Saturday, April 21, 2007

Typical Huf Haus costs

Well, I've been putting it off for months, but the time's finally come for me to spell out the costs involved in building a Huf Haus... well, building our three axis version anyway.

It's probably not escaped yer notice that our house hasn't been built in Blighty, and as Switzerland's not in the EU, and thus not an Euro nation, that our costs are a mixture of Euros and Swiss Francs. Not a Pound Sterling to be seen anywhere. But that doesn't mean we can't come up with a useful way of breaking the costs down.

Ok, here they are, warts and all...
 GBP(£)EUR(€)CHF(CHF)
Building land 660m2£168,708€248.513CHF408'000
    
  Architect7,23610.65917'500
  Excavations, water, etc68,228100.502165'000
  Local services21,50231.67352'000
Project costs sub-total£96,966€142.834CHF234'500
    
  General landscaping33,08048,72880'000
  Gardening2,0683.0465'000
  Wooden decking7,44310.96418'000
  Car port8,27012.18220'000
Landscaping sub-total£50,861€74.919CHF123'000
    
  Huf Haus 3.09.30238,882351.866577'729
  House extras38,06456.06792'056
  Standard cellar53,74679.167129'984
  Cellar extras1,3832.0373'345
  Insurance9301.3702'249
Huf Haus costs sub-total£333,005€490.507CHF805'363
    
  Heating system9,51114.00923'000
  Kitchen16,12723.75539'000
  Bathroom extras4,5496.70011'000
  Lights8271.2182'000
Non-Huf internal costs sub-total£31,013€45.683CHF75'000
    
Grand total£680,552  €1.002.456  CHF1'645'863

Yes, it's quite scary isn't it. Better sit down for a while, if you haven't already.

Feeling better now? Right, so what does this mean for your dream Huf Haus project?

I purposely split the costs into the above categories 'cos I reckon the external costs are more or less proportional to the size of the land, and the Huf Haus and internal costs are proportional to the size of the house. Now our land is 660 square metres, and the internal floor area comes to 240 square metres.

Land costs/m² (660m²) £255 €376 CHF618
    
  Project costs146216355
  Landscaping77114186
External costs/m² (660m²)£223  €330  CHF541
    
  Huf Haus costs1,3882.0443'356
  Non-Huf internal129190313
Internal costs/m² (240m²)£1,517  €2,234  CHF3,668

Ok, so we finally have some per square metre projections. But isn't every country different? And what about variations in land prices? Well, I honestly think that the internal costs are pretty much the same across Europe. Huf Haus will charge you in Euros, and assuming you don't go too crazy with non-Huf internals, even variations in VAT or whatever won't make too much difference. The land prices are another story though, hence I've given 'em their own sub-total.

An example... you have in mind a 1,500m² plot which is up for grabs for £300,000 (Ha! You wish!). How much would it cost to shove a 350m² 5-axis Huf Haus palace on the top of it?

Lemme see, the land cost itself is already known at £300,000. So the external costs will come in at 1,500m² x £223 which comes to, erm, £334,500 externally. And then we have the Huf Haus itself plus internal specials, which comes to 350m² x £1,517 = £530,950. Add the land price, external and internal costs together, and we come to a grand total of £1,165,450.

Eek!

So, have fun calculating... and can a few existing owners let me know if the above calculations tie in with your own experiences?