ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Are you looking for the current cost of renovating or building a new house in Brisbane, South East Qld or Northern NSW, Australia in 2024-2025?
In this episode you’ll find out the current square meter rates for new custom construction.
I talk to a building cost estimator and find out the cost of house construction in 2024 and what's forecast to happen in 2025.
If this is your first episode, I recommend you go back and listen from the beginning of the season because everything builds on the episode before. At the very least, please listen to Episode 4. What are square metre rates? so you understand what they are and most importantly, when they're used by inexperienced people, they can lead to very inaccurate results!
The information covered in this episode on current square metre rates is for education only.
I talk to building cost estimator David Knight from Total Estimating Services in Brisbane.
Australian Architects can claim formal CPD hours for these podcasts.
MORE INFORMATION
Find everything you need on the Renovation Collaborative website.
www.renovationcollaborative.com.au
- PODCAST Key points summary, timestamps and resource links
- FREE RESOURCES Transcript edited into clear Q&A.
- CPD Australian architects can find more information on CPD, and
- COURSES Eleven easy to read courses demystifying the entire home design and construction process.
KEY POINTS SUMMARY
We covered so much information in this episode, but I just want to draw your attention to three main points.
1. The first point was the wide range of costs to build custom, mid-range quality houses in the current market, which varied from around $3,000 up to over $6,000 per square metre.
I predominantly work on residential renovations two storeys in inner Brisbane, which is quite sloped. So the fact that you could build on a flat block, a single story building for so much less, was quite a surprise to me.
It was important to note what did make those renovations in inner Brisbane to older houses so much more expensive that everything is custom. Every bit of timber has to be custom cut. Everything has to fit in unusual sizes for houses out of square and that's what adds to those prices compared to the new single level building on a flat site.
2. The second point to make is that there's no easy way to get costs down.
There's never one or two big items that you can just take out of a job and save those costs. Costs are always spread across the entire project, so you really have to go through everything and take out little bits through the entire job.
A better way to deal with this is when you're designing and as you go through and you choose each item, make sure you choose an item that's within your budget. Try to keep the costs down in the design stage so you don't have to go back through and take them out after costing.
3. The third important point to note that in this market where costs are so high, it's only worth renovating houses that have got good bones.
And this means a great piece of land that's well located, good orientation, good room sizes in the house, decent ceiling heights, limited asbestos timber doors and windows that are in good condition, and good structure.
If this is not the case, then it may be wiser to sell.
Alternatively, if the orientation of the land is great and the piece of land is great and you're able to remove the house, then sometimes it can be worth removing the house and building new. But it's really important to note if you are going to get rid of the house, always think of smart ways to recycle the whole house or parts of that house. You can save money and you can save the planet at the same time. Don't just send it all to landfill.
INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
00:00 Introduction
01:30 How much does it cost to renovate or build a new house in Brisbane in 2024?
05:55 What are square metre rates?
07:23 What is the difference in build quality between lower and higher cost houses?
12:07 How much does it cost to renovate or build a new house in South East Queensland and Northern New South Wales in 2024?
14:15 What influences are affecting building costs?
16:02 Can you suggest any ways to keep costs down?
20:43 What materials have increased in cost in recent times?
21:33 Is it more cost effective to renovate, or demolish and build a new house?
24:35 How much cost do environmental initiatives add: Passiv Haus, double glazing, three phase power, solar ?
25:22 Are you seeing more environmental initiatives incorporated in houses in 2024?
27:27 What cost escalation are you expecting into 2025?
30:01 Key Points Summary
IN THE NEXT EPISODE
In the next episode, I move on to the next step in the Renovate or Sell journey.
You'll find out about the useful information that a good real estate agent can provide and about the current price of houses in Brisbane and all around Australia in 2024-2025, plus the real estate market forecast moving forward.
I'll be talking to real estate agent Tim Douglas from Place Estate Agents in Paddington, Brisbane.
RESOURCE LINKS
Total Estimating Services
www.totalestimatingservices.com.au
GET IN TOUCH
If you've got any comments or questions or there's any topic you'd like to know more about, please send me an email at hello@renovationcollaborative.com.au.
