Trades & Labor House construction Labor vs Material Costs

I have found that when I see a property for sale and then work out the land cost (at what I can best find out is the local price per sq m) and the house cost at P20,000 (or sometimes even at P25,000) per sq m, the selling price is almost always higher.

How much of this is due to (1) Higher land costs for good plots within a specific area/subdivision?(2) Quality of materials?

Do either of these, or both combined, add millions to the selling price?

Or does it just reflect sellers trying initially for high prices?

So, is there a way to calculate the true value of a property or is it just what a purchaser will pay? I have read, I think on this Forum, of an ex-pat buying at about 10 million and selling at about 6 millions years later.

Is it cheaper to buy a resale or build your own?

 

It depends what you mean by 'build your own'
For example - I designed our house in Autocad, paid a draughtman to produce the blueprints, hired a competent foreman and researched the materials.
It's hard work and very time consuming - you need to visit on the jobsite every day - but you do then know what's gone into the build.
You could take your 'design' to a reputable builder and he would handle it from there. You would get (hopefully) a reasonable quality job - he may be able to source materials slightly cheaper, but at the end of the day he needs to make a profit.
There are some 'resale' bargains - especially when a foreigner sells up to return home, but you don't know anything about the build.

 

How do you find a competent foreman here?

 

I have looked at a few stores for one coat paint but they said they dont sell it in this country. Is it worth importing it to save material and labour?

 

I think it is by chance or getting a reference from someone.

 

When things are imported the price can be very expensive. I think the labor was way over the top.

 

The selling prices of real estate here in Dgte is a joke. They always price it 25- 30% higher. That’s my observation anyway. Sellers are happy to sell it at 20% lower than advertised but will stiff you with the advertised price if you’re a sucker.

Value of the house will always be cheaper the older your house gets. Depreciation, the overall wear and tear esp if the house wasn’t very well maintained. I find it’s actually the location that can save your investment. No matter how old your house is, if it’s in a prime location, you can still make a profit off it.

I find building my own house to be cheaper than buying an older and cheaper house. Older houses come with their own set of problems and I find them personally more of a money drain than building your own.

 

In the real estate market there's a rule: pricce is based upon what "an idiot" (the owner) is asking for and what "another idiot" (the buyer) is willing to pay for. So a lot of fried air which has no value @all.
No intend to offend of course any owner or buyer.

 

Same for many other assets - a painting by a sought-after artist can go for $80 million one year and $40 million a few years later - or the reverse.

In an auction a price can stop at $10 but as soon as another bidder steps in, it could go to $100. So it sells for $100, plus all the fees, but if the second bidder was ill that day it might have been only $10.

 

I am not a trained or skilled tradesman but when painting my own houses in the past I guess it took about 8 hours for a room about 4m x 4m x 3m high. That equals about 48 square metres of wall area, minus the area of the windows and door - so we will say about 44 sq m of wall. I might have taken more time as the fiddly bits where walls meet other surfaces (i.e. around the window, door frames, switches, sockets, skirting, ceiling) were the pita for an amateur! A skilled painter would find those much easier to do (and not end up using an artist-type brush for the very final bits!) and so I think 8 hours to be enough time. If the rate here is P600 per day (8 hours) then that is about P14 per sq m. The P172,000 for 950 sq m is about P180 per sq m - so am I way out on my time estimate?