A new report has found that the cost of building a three bedroom semi-detached house in the Greater Dublin Area is over €330K.
The report by the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland entitled “The Real Cost of New House Delivery 2016” found the actual cost of building the house – known as “hard costs” – came to €150K, which at 45% is less than half of the overall cost of providing that house.
The report claims, “land and acquisition costs of €57,500, (17%) VAT of €39K (12%) and a margin of €38K (11%) make up the main elements of the ‘soft costs’ which total €180K”.
Micheal Mahon of the SCSI said it may come as a surprise to those outside the industry to see that the actual construction costs or “hard costs” made up less than half of the total costs. He said this was an issue which required urgent and focused attention from Government.
“The country is experiencing a chronic housing shortage which is contributing significantly to the current homelessness crisis. The findings of this report highlight a number of pressing issues, particularly on the ‘soft cost’ side.
“We need to kick-start housing supply as soon as possible and to accelerate from the current output of 12,000 units per annum to the 25,000 units which is required,” was the message.
The report is based on “a detailed study of 8 live house building projects – with a minimum of 30 units – in the Greater Dublin Area where chartered quantity surveyors were employed as independent cost consultants”.
It shows that the cost of building a new house in Dublin is “now €45K more than the median asking price of a 3 bed semi in the capital according to a recent MyHome.ie/Davy property report”.