How much is it to build a new house in Vancouver?
 

We are looking at some small tear down houses on the market. If we buy, we would likely tear down and build. Anyone happen to know how much is it for a standard house and time it takes from tear down to completion?

I know i've read similar topics like this in the past but the biggest question you need to ask yourself is: How many square feet? How fancy does the wife want it?

$200 - $300 per square foot is a good place to start. You can go higher, but chances are you won't be going much lower.

House is extended family... so my dad's wife will have the final say :)

Many newer houses seem to have a norm of 1000sqft x 2 floor minimum nowadays. By that calculation, its going to be 400k-600k to build. I guess costs matches with labor and market demand. Yay for supporting local by bending over with pants down!

Say the house is $200-300 per sq ft. Is that including detached garage and the yard? Are we talking about $400k-$600k JUST for the house?

Yes

Source: Uncle just built one 2 years ago with modest materials

Does that quote still hold true today? Iirc that's the number that's been thrown around on a similar thread a few years back.

Demand hasn't impacted new home build prices that much.. rule of thumb has been $2-300/sqft for a while now. This is also cheap in comparison to a truly custom home.

Also, you'll want to see how big of a home you can build on the lot and not limit yourself to 2000sqft. Build as big as you can for maximum ROI.

We finished our house in 2012 at a final cost of about $285/ft. I called in a ton of favors on this, found great deals on granite, etc. Total floor space is 5999 square feet.

A friend built his house for just over $200/ft. 10,000 square feet total, but he was his own general contractor which saved him money, but caused it's own issues and stress.

We're in the permitting stage right now, just resubmitted on Wednesday to fix deficiencies.
We're doing a lot of built ins and not trying to cheap out in shit(fucking interior designer lol)

We are at about $300sq ft..initially when we first bought we were like..$200/sq ft but shit adds up quick

I would never trust anything lower, I've seen my builders work and he's steered me away from some more expensive options that would look like ass in 10 years Lol.

Be prepared if you are in Vancouver... Its a gong show with the new code, none at city hall can give you a correct answer. So much headache for us..

You should read buildinginvancouver blog its pretty accurate on the timeline for even getting a permit. That's the thing that sucks having the place sit empty for 5-6 months.

I so wish I bought last year so I wouldn't have to deal with the new building code ugh

Edit:hypa u baller

If you can do absolutely everything yourself, as in lining up trades etc under $200 is completely possible with reasonable finishings

I don't generally see a strong quality of work on sites where the homeowner is acting as the GC. I do see work being done in the wrong order, deadlines being pushed back, frustrated inspectors, etc.

agreed.
If you're not married to certain concepts you can get a nice finish for less money. I wanted river rock from the sea to sky region for my fireplace. It was expensive, but it was also the style I wanted to go with. Whereas for my countertops, I didn't care as much. So I found a great deal on dark granite that was cancelled by a contractor. I saved enough to offset the extra costs. I bought the cable and wiring myself, because that's my business. Windows were sourced from a local factory, and cabinets were made locally using contacts I made over the years.

The only regret I have is not spending more on sound insulation. I saved about $5g by not doing sound deadening panels in the floors and in the walls. Now that it's all done, there is no going back without spending $30k tearing the place up. It's not bad by any means, but if I'm taking a power nap in the afternoon, I don't want to hear anything.

Do it once, do it right.



Mindbomber also makes a good point. GC is a tough job, and unless you can invest the time to do it right, you're leaving a lot open to going wrong.

This.

Girlfriend's parents went through one hell of an ordeal. While they weren't the GC when they built their house, they hired a friend of theirs who was in the construction business. However, pretty sure the guy had never been a GC before.

From day one it was a total cluster fuck. The foundation was dug out and poured at the wrong angle (the house, which is on the top of a hill and was supposed to face the valley below, is now angled about 20* to the right and instead faces a completely different view). They tried to get the GC to tear it out and redo it completely, but for some reason he had convinced them to leave it as is and continue on. The mess didn't stop there, but it should have been a good indication of things to come. A one year ETA turned into two years, costs ballooned like crazy (OT on the trades and what not ended up turning it from $290/sq ft up to $350/sq ft. And since the house is just over 4000 square feet, that wasn't cheap. Lots of things were ordered wrong (custom designed windows were supposed to be heat reflective, but ended up not being so... which is a BIG deal when you deal with 35+* days on a daily basis and your house faces the sun the majority of the day..., the kitchen had to be redesigned after the GC fucked up the plumbing and no one noticed until after the floors and walls went up, etc., etc., etc.)

Needless to say the parents and the GC didn't talk to each other for quite some time after the house was built.

And as an added bonus, the city's inspectors are infamous for never showing up to walk a site, so after x amount of days, they're given an automatic approval. Lots of little mistakes were found after the fact when it came to issues once the house was finished (leaking plumbing inside walls, an electrical panel that was so poorly done that it had to be torn out a couple months later, a gas line for the bbq without a proper shut off [!!], and so forth.)

you read my mind when i saw hypa's square footage :lol

Well yea, you need to have a reasonable understanding of the process to act at the GC, but it's far from rocket science

Unless you're an experienced GC I understand learning on the fly with your own property can be an extremely stressful experience. FWIW, from what I've heard, hiring a GC is worth the investment. I've even heard of couples getting divorced due to the stress etc.

I echo beatdownvictim's suggestion to read buildinginvancouver.com - it's a blog written by a local realtor describing his experiences in having his own house built. His dealings with the City have been a nightmare so far.

TYKO - I briefly dealt with Jack at Tyko and he quoted $155/sf for the main house and $40/sf for the garage. Was very transparent with everything - first contact included a sample contract with all line items called out and references were provided up front. Made himself available to let us see any of the houses he had worked on. He mostly works in East Van. We didn't end up finding a property to build on so never moved past the discovery stage.

Close friend of mine's BIL is a builder on the West side of Vancouver and quotes $200-300/sf for his builds. Haven't looked at the work but his family has been building for 30+ years and mostly works with referred business so I'm guessing it's solid stuff.

Don't cheap out on shit. Dad built 2 houses, my brother built one as well as other friends.

Everyone says 200 but always ends up at 300. With the currency, and stuff, cost does go up. Once you start building, you "want" certain stuff and things add up quick.

General contract is BS, as in everyone just hands money to "best deal", friend of a friend, and it ends up being BS. My dad and all my friends who are builders are on-site each day to make sure shit were don't right and holding the GC responsible.

Jack @ tyko is a great guy, i highly recommend him!

I feel like I'm missing something here, $200-300/sf for a standard lot home at about 2400sq ft would be 480k-720k.

I thought building a decent new home was around 350-450k (no laneway)...

Not anymore $200 $300 per sq ft finished is pretty normal. and thats not even close to a high end finish.

Standard lot will let you go up to 2800sq ft, more usable space if you decide to do thermal exclusion which we did.

ill be picking up my building permit next week from city hall, we submitted at the end of July. Ugh no fun I want to get rid of one tree but the hippies won't let me.
I'd say even $200 is barely doable. The city with all their green iniatives have pushed the price up on everything. Insulation, framing. Thank god we didn't have to out a shower in the main floor powder room.
I want to write a blog like building in Vancouver but it'd be me bitching most of the time.

Oh yeah once our tree barriers went up some fuckers were trying to salvage shit from the outside of the house the joys of waiting for a permit.

Be prepared to wait.

You should take a look at Harvey contracting they are all over the east side and they built a home on boulevard and king Edward. There are east side builders and westside...you can tell with that house.

I just finished a full reno on a concrete building condo $82.78 sq ft.
Built high end house in White Rock $188.66 sq ft. Everything is high end. Wolf/subzero, control4, whole home audio, full automation, 9.1 sound theatre etc.
Finished a house by 33 and granville $202.28 sq ft.

I'm a registered builder for 12 years. Family has been doing this forever. Red seal plumber and gas fitter. You cant go lower than those prices believe me or you are putting in nonsense in a home.

That is with myself being paid ZERO! I own the property so I get paid when it sells.

Don't believe a west end house can be done for under 200 unless you're putting a surrey house in west end vancouver and in that case you're nuts.

attached some condo reno pics. got permit sept 19 got final feb 17. Would of been much faster if strata wasn't such a pain to deal with!!

RS needs a REIT!!!!!!

1% management fee if over 15% return otherwise 0.

30% roi in vancouver right now. 100% plus cash on cash returns.

shit is not slowing down. :nicethread: