a newly build needs the engagement of a building engineer (Aparejador):
Site supervision by an architect.
Site supervision by a building engineer (Aparejador) who normally also carry out the duty of supervising the Health and Safety on site.
The fes for building engineer depend on the complexity and the area of the construction, but generally they charge about 1.5% to 3% of the actual construction cost
VAT which is applicable in Spain to technical fees is 21% .
If you hire a construction company with turnkey operation, the company is responsible for the construction of the house at the contracted price.
You may be interested in hiring a turn key operation whereby you obtain the finished building and include architects and the construction. Normally there is a higher fees as the project management has to be paid for. The fee of the project management can be around the 5%.
Cost for building license, which aims to monitor the adequacy of the project with the provisions of municipal regulations. The price stands at 4% of the budget stipulated in the project which is always lower that real cost about 50%.
Tax on constructions, installations and works, a building permit needed to start the project. The price stands at 2% of construction cost. To get the work permit must pay a deposit for waste management of construction and demolition.
We must also allow the expenses to register the new building, which is done at the end of the work, first at the notary to draw the deeds and registering them in the Land Registry later on. Notary fees and the register are stipulated by tariffs set by law. The sum of both stands at 0.5% of the value of the house.
The Fee for first occupation license, whereby the town hall verifies that the works have been executed according to the project submitted to obtain the building license. If the final budget is different, there may be an upward or downward adjustment of this tax although this is not usually done.
The habitation certificate serves for the Regional Authorities to check the compliance with the conditions of habitability of the house.
The price of the high of supplies is around €200 for each connection of water, electricity, gas and telecommunications.
If you require financing then you will need to add:
- Expenses for the valuing the actual price of the property, normally stands at about €400.
- The notary and registration fees, totaling 0.5% of the mortgage liability as mentioned above.
- The Tax of documented legal acts, which its price stands at 1.5% of mortgage liability.
- The commission for the mortgage, whose price stands at 0.5% of the loan amount, and the bank interest that depends on the terms of the mortgage you subscribe.
Please see in this blog "
How much does it cost to build a house in Spain ? (Updated to 2022) (Updated to 2021)" for breakdown of costs chapter by chapter on building a house in Spain )
https://www.spanisharchitect.info/2015/11/05/how-much-does-it-cost-to-build-a-house-in-spain-part-1/
Write a comment
REALLY (Tuesday, 27 October 2020 08:42)
YOU HAVE YHE MOST IMPORTANT FACT WRONG
NEW BUILD IVA IS ONLY 10%. N O T 21
Hello Really, (Tuesday, 27 October 2020 09:58)
The VAT that we mentioned in this article ..."VAT which is applicable in Spain to technical fees is 21% " refers to technical services and not to construction and it is 21%..
Juan Pacheco
katia (Tuesday, 13 April 2021 03:35)
I like the explanations. thank you
Anita Alexander (Wednesday, 12 May 2021 13:31)
Can you please tell me how much it would cost to build the modern type house as on your website in an area of Andalusia if we have a plot of land. The build size of 160/180 sm with pool and finished. I understand you can only give us a rough guide but it will help us decide if this is a viable project for us. I also understand the cost varies if you upgrade materials so please just quote for basic and we will go from there.
Kind regards
Anita Alexander
Juan Pacheco (Wednesday, 12 May 2021 17:44)
Good afternoon Anita,
Thank you for contacting Pacheco & Asociados Architects.
The cost of contraction in Andalusía is now about 1.800€ to 2.000€ per square meter, depending on the characteristics of the plot, finishing material selected etc. These costs have risen from costs provided by contractors a few months ago due to the fact that the Spanish Building Regulations have changed last October. Now all new buildings designed must obtain the letter "A" in energy proficiency and implies a lot of improvements in energy conservation and the production of clean energy. The buildings are more expensive to be built but the non renewable energy needed in the future to heat or cool the building is near 0.
To that you have to add, building licence fees (about 2.5% of real cost, without VAT), architects and building inspector's fees about 10%.
These are ballpark figures of course, and you must take them as such.
If you have any further questions do not hesitate to contact us.
Best regards
Juan Pacheco
Charlotte (Friday, 26 November 2021 10:00)
Good Morning Juan
Could you tell e the average building cost for inland Alicante such as Aspe
Many Thanks Charlotte
Juan Pacheco (Friday, 26 November 2021 16:49)
Hi there Charlotte,
It is very difficult to provide an exact cost of construction because it depends on many factors. I invite you to visit this article in my blog. I have broken down the costs of a family house with all kind of details:
https://www.spanisharchitect.info/2015/11/05/how-much-does-it-cost-to-build-a-house-in-spain-part-1/
If you further questions after you red the article don't hesitate to contact me.
Juan
Andy Scripture (Wednesday, 27 April 2022)
Good afternoon
I am considering building a single story extension to a single story house, to enlarge 2 bedrooms and create a new bathroom. I expect the total floor area to be around 30 square meters, over which the existing pitched roof will need to be extended.
Please could you give a rough idea of the price per square meter I should expect to pay? Also, would I expect additional costs (architect, building inspector etc) to be about 10%?
Thank,
Andy
Juan Pacheco (Monday, 09 May 2022)
Good morning Andy,
The cost of extending a property in Spain starts at about 1.800€. To that you will have to add a cost of 10%-12% to cover fees, building licence etc
Juan Pacheco
Architect
Andy Scripture (Wednesday, 11 May 2022 12:20)
Thank you very much, that's really helpful.