Rough estimate costs of building a house
Hello there,
My husband and I moved to Sweden, because my husband has a job here. We are renting an apartment right now, but we want to move to a villa or fritidshus. We live in Skåne, and it's not that easy to find a nice and affordable house in the forest. So we are considering to buy a tom and build our own house.
But we have no clue about the costs. Is it way more expensive than buying an existing house? Or is it about the same price? Of course it depends on a lot of things, but I'm just looking for a rough estimate, so we have a little more insight.
We don't want a big house. 1 foor, or 2 floors is perfect, 3-4 rooms and a kitchen. And 70-80 kvm is fine.
We don't have any experience with building/renovating, so we want to hire someone to do everything for us.
I'm so sorry if this all sounds silly. But I hope someone can give us any kind of advice
Thank you very much, and we follow this website with great interest!
My husband and I moved to Sweden, because my husband has a job here. We are renting an apartment right now, but we want to move to a villa or fritidshus. We live in Skåne, and it's not that easy to find a nice and affordable house in the forest. So we are considering to buy a tom and build our own house.
But we have no clue about the costs. Is it way more expensive than buying an existing house? Or is it about the same price? Of course it depends on a lot of things, but I'm just looking for a rough estimate, so we have a little more insight.
We don't want a big house. 1 foor, or 2 floors is perfect, 3-4 rooms and a kitchen. And 70-80 kvm is fine.
We don't have any experience with building/renovating, so we want to hire someone to do everything for us.
I'm so sorry if this all sounds silly. But I hope someone can give us any kind of advice
Thank you very much, and we follow this website with great interest!
In short: Don't build a house because you think it is too expensive to buy a house. That is not a rational reason for building a house.
In the best case a new house costs about the same to build as a similar ready built house. But there are big risks involved in building. ALL projects end up at breaking the budget, maybe just by 100 000, but often much more.
If you find a cheap lot, it is often cheap because it is in a less attractive area, and you might have a problem to get a loan for the construction. If it is in a less attractive area, the final house will be worth less than the construction cost, you can only get loans up to 85% of the value of the house, which might be less than the cost.
The risks with building a house will be bigger if you are not fluent in Swedish, there are a lot of rules to understand, and regardless of what the "house company" tells you, YOU are responsible for everything when you build. You might get help with it from the house company, but most of them stop giving any help as soon as you have signed the contract, then you are on your own.
In the best case a new house costs about the same to build as a similar ready built house. But there are big risks involved in building. ALL projects end up at breaking the budget, maybe just by 100 000, but often much more.
If you find a cheap lot, it is often cheap because it is in a less attractive area, and you might have a problem to get a loan for the construction. If it is in a less attractive area, the final house will be worth less than the construction cost, you can only get loans up to 85% of the value of the house, which might be less than the cost.
The risks with building a house will be bigger if you are not fluent in Swedish, there are a lot of rules to understand, and regardless of what the "house company" tells you, YOU are responsible for everything when you build. You might get help with it from the house company, but most of them stop giving any help as soon as you have signed the contract, then you are on your own.
Dear Hempularen,
Thank you very much for your information. This really helps!
You have a good point when you talk about why a lot is more cheap, and that the final house might not be worth its costs, etc.
Are there good/bad times during a year to buy a house? A friend of us in Stockholm told us it was much easier to find a house in Stockholm area around januari/februari, because it's cold/snow/winter. Does the same apply to villa's/fritidshus in southern Sweden?
Thank you very much for your information. This really helps!
You have a good point when you talk about why a lot is more cheap, and that the final house might not be worth its costs, etc.
Are there good/bad times during a year to buy a house? A friend of us in Stockholm told us it was much easier to find a house in Stockholm area around januari/februari, because it's cold/snow/winter. Does the same apply to villa's/fritidshus in southern Sweden?
I don't know. And I am not sure I agree that it is easier in January up here.
The whole market changes with time. During summer very few people buy houses, and there are very few on sale. Some people manage to buy cheap during summer, nobody sells during summer unless you absolutely have to sell, so the seller might be desperate to sell, and there are few bidders. Good time for a buyer, but less to choose from.
After summer the market starts again in early September, takes a break over Christmas. Fades out late in May. If you buy and need to sell what you have, you want to buy in good time before summer, so you can get your current house/apartment out in good time before the market closes for summer.
I know that in the south it is much more common that the showings are "closed" you have to register before. Here in Stockholm, almost all showings are open.
The whole market changes with time. During summer very few people buy houses, and there are very few on sale. Some people manage to buy cheap during summer, nobody sells during summer unless you absolutely have to sell, so the seller might be desperate to sell, and there are few bidders. Good time for a buyer, but less to choose from.
After summer the market starts again in early September, takes a break over Christmas. Fades out late in May. If you buy and need to sell what you have, you want to buy in good time before summer, so you can get your current house/apartment out in good time before the market closes for summer.
I know that in the south it is much more common that the showings are "closed" you have to register before. Here in Stockholm, almost all showings are open.
Hej Sofie
Welkom in Zweden
We did the same journey for 12 years ago. Rented a place on the countryside and bought a buildinglot in a forest and build a house.
Where in Skåne do you want to move to? Where do you work?
It is possible to stay on budget, but only if you have a good budget and don't change your mind to much. It is very easy to pick a more expensive kitchen while you are buildning or make other expensive changes. It is also easy to forget different buildingtaxes or believe the positive calculations your builder makes.
Welkom in Zweden
We did the same journey for 12 years ago. Rented a place on the countryside and bought a buildinglot in a forest and build a house.
Where in Skåne do you want to move to? Where do you work?
It is possible to stay on budget, but only if you have a good budget and don't change your mind to much. It is very easy to pick a more expensive kitchen while you are buildning or make other expensive changes. It is also easy to forget different buildingtaxes or believe the positive calculations your builder makes.
If you want to have good communications with Malmö and Lund, you can focus on the area around Höör (in Tjörnarp are some houses and building plots)
If you want to have good communications with Helsingborg, you can focus on the area around Bjuv, Klippan, Svalöv (Söderåsen)
If you want to live closer to the big cities, you might want to focus on small villages close to forest (Löddeköpinge, Hofterup, Dalby, S Sandby, Genarp)
If you want to have good communications with Helsingborg, you can focus on the area around Bjuv, Klippan, Svalöv (Söderåsen)
If you want to live closer to the big cities, you might want to focus on small villages close to forest (Löddeköpinge, Hofterup, Dalby, S Sandby, Genarp)
Hoi Harry!
Thank you for your reply. My husband is working close to Malmö, so we are checking the around Höör, and we very love this area.
Maybe it will be a little more easy after summer. We are not in a hurry to move, but we would love to leave the city (Malmö) to live closer to/in the nature.
Did you build a lot by yourself, or did you hire someone to do everything for you?
Thank you for your reply. My husband is working close to Malmö, so we are checking the around Höör, and we very love this area.
Maybe it will be a little more easy after summer. We are not in a hurry to move, but we would love to leave the city (Malmö) to live closer to/in the nature.
Did you build a lot by yourself, or did you hire someone to do everything for you?
It looks great If we could effort it, it would be perfect, haha!
If we could effort it, it would be perfect, haha!It is really hard to find something cheaper than this house at the moment. It isn't even sure you can buy this house for 2,3 miljon.S sofiedevries skrev:It looks great
In Sweden the process of buying a house is a bit different compared to Holland for exempel. Here you set an asking price att the low range of what you want to get for the house. Then you have an evening you show the house to everybody who is interested (visning) and after that people start to bid. If there are few potential buyers, you can get bids under the asking price, but often the seller then decides not to sell the house. With many potential buyers the brice can get upp, sometimes a lot (1 miljon?). In this region the housing market i still very strong, so I think the price will go upp.
You can definetly not build a house for under 2,3 miljon. I think 3 miljon is a reasonable minimum cost.
If you buy an appartment or a terraced house (rijtjeshuis) it often is a 'bostadsrätt' That means the house is owned by an assocation (bostadsrättförening) and you buy the right to live in an appartment and become member of the association. You pay the association a monthly fee for repairs, water, electricity, etc. But the association can also have a bankloan on the building. The fee then also covers the interest on the loan.
The monthly fee can vary between around 2000 and 8000 a month. So if you buy a cheap appartment, you often also buy a big loan on the appartment.
The first thing you need to do is to check with some banks who much morgage you can get and how much you have to pay yourself (20% of the total?). Then you can start looking for a house.
But if 2,3 miljon is to much, you will get a hard time
Thanks for the explanation! We will consider all options in our own time. We will see what the future will bring...
I agree with @harry73 that it will be hard to buy below 3 milion, it is possible, but considering you dont have experience and want someone to do most of the work (totalentreprenad?), I doubt it is possible.
Remeber to in your budget make room for all the extra costs, garden, grass, connection to electricity, VVS and etc. I think if you want to buy in the cheaper scale look at Älvsbyhus and Smålandsvillan (but there is alot of other options). Start at hustillverkare.nu (if you can understand Swedish). And also on this page you find a good comparisation between the different companies.
Remeber that an too good price often has a reason... Dont get tricked!
We recently built an house with Smålandsvillan, while the cost was about 3 million, this was without finished 2nd floor and finished garden. (And of course an never ending work). I think the cost will be atleast 3,5-4 million before we are finished with everything essential.
Remeber to in your budget make room for all the extra costs, garden, grass, connection to electricity, VVS and etc. I think if you want to buy in the cheaper scale look at Älvsbyhus and Smålandsvillan (but there is alot of other options). Start at hustillverkare.nu (if you can understand Swedish). And also on this page you find a good comparisation between the different companies.
Remeber that an too good price often has a reason... Dont get tricked!
We recently built an house with Smålandsvillan, while the cost was about 3 million, this was without finished 2nd floor and finished garden. (And of course an never ending work). I think the cost will be atleast 3,5-4 million before we are finished with everything essential.
Hey Sofie and welcome to Sweden and to Byggahus!
I'm afraid I have to agree with what seems to be the consensus, that you're gonna have a hard time finding a suitable AND affordable house to buy, and building one is probably too expensive, too time consuming and too risky to take on. If I were in your situation, I'd be looking at renting a house. There may not be a lot of houses up for long-term renting, but they do exist. My sister is actually renting out her house while she and her family is living abroad. (Unfortunately it's near Gothenburg, and already rented out, otherwise...)
Anyway, I hope you can find a suitable solution soon!
I'm afraid I have to agree with what seems to be the consensus, that you're gonna have a hard time finding a suitable AND affordable house to buy, and building one is probably too expensive, too time consuming and too risky to take on. If I were in your situation, I'd be looking at renting a house. There may not be a lot of houses up for long-term renting, but they do exist. My sister is actually renting out her house while she and her family is living abroad. (Unfortunately it's near Gothenburg, and already rented out, otherwise...
) Anyway, I hope you can find a suitable solution soon!
