Design Considerations / Cost & Budget

Editorial review

Designing to budget with your builder

How the price firms up from concept to contract.

This guide is being written. In the meantime, these Cost & Budget guides are ready to read:

1. What a house really costsBuild cost against project cost, and what sits outside the builder's price.
2. Setting a budgetThree ways to arrive at a number, and the one that works.
3. Size, quality and complexityThe three levers that set the price of a house.
4. Site costsSlope, rock, soil, access and demolition.
5. Where to spend and where to saveWhat's hard to change later, and what isn't.
6. Contingency and allowancesContingency, prime cost items and provisional sums.
7. Running costs and life-cycle valueWhat a house costs over thirty years.

All Cost & Budget topics