Anyone here ever thought of that ?? What would the cost of building own house be vs buying super expensive house ?

im thinking :

land cost
design house cost
need to get some approvals from local municipal council
hire contractors to build it

what would the cost difference be like ? build own house vs buy those already made ones.

hope ppl can contribute their experience here.

thanks

Sure, why not?

Best part is, you get control over your house design. Freaking cool man.

I wanted but couldn't do it because any place worth living in that has empty land cost over 1 million.

you know cost depends on the amount of raw materials which also equivalent to the size of your house, right?

then the complication of interior design which also contributes to the workmanship and raw material also plays a part in your cost too, you know right?

overall, it would be cheaper if compare to buying from developer. at least you get to control the financial but the only thing tough will be the time. you need to ask yourself if you have the time to monitor, if not you'll need to engage a contractor to do everything for you. again it all boils down to money also.

anyone got an indication of what the cost will be like ?

u sitll have to consider all other paper works such as submission to local council, architect fees, interior designer, raw material, labour. Quite tedious unless u have contacts

might take years for your house plan to be approved.

and that is after months and months of deliberating how you want your house to look like

and that is after you are able to find vacant land with a reasonable price on a good neighborhood.

i hope we get a reply from someone here who has gone down this road. would be nice if that person can share the experience.

how we do it in sarawak.

1. buy land.

2. build house.

3. live in house.

that is all.

Why not? U can control the following:

1. Design
2. Cost of materials
3. Workers
4. Last minute changes

Main advantage is cost. U pay around the same as read built houses but with better materials and quality. However, getting approval from the bank is very difficult. Best if u have friends in the construction industry.

you can't even tell what kind of budget you have or what kind of home you intend to design. so how can anyone give you any indication?

i love to have a 10,000 sqf bungalow on a hilltop overlooking klcc with start of the art green technology where all my roofs are solar paneled, all fully controlled using remote, centralized air condition for entire house including bathroom, etc. do you also love that?

be realistic about it when you want to be serious.

it will be like 30%-40% cheaper than ready made house. assuming you hire your own architect, engineer,contractor. Downside is that you need to have cash to pay them within 1-2 years time. that means cash of 70% of your house value to pay them.

This post has been edited by woopypooky: Aug 24 2012, 01:30 PM

I hope you realize that your question is very open and it's hard for people to give you an answer.

In general building your own house will have some cost saving compared to buying ready made one. This is because when you buy a ready made house the developer's profit is factored in already.

Main thing in building your own house is location. Can you buy an empty plot in your desired location? The land cost can vary a lot depending on location. Some people buy a land with a house on it and demolish the existing old house.

The design and approvals can be handled by the architect. Usually the architect fee will be a small % of the construction cost.

Construction cost can also vary a lot depending on what materials you want to use.

How do you get figure of 30-40% cheaper?

let us not go too far. assume we are looking at a standard double storey house 22x75.

yea it is general thats why im asking here and thats why i hope someone who went down this path can provide answers and advice coz when you look at how fast property prices went up, it doesn't look logical that it was due to material cost.

If u r talking about the exact same terrace house design, then id say the price is more or less the same. In a housing estate, all the infrastructures like road, water/electrical supply, sewerage, vehicular access and all that are shared.

If u build from scratch, the building material/cost may be cheaper, but thne u might need to build ur own roadacess and all that.

my take will be less than half mil excluding the land.

building own house requires cash ...while buying house u will owe bank...but building are more cheaper

I don't think I've heard anyone building a double storey terrace house from scratch. Firstly, very rarely you see anybody sell a vacant lot 22x75. Normally vacant land is larger and for bungalow.


It's not only material cost. There is also land cost, especially for new land acquisition.

Best way to estimate construction cost is by the built up area x construction cost psf. Typical 22x75 link house is 2000-2100 ft2. Check the cost with contractor, but yes definitely under half mil.

You might be able to arrange for construction financing from the bank. It will be similar to normal housing loan.

if more than half a mil i rather go buy a new one from developer..

Realistically speaking, for terrace houses there is not much choice except buy from developer. U don't see vacant terrace lots for sale do u?

cos i work with housing developer.

remember, when u buy 400k house, the developer practically earns 100k. thats is in malaysia.

This post has been edited by woopypooky: Aug 24 2012, 07:32 PM

in my experience, the material+construction cost for a typical 2-storey terrace house around 22x70 would be around RM100-150k. of course, this is not inclusive of professional consultancy fees, and whatever that's outside ur land plot (like roads leading to ur site and stuff like that), and the land cost itself.

architect's fees alone is about 7-11% of project cost. the other consultants are lesser than that. site location and accessibility is also a major contribution to the higher cost. a site with good access to mainroad and highways, not too far from city centers, situated on a hill overlooking city skyline would be very expensive. building a bungalow in a city lot is almost unheard of right now because of the expensive land value, it's better to build a multiple housing complex to maximize profit.

bottom line is, assuming u already have the land with the basic infrastructures connected to it, the building itself should cost around RM100k-150k.

But don't forget that developer gets economies of scale because things are done on project basis. If a private owner builds his own house the costs will be higher.

Nowadays and especially in KL I reckon it's closer to the 150k mark. Your estimate is based on project basis or individual basis?

And as you said there is a lot of other costs involved like professional fees, infrastructure, etc.

This post has been edited by jchong: Aug 24 2012, 10:25 PM

On the hindsight, I've seen people buying a perfectly built house, then demolishing it
then rebuilding it again.

Some people have way too much money.

This post has been edited by darium: Aug 24 2012, 10:40 PM

only limited to material and construction on an individual basis. in my experience, the cost dont differ that much whether u're in KL, JB or kuching, unless u go for materials like glu-lam timbers where there are only like a handful of factories in malaysia. prefab materials should lower the cost further, but deliveries to hard to get sites like rural sabah might increase the cost.

what makes it more expensive is land cost. and sometimes it's not even the actual cost of the land, but the predicted price AFTER the project gets built.

if you're from Penang, you're going to have hard time facing LGE

What has LGE got to do with the topic?

realistically speaking, there is no place where anyone can custom design terrace house.
i already wanted to inform TS about this actually.

well for discussion sake, lets say he really wants a terrace house design on an empty, bungalow lot .

in reality, of course u wont find any such lots in the cities. but outside, it's quite common. just go to any suburban areas and u will find one or two lots which are either entirely vacant, or was in extremely poor state (destroyed by fire, left for too long etc). of course, for it to be left there would mean the neighbourhood itself might not be preferable to live in, but still, it exists.

or we could talk about empty lots to be divided into multiple terrace lots. this often happens in under developed areas like kampungs. u could build several terrace houses, rent/sell a few of them and live one for u. i believe a single row of 2 storey houses should be more than enough to cover your own terrace house . but i havent seen this happen recently. dulu selalu laa

cheaper but more headaches
personally i prefer buying old abandon then renovate it to my liking
easier to get housing loan and not much hussle

really got such thing? any bank or what is the requirements? thanks

Do go and ask the banks. They will want to see your construction contract and land S&P and the usual requirements like your salary, etc.

actually in puchong area still can build semi-d on your own

One semi-d or a pair?

one
certain part of puchong only...

That's interesting. I wonder if the local authority will allow you to build one semi-d only.

Usually semi-d built in a pair to be symmetrical. If you just build one, next time the other side will have some challenges to tie into the one semi-d.

Interesting right?
How I know?
My parents are living in one.
That place there has all kinds of weird semi-d designs that doesn't 'link' at all...

This is true.

yes, they would. assuming the lot is empty and u've bought it legally, there's nothing that can stop u from building on it.

semi-D doesnt have to be symmetrical. it just has to share one party wall with each other. that's assuming the other house already have a party wall ready to be shared with u.

question is now, i havent seen a single-sided semi-detached house. dunno if it could qualify to be called a semi-detached when it's entirely detached lol.

the advantage of having a semi-detached plot vs bungalow lot is that u dont have setback zone where u have party wall. means u can build right up to ur border.

Which part of Puchong is this? Maybe one day I'll drive by that area to see how it's like.

pusat bandar puchong taman wawasan
i heard one of the neighbor planning to sell for RM2mil.
if you interested i can hook you up

Yeah, the local authority might not stop you but wonder if they will impose any funny conditions when you submit building plan for approval.

Yup the semi-d just has to share one party wall. If the other side not yet built then I suppose you'll build the party wall first and I guess the party wall will have to be finished and painted... hmm...

Nah, not really looking to buy any semi-d at the moment

the party wall WILL look ugly though. have u ever seen those old 70s/80s shophouses at the end lot, where u can see the steel reinforcements jutting out from the side of the wall? well that's what it will look like . coz party walls should for as a structure as well, so the beams of the new house must use the wall for vertical support. or else it's going to be quite expensive to construct new columns about 1.5m away from the wall, especially considering the foundation pad underneath the party wall that might intrude into ur site...

agree with you, quite tedious job unless you have contact.

what's the cost of pulling electricity and water pipes into the house per km?

Bumping an old topic. Wondering if TS has actually build his/her own house?

I am thinking of going the same direction:

limiting the size to an area of ~ 24 x 70 ft
industrial loft design (single storey with high ceiling , with a staircase leading to a an upper section containing 1 master bedroom)
open space concept
1 master bedroom (upper) + 2 rooms (lower)


I wonder what is the estimate cost to build such house? a stand-alone building on own land

anyone can share their experience?

Thanks

Actually it depends very much on what you want to be stated in the architect's drawing.

There are cheap & expensive materials, so it's best decide what you want to achieve first by building a house.

If your aim is to go green & reducing electricity usage, all the best.

If your aim is to spend as much as possible on electricity bills every month, that should be rather easy to achieve.

Not opulence/luxury. I am aiming more for homely type. So things will be moderation, not too cheap that it will compromise on the functionality/service life. And not really into green building, so conventional building material/technology is fine.

I prefer to use more window/glass element for natural lighting and sense of spaciousness. One thing I am not sure is, which is more cost effective...having many glass panels or simply bricks.

My simplistic idea is, the building is just a a rectangular shape with bricks, exposed beams, and since there is very minimal wall and single storey in general, it will not cost as high as a normal double storey terrace (~300-400k). I prefer to spend less on the construction, more on furniture and interior design and front facade

For a standalone single storey building (with an upper section for a room), will it require piling for the base?

When discussing the design with architect, do we need to give them a sketch or we can show some images for the internet and get them to integrate it?

Thanks for your input.

It's best you have something for them to work on. Plus your input. Based on that together with the land, they will try to workout something which may or may not be to your liking and that requires further amendments from thereonwards.

The more specific you are at this stage the better it will be for everyone.

Piling is dependant upon land conditions and what you are building plus it's design because that will affect the load bearing. Your engineer will calculate for you if piling is really needed.

Your toughest issue will probably be finding a contractor that will deliver.

Bricks or glass which is cheaper. Tough question.

Got it man, thanks for the inputs. Somehow I agree on the last part. To get a contractor that can deliver the best result means needing to pay for the best. So that's why I am thinking to have conventional and simple design to get a manageable expectation and spending a bit more on ID for aesthetics.

interested, I think there should be a way to follow the topic without adding comment but couldn't find

Best result = Higher prices, generally that's the case. However I've come to know that that doesn't necssarily hold true for many contractors. Spending time with different contractors & their workers on-site & asking questions, soon you will be identify whom you should trust.

Finally, make sure that your building plans drawn by architect has this, Lighting & Ventilation Schedule and the plans far exceeds the building code requirements.

Lighting, since you prefer glass more, I can assume that there will be more natural lighting into your house. There's a housing estate I've been to that requires one to switch on lights even during the day, cause all the windows were tinted black. Crazy ???

Ventilation, I would say this is the most important aspect. If your going to build a house irregardless whether green or otherwise, ventilation MUST FAR EXCEED the building code requirement. If it doesn't, you might as well buy a house from the developer, instead of going through all the trouble.

I've been to a million dollar house before and it's definately the worst investment ever made. Within 5 minutes of stepping into the house, I was already eager to leave it.

Efficiency is the code to follow first, followed by esthetics but many have it they other way around instead.

so simple? now 2019 still so simple?

i have seen this in kuching. a newly build house. in double storey semi d form. i.e. one side of the wall is just walls. cut in the form of semi d..

Appreciate all the tips, things that common public like me wouldn't have pay much attention to. This will be my small project, in fact just started to give thoughts into its feasibility yesterday. Your input tell me that it is really workable.

Whoa...bumping old tered

This post has been edited by tomato people: Mar 12 2019, 01:09 PM

This is definately NO small project. You really cannot afford to screw up the planning & drawing stage. Mistakes done here will be translated into the building and realized once you move in.

If I were to do it all over again, the first thing I would do is to ask for the sample of approved plans submitted by the architect & study them very very carefully.

Finally, you make a list of everything thing that you dislike in the current house(s) design and make sure you don't repeat & incorporate them into your OWN house !

This post has been edited by Roman Catholic: Mar 12 2019, 02:00 PM

so do they plan to have future development or what?

nbot sure. just some house buy road side i saw. the house basically semi d double storey. done already bo. the other half empty

Actually building a house yourself is cheaper. i used to work for a developer and found that the cost is about 30% of the price excluding the land. Materials and labour can be negotiated and later. ONly the price of land differs by location and if you got daddykasi family land, then untung.

wait a minute, just 30%?

some alternative to build your own house on land, you may try this

my biggest fear is if I paid a lot and contractor run away or contractor make lame excuse not enough money ask for some more

that's what happen to my friend.

his house delayed 3 years because contractor cheated him

also high risk contractor run away

how to find reliable contractor ?

last time got one neighbor he saw contractor renovate another house. So he ask the indon contractor to build a platform behind his house. He paid the money then indon contractor pretend hard work building the stilts. The stilts not even halfway, he ran away with the money and project not even 20% completed.

Yup, how you think developers get so rich?

What was the contract sum?
Number of units & type?

This post has been edited by evangelion: Mar 14 2019, 08:26 PM

See this thread

https://forum.lowyat.net/topic/4728766

Then you neighbour is stupid to pay in full in advance.

Indon contractor and workers always in risk of being kacau by immigration so they always on the run.

Pay them in phase

Glass and big window is nice, but the sun ray in Malaysia also strong 😅

haha got poisoned by those western designs in instagrams have to put layers of curtains

If it faces the morning sun ☀️, then yes.
If it faces the afternoon sun ☀️ ☀️, yes however unless
i. The glass is double layer with ogon gas, OR
ii. Shading either by natural shading or artificial shading must be incorporated into building plan.

Got it, thanks.

I just realize you are the TS for the TNB smart meter, meaning you are in Melaka too

Yes you are right.

building own house is cheaper but it really consume a lot of time, if u in construction industry you might get a good contractor. dont waste your time just buy from developer

my MIL built a 4 unit rent houses on a 38x70 piece of land. Contractor quoted 100k each unit.

each unit got 3r2b.

1 dry kitchen 1 wet kitchen.

using those red bricks.

location is on a developed urban kampung. 30min peak period drive to dataran merdeka.

yes, please built your own home. you'll have total control.

get a good reputable contractor.

go fb search : zyq engineering

Whoa...this is good

Ok

If got money and got land, building own house is good cause you can decide how the house looks like, interior design etc, you dont have the restriction of buying a prebuilt house.