Rough cost of these extension plans? (London)

andre_xs

A friend of mine is having a big extension in the suburb of London and the going rate is £2.5k per square metre
For one big extension. These are at least two extensions, incl converting the garage (which may be more expensive than starting fresh on ground).

As a general rule, don't think that having something built is going to be less expensive than buying it.
If that's true, then you also need to consider the 'costs' of time, nerves, dealing with builders, etc.

The benefit of a project is getting exactly what you want
But maybe that's worth all the effort and additional costs of doing it yourself, instead of 'simply' buying a bigger house straight away.

Another benefit is that possibly a bigger house is not in the budget right now, but it is foreseeable that the extensions can be done, one after the other, over the next couple of years. Then it can be beneficial for example to get on the property ladder now. But that would require that the house is sufficient for now, and you don't need all the additional space right away.

BTW, further additional costs of this kind of project (as compared to moving straight away into a new bigger house): These works will probably take at least 3 months? For that time, you might not be able to live in the house, so you'll be paying double (rent/old mortgage) and new mortgage.

itravelforchurros

weeg said:

You need to allow for fees too - planning and building control, architects and engineers. I'd guess they'd eat up the better part of £10k?

Wow, I'd almost forgot. So many costs - how does anyone afford a project like this!? 

itravelforchurros

FaceHead said:

As a general rule, don't think that having something built is going to be less expensive than buying it. If your budget won't stretch to buying this sort of home in the developed state, it won't stretch to buying a wreck and developing it. 

The benefit of a project is getting exactly what you want, and getting to live in something when it's newly done up - unless you're a property developer doing it on a shoestring, it's unlikely to come out less expensive than just buying the house you want. 

(Side note, could the garage be converted, and then built on top of? It seems unlikely the foundations were designed for a first floor, so it may need demolishing and re-building, at much more than 1k/msq)

In fairness, I think we could afford the property in "finished state" but there is just nothing on the market and when it does come, there's about 10 different bidders! 

The garage point will need to be explored with builder. We're currently in the final stages of the purchase completion process but this is giving me major doubts!

itravelforchurros

andre_xs said:

A friend of mine is having a big extension in the suburb of London and the going rate is £2.5k per square metre
For one big extension. These are at least two extensions, incl converting the garage (which may be more expensive than starting fresh on ground).

As a general rule, don't think that having something built is going to be less expensive than buying it.
If that's true, then you also need to consider the 'costs' of time, nerves, dealing with builders, etc.

The benefit of a project is getting exactly what you want
But maybe that's worth all the effort and additional costs of doing it yourself, instead of 'simply' buying a bigger house straight away.

Another benefit is that possibly a bigger house is not in the budget right now, but it is foreseeable that the extensions can be done, one after the other, over the next couple of years. Then it can be beneficial for example to get on the property ladder now. But that would require that the house is sufficient for now, and you don't need all the additional space right away.

BTW, further additional costs of this kind of project (as compared to moving straight away into a new bigger house): These works will probably take at least 3 months? For that time, you might not be able to live in the house, so you'll be paying double (rent/old mortgage) and new mortgage.

To be fair, we don't need all of the extra space (i.e. we're a couple and would want a guest bedroom but otherwise not too bothered) but it was more that we thought it would be better to get it all done now rather than a few years down the line when we might have children, other priorities and not want to deal with the stress/mess. 

Further costs of renting etc aren't applicable here as fortunately we live with a family member down the road.

So would people say the best decision is to buy the house, spend money doing what we can (likely just the downstairs conversion and rear extension, removal of 2 chimney breasts, removal of 2 load bearing walls and moving a boiler). And then slowly do the other bits. 

That is one option - the other is to just whack the £200k onto our current property budget (£500k) and buy a £700k property which has some extensions done but isn't perfect.

andre_xs

That is one option - the other is to just whack the £200k onto our current property budget (£500k) and buy a £700k property which has some extensions done but isn't perfect.

I guess this boils down largely to personal preference. Some people actually like doing such home improvements, or it is very important to them that it's all exactly as they like. For others it's just a big pain and they would happily settle with a non-perfect home to avoid the hassles of going through such a project. Others may not even think much about 'perfect' homes and instead see it much more pragmatic, like "sufficient to live in, why should I be bothered about anything else"?

Although: If you say that there are not many properties around £700k fulfilling your needs (not requiring extension work), then you may not really have a choice? Or you need to be more patient and wait for the right home...

The above things are just so dependent on your personal choice, the local market, the time you have... that's it's hard to give straightforward easy recommendations.

Rosa_Damascena

itravelforchurros said:

weeg said:

You need to allow for fees too - planning and building control, architects and engineers. I'd guess they'd eat up the better part of £10k?

Wow, I'd almost forgot. So many costs - how does anyone afford a project like this!? 

You may well ask! Whilst I'm glad I'm on the other side of it I'm also working like a dawg and will be for the foreseeable future! And whilst the stress of a big project is long gone there is a strange gap in my life too, am itching for the next project

ObserverOfLife

Do you see yourself there for the longer term? 10 years +? I'm in the process of purchasing a bungalow with a view to extending and loft conversion to take it from 2 beds to 4 beds. I'm in it for the long term so putting in the hard graft will make this extremely worthwhile. 

Doozergirl

ObserverOfLife said:

Do you see yourself there for the longer term? 10 years +? I'm in the process of purchasing a bungalow with a view to extending and loft conversion to take it from 2 beds to 4 beds. I'm in it for the long term so putting in the hard graft will make this extremely worthwhile. 

The journey to building our own house nearly cost us our marriage, the actual house we were living in and has physically aged me.  😂

I'm glad we're in it, it brings me great pleasure but we're also still not quite finished some 10 and a bit years in from the start of this drama and still facing challenges. I do love my house but I do wonder if all of this has been worth it.  

I should stick to doing other people's houses and spending their money for them instead.  

itravelforchurros

ObserverOfLife said:

Do you see yourself there for the longer term? 10 years +? I'm in the process of purchasing a bungalow with a view to extending and loft conversion to take it from 2 beds to 4 beds. I'm in it for the long term so putting in the hard graft will make this extremely worthwhile. 

10 years is probably bang on how long I expect to live here. So the graft would definitely be worthwhile, just a question of whether we can actually afford it all now. 

itravelforchurros

Had a builder round yesterday and somehow he quoted a grand total of... £40,000!... for the finished ground floor rear extension of 36 sqm (Zone. 4). Pleasantly surprised/shocked...