Renovation Costs

[Hippykitten]

Am interested in renovating an old house in a beautiful location. I am a first time buyer and have a budget of E300,000. I hope to get the house for E170,000. What stamp duty will I potentially be liable for? How much would a two storey extension (hall & bathroom) cost?

 

[Dreamerb]

Stamp duty won't apply.

Asking how much an extension will cost is, unfortunately, a bit like asking "How long is a piece of string?" Extension costs vary significantly according to the complexity of the extension, site conditions, structural issues with original house and local costs (higher in Dublin, bargain in some other locations!). As a rule of thumb you should allow a minimum of €2,000 per square meter, and up to a scarifying €4,000 depending on quality of finish, fit-out, etcetera. Bathrooms requiring new plumbing will put the cost up a bit but you may get lucky.

It would be a good idea to get a surveyor or architect to give an opinion as early as possible in the process - you could make any offer subject to satisfactory survey which would include a satisfactory assessment of the relevant costs.

 

[streamer]

Re: Renovation Costs - additional question

hi all,

the information you gave about the average cost per metre to extend is really useful Dreamerb.
Do you know if there's a similar rule of thumb for renovations? My husband and I are looking at buying a 70 year old house in Dublin that's needs rewiring, replumbing etc. We'll obviously get a surveryor involved further down the line but in the meantime want to see if we're in the ballpark in terms of being able to afford it.
thks in advance for any tips

 

[Dreamerb]

Re: Renovation Costs - additional question

Do you know if there's a similar rule of thumb for renovations? My husband and I are looking at buying a 70 year old house in Dublin that's needs rewiring, replumbing etc. We'll obviously get a surveryor involved further down the line but in the meantime want to see if we're in the ballpark in terms of being able to afford it.
thks in advance for any tips

It's even harder to give a renovation rule of thumb than for an extension, because of the sheer number of factors - how extensive the renovation needs to be, age of the house, listed or otherwise, etcetera.

However, in house shopping, as the Other Half and I were for much of the last 15 months, we basically assumed that most renovations were going to require new windows, re-wiring, and new plumbing / bathroom suite, etc. for a fairly modest three to four bedroom house we assumed that was a basic minimum of €50 k, but that the windows would be hardwood double glazed - if you went for PVC you could probably cut that down by a good €10-15 k. If you need to install central heating, add another €10 k or so, if you need to replace a kitchen that's anything from a modest €5-7 k to whatever you want to spend. Some people don't blink at spending over €50k just on the kitchen...

There are people on the site who can probably give you a far more accurate rundown of what you can expect, but that's the kind of working model I used in assessing affordability. If you post more details of what you're considering (approx area, does the plumbing need to be moved or just renewed, kitchen replacement or not, new windows required or not, central heating, etc.), someone could probably give you better figures. But whatever you use, add another 10-20% as contingency. And then add another 10% on top of that and see if you can still stretch to it - you don't want to be at the absolute limit of what you can afford, and then discover that there's a significant issue revealed that you can't afford to remedy.