Cost of house-Query and reply

QUOTE

I just came across your site.
 
Could you  please give me the  approximate cost for a 2800 S.feet house with reasonably good finishing including all charges.
to build the same for my cousin in Trichur.
 
Sree Jayan

My reply

Look. It  looks like very easy to find out cost of constructing a house.On your own you assume square feet plinth area of the house without even preparing a plan and then like going and finding cost of a Kg of onion from the shop, an Architect is expected to tell you square feet plinth area of constructing a house which cannot be done in a day or week or month.

Construction of house require at least an year.During this period of construction cost of hundreds of different material used for construction normally goes up in Kerala conditions.Some times it is not even available

For example take the case of few materials.
Rubble used for foundation work cannot be taken that easily.There are so many restrictions,too many licenses,too many government officials to be bribed to take rubble and transport it to site.

River sand simply cannot be taken or transported.But still transporters try to supply it with the hope of extracting money as they demand from the builder.So they bribe as required to ever willing bribe takers who consider government job as a license to take bribes

Almost all materials are to be transported to site.Even after taxing more than 100%,government  has no hesitation in increasing price of petroleum products and never bothering to reduce cost even if international price of crude oil reduces.Cost of diesel is now more than when international prices were double.Both state and central government consider petroleum products as cash cows.

With each increase in petroleum products, price of every material goes up.During one year period of construction of house,nobody knows how many times price of diesel will go up.

Transporting  river sand is like smuggling activity.So many have to be bribed.Transporter naturally would like higher profit for transporting such a risky material.

Getting good workers regularly for construction work is a big challenge.So if you need workers you have to pay them what they demand even if they are not very good quality workers.Here demand is more and supply is less.

Even with all these you want the contractor (trying to make money by building your house) to commit a firm square feet cost of construction ,that too lesser than what others may quote if he want  your work.

He is not educated or articulate  enough like me to explain the meaningless nature of your so called “square feet rate”.So to get work from you he  will quote lower square feet rate and you  will be only happy to learn or even dream about his possible loss by taking up your construction work!

I have seen several times happiness on the face of my clients whenever material and other input cost goes up just by imagining  his saving of money by obtaining a “square feet rate” from contractor.Like most of Malayalees you will also be happy to think about losses your contractor will make by doing your work.

But if you think that you are smart and your contractor is a fool,you are mistaken.

With varying cost of all inputs of construction like material and labour,he will have to compromise on quality of construction to make profit.He will make you believe that all improper construction practices followed by him are the right way of doing the construction and you do not know what is right and wrong in construction .So you believe him.
Even after doing all quality compromises if he is still not able to make profit,he will ask for rate revision or extra charges when he is sure that no other contractor will come and take up half work done by him
So he will get profit  some how or other by doing your work as he has seen many like you trying to be smarter than him.
Finally when the work near completion with all quality problems which may not be noticeable immediately,contractor will find ways of extracting extras from you and you desperately trying to complete house construction some how.At that point of time “square feet cost” is forgotten by you and by the contractor also.

Square feet cost of construction is simply a lie house builder will have to tell you to get work from you

You should not expect a qualified and experienced house building professional to go to such lower levels of an illiterate contractor (with only one interest-make profit  by hook or crook) to give you such baseless “square feet cost”