6 Ways to Reduce your Home Building Cost

[Julie-Ann]

During the building/renovating process keeping your budget under control is crucial. And any ideas on how to reduce your costs are invaluable. This article discusses 6 ways you can minimise you building costs.


One of the ongoing issues for anyone contemplating a renovation or building project is to minimise their overall home building cost.

For me, the key time to have the potential to save money is before you start. Once you have employed and signed a contract with a home building contractor, the chances to save money on your home building cost is reduced significantly. Pre-planning and defining your home building or renovation project is a key factor in minimising your home building cost.

Remember also the cost is not just the money you hand over to the contractor, it includes ancillary costs which can occur if the project is delayed like additional rent in another place or the emotional cost of waiting for the project to be completed which can stretch even the best relationships to breaking point.

You will never get any building project 100% perfectly planned before you start, however you can certainly remove many unknowns and have a chance to minimise the home building cost.

The main ways to minimise your home building costs are:

1. Define what you want – Take your time to think trough what you want for your home renovation or building. The clearer your definition of what you want is before you sign the contract the less variations to the contract which will occur and so the lower will be your home building costs. One of the best ways you can more easily define what you want in any project is explained in my FREE eBook “Renovation Made Easy”.

2. Overall Total Home Building Costs – select the best contractor for your project, this may not always the cheapest. Too often in building large projects for various reasons clients have decided to accept the lowest initial cost from a builder when clearly at the end of the day it would cost my client more with hidden extras, delays and stressful negotiations to resolve issues. The building process is stressful enough don’t add to your potential problems and always consider the overall total home building costs.

3. Money – the financing cost of any project can be significant whether you have the cash in the bank or you are borrowing it from the bank. When making decisions on which contractor to employ, sometimes it will be beneficial to not always employ the lowest home building cost contractor as they may take longer and cost you more in things like interest, alternative rental costs and more.

4. Set time aside to Manage the Process – any building or renovation project is going to take a significant amount of your time prior to construction, during construction and to a lesser extent after completion. This will occur no matter how good your contractor, architect or project helper are at their jobs. Don’t start the project until you have the time to dedicate to be available to make decisions on what you want in the project on a daily basis.

5. Be Decisive – Time is money in any project for both you and your contractor. By being decisive you will allow the project to keep flowing, which ultimately be one of the key factors which will determine how long the project will take.

6. If Unsure about Advice – if you are getting contrary advice or if the advice you are receiving form experts does not feel right do not be afraid to call in an independent expert to help you clarify any issue. Trust your instincts and gut feeling as people involved in a project can sometimes become too close the project and lose their objectivity.

To get the lowest overall home building cost is always a matter of balance, however if you consider these 6 ways to minimise your home building cost you will be along way to successfully achieving your dream home building project.


Any tips you can add to reduce building costs?

[rosierose]

I don't know of anyone who has come in on or under budget so always have a bit extra...........don't stretch yourself to the full extent b.c you will get into trouble in the end...

If you get a fixed price from a builder then that makes it easier but as owner builders it is impossible to forsee every cost....

[thisisme]

From our experience the top tips to reduce costs would be:

Stick with a box shape and have outter Walls on top of walls. Having weird shapes will cost you a fortune in structural steel
Avoid 45 degree Walls
Avoid weird angles
Avoid long balustrades
Avoid arches/curves

[Trish]

We are going owner builer & my husband is an obsessive planner. He will do most of the work himself so organisation & prior planning is key. We have 3 or more quotes for any trades as well as materials.
"fail to plan, Plan to fail"
Lets hope we dont over shoot the budget & have to trim to many things from our design!!

[Julie-Ann]

Best of luck Trish