Cost Of New Construction In Cebu

[CebuDreamer]

Greetings! I am a newbie here on the forum but would like to know if anyone has any experience in this area. I have been married to a wonderful Cebuana for just over 15 years now and we have decided to relocate to Cebu (later this year for the wife and kids, hopefully by end of next year for myself).

 

My wife and daughters will be moving in June of this year and staying with her parents temporarily while the girls start school and they get settled in. We have some property there that we will be building our home on and I will remain in the States until that is complete. There are a couple of reasons for that:

 

1) When we were all there in 2010, we contacted a contractor about building the house and I could tell when he looked at me that all he saw were dollar signs. If I am not there and the contractor is dealing with my wife only (along with a couple of her brothers) I think we will get a more reasonable price.

 

2) Secondly, I want the home to be built before I give up my job and regular income. I love the inlaws, but don't necessarily want to live in the same home with them for a year or more while our house is being built.

 

3) Thirdly, I also need time to build up my side business so I will have some online income coming my way after I join my family in Cebu.

 

We want to build a two-story home with three bedrooms, 2 comfort rooms, an office for me, a kitchen and a living area. It doesn't have to be anything all that large because we are hoping to live a more simple life in the PI, but we do want to be comfortable. After doing some reading and asking some questions, I'm thinking it will likely cost between $30,000 and $35,000 to get this done. Am I in the ballpark?

 

I also have to worry about the taxes. The property is very near the IT Park and the Waterfront Hotel in Lahug, so the property value has gone up quite a bit since we took ownership of it a few years ago.

 

Any help is greatly appreciated!

[Markham]

Without knowing the size of your planned house's footprint, type of construction you want, type of roof, etc., etc., it is very difficult to give you an estimated build cost. Typical houses here are somewhat smaller than you'll be used to and bedrooms are often just large enough to accommodate a bed and not much else.

 

According to an architect friend - whom I see every day as he's building a house opposite to me - for typical Filipini-style house with concrete piers, cement block infills and a preformed sheet steel roof, a ballpark figure would be in the order of Php12,000 to 15,000 per square metre - double that for a two-storey house. But that's just the cost of basic construction and doesn't include doors, windows, flooring, plumbing fixtures and fittings or electrical fittings, aircon units etc. Such a house would be quite expensive to keep cool since concrete is an excellent retainer of heat. For a little more per square you could build using Bukidnon brick which has a much higher "R Factor" meaning that it is more energy efficient and a far better insulant. The bricks are very dense and have a high load-bearing factor so you don't need reinforced concrete piers. Incidentally that would also obviate the need for a poured concrete division between the ground and upper floor as your steel or (hard) wood flooring joists would be "notched-in" to the inner brick skin.

 

Bear in mind that local plumbing and electrical fittings are mostly sourced from China and are very poor quality and things like washing machine hook-ups are unavailable here. You can buy imported materials but these are often 2 or 3 times the prices charged by, say, Home Depot for the same item. I would plan to buy your plumbing and electrical fittings - including Romex cable - in the US and ship in Balikbayan boxes.

 

Your closeness to the Waterfront and IT Park indicates to me that you'll be in a very busy part of town with traffic noise 24 hours a day. Under those circumstances, I would definitely install double-glazed windows which can be made to order in Cebu at a factory near Alpa Suites Hotel and the outer sheet of glass can be tinted to increase thermal efficiency.

 

Your first step, however, should be to find a good local architect and let him project manage the build; you will need one in any case to prepare all the plans and get them approved by the city planning department, fire department and Veco (the electricity supply company) and the necessary permits issued.

 

I hope this gives you food for thought!

[intrepid]

Bear in mind that local plumbing and electrical fittings are mostly sourced from China and are very poor quality and things like washing machine hook-ups are unavailable here. You can buy imported materials but these are often 2 or 3 times the prices charged by, say, Home Depot for the same item. I would plan to buy your plumbing and electrical fittings - including Romex cable - in the US and ship in Balikbayan boxes.

 

 

Interesting post Markham,

Since we will be building in a few years in Laguna I have be researching different items I want to buy here in the US and ship in BB boxes.   I had already decided on plumbing fixtures.  However the electrical is still yet to be completely decided.  The outlet, switches, and most electrical fixtures I did plan to ship.  The one thing I was unsure of is the wire.  I hadn't had a chance to price compare.  Additionally, I'm still unsure of with wire to use.  I would prefer to use roman as you mentioned.  But pulling that through the flexible pvc conduit which is widely used there may create more headache.  That is why I was leaning toward the THHN stranded or preferably solid, which is still a bear to pull but a little easier than roman.  What do you suggest, using ridged electrical conduit?  Maybe oversize 3/4" or even 1".  How about a breaker panel box, ship it also?

Also could you give more details on the Bukidnon bricks?  I could not locate any information on my search.

thanks,
danny

[GregZ]

Filipini-style house with concrete piers, cement block infills and a preformed sheet steel roof, a ballpark figure would be in the order of Php12,000 to 15,000 per square metre

 

Very good post.  My current opinion on this price is that you can do better, but I'd like to reserve my spot to comment with facts instead of beliefs & dreams.  I've talked directly with a builder on the "CebuDreamer Project", requested an estimate and will get the result next week.  Of course it will just be ROUGH without actually looking at the property and going over all the fine details.

 

There is also so much room for variance from basic construction to high end.  Those details will really matter.   For now I'm considering as more toward basic.  I'll give MY result here next week.

 

If I get a great price maybe I'll open up the KANO  :dance:  DIVISION of the contruction company!!!  :999:

Edited March 16, 2013 by GregZ

[GregZ]

...

We want to build a two-story home with three bedrooms, 2 comfort rooms, an office for me, a kitchen and a living area. It doesn't have to be anything all that large because we are hoping to live a more simple life in the PI, but we do want to be comfortable. After doing some reading and asking some questions, I'm thinking it will likely cost between $30,000 and $35,000 to get this done. Am I in the ballpark?

 

 

Without knowing the size of your planned house's footprint, type of construction you want, type of roof, etc., etc., it is very difficult to give you an estimated build cost. Typical houses here are somewhat smaller than you'll be used to and bedrooms are often just large enough to accommodate a bed and not much else.

 

According to an architect friend - whom I see every day as he's building a house opposite to me - for typical Filipini-style house with concrete piers, cement block infills and a preformed sheet steel roof, a ballpark figure would be in the order of Php12,000 to 15,000 per square metre - double that for a two-storey house. But that's just the cost of basic construction and doesn't include doors, windows, flooring, plumbing fixtures and fittings or electrical fittings, aircon units etc. ...

Markham is pretty good at this.  I should have kept my mouth shut until I got the numbers.   :bash:

The requirements did not give a proposed size so the builder went larger than the minimum and estimated at 200 square meters living space.  With that in mind: Bottom line up front is 4 million php for the described house with fixtures and all included. 

 

The US $35,000 proposed budget is only 1.4 mil php @ 40/$, so a bit short. :unsure:  Now, I believe your requirements can be met with half the size?  That would make it 2 million ($50,000).  The customer needs a plan to figure the total square meter living space for a better estimate.  I believe the estimate is including full tile in 2 cr and tile floors throughout, doors & windows, cabinets & closets.  He is accustomed to building 'western style' condo units.  You'll see in the reply that there is also some adjustment probable either way depending on particulars.

 

Reply follows:

 

For rough estimate requirements of your friend, following would be helpful in his budgeting: 

 

For residential building : 

An average cost at P  20,000.00 per square meters of building area. 

This includes structural and architectural works.

The bldg area refers to the total area to be occupied inside the building. It is the summation of 3 bedrooms, 2 cr, living area, kitchen, small room office, a garage. All areas covered by roof.

As detailed for example, 3 bedroom house would reach an area of about 200 square meters, we can adopt the factor of P 20,000.00 so a budget cost will be 4M.

This budget also covers cabinets and closets. 

 

For demolition cost: 

            If there is a need for demolition, we can adopt a factor of P 3,000.00 per square meters. The area will be measured and assess during actual site inspection. 

 

For Perimeter Fence : 

            If the property has no perimeter fence yet, we can use a factor of 4,000.00 per linear meter using 2 meter high CHB fence.

 

As we normally do, we should come up to a detailed plans before finalizing the costings. An ocular inspection will also be required to arrive most reasonable costings.

 

This probably is not exactly what you WANT to hear, but I hope you find the information helpful.  Also, please consider everything that is included as the 'extras' really add in price.  This is also his fair normal price, not based on your origin or wallet size. :tiphat:

[Leo]

Hi Cebu dreamer,

Here are a few pointers from my experience after building and refurbishing several houses in both urban and rural Cebu.

• The cost of building a house in the Philippines depends on the design, floor area, location, materials & method of construction, even the timetable will affect costs. 
• Cost of P2000/sqft is about right for pretty much standard fit out. As said in other postings, you pay a lot for premium materials. I saw the below italic text in an article of building a house in the Philippines. The cost pf P2000/sqft above is close to the B level of finishing mentioned in this article.
• Pay attention to project management. A good project manager with knowledge and a feel for dealing with Filipino workers is worth his/her money in gold.
• As almost everywhere, the tools and materials used, need to be stored in a safe place e.g. a container. If not your cost can dramatically increase.
• Be sure you understand the legal and government fees involved. There is a good amount of red tape which cost money as you know.
• Any wood used in the structure needs to be treated. I had to replace wood after 12 months because of termite or buk-bok (powder beetle) infestation. Treated wood is expensive! 

Hope this helps a little. You will find a lot of information if you do some research with Google. Also look at prices of houses of about the size you want to build. This gives you a feel of what the sqft market price is. 

Wish you a lot of success. 

Leo

 

 

The cost to build your house or commercial building in the Philippines depends also on what level of finishing you want:

A) 'Budget' or 'Low Cost' (ordinary ceramic tiles or vinyl, ordinary paint, G.I. galvanized steel long span roofing, steel casement windows)

B) 'Average finish' (ceramic- and granite tiles or wood floor panels/parquet, good quality paint, insulated G.I. galvanized steel long span roofing, steel casement windows, cabinets in kitchen and bedrooms)

C) 'High-end first-class finish' (imported tiles or wood floor panels/parquet, Decore- or Multiflex paint, wall-mouldings, insulated G.I. galvanized steel long span roofing or clay tiles, aluminum or PVC framed windows, laminated cabinets in kitchen and bedrooms, hot and cold water) 

 

 

[SubicSteve]

You might want to read the recent post here about someone having a house built while they were away so it would be ready when they got here.  OY VEY

[Americano]

Here's my experience of building a house in the Philippines while living in another country:

My first Filipina wife and I were living in the USA in 2007 when we sent money to her mother to buy a lot for her father, mother and siblings who were still living at home. I guess they legally purchased the lot for the amount they said it cost but I'm not sure since I wasn't there or ever saw any documents.

Before I started sending money to build a house on the lot I started asking my wife the cost who would then ask her father how much it would cost to build the house. She was given the cost of materials such as sand, cement, gravel, re-bar, etc and the quantity needed. When we added everything up the total cost came out to less than P300,000. This was in Mindanao where land and materials are cheap and the labor would be done by her father and other relatives. And, the wood house her father bought and they were living in only cost P5,000. Therefore P300,000 for a concrete house was believable.

I began sending US $1,000 each day which was P50,000 at that time and I was told construction had began. After a few days I began asking my wife if her family would make some pictures of the house with the Samsung Digital Camera that gave to them on my last trip to visit them. The first few times on different days I didn't get any answers to my question and then finally one day they said the camera didn't work any more. And, when I asked if they got water in the camera the answer was no, the batteries were not sold there. AA batteries are sold everywhere in the Philippines so I knew that was a lie. Each time my wife would call her family they would say the house is not finished yet, send more money. I kept sending money until all of our savings was gone which was $6,500. or P325,000.

One or two days later my wife said send another $1,000. today. When I said I can't send any more money now because we already sent all of our saving. Her response was "Are you crazy?" She had been living in the USA for almost two years but still believed that all Americans are rich and of course her family did too.

A few months later we started planning our trip to visit her family and see the house so finally her family made some pictures with a film type camera and sent them to us. The pictures showed that on the ground was an outline of the house made with one block high of hollow block and there were 12 vertical re-bar in the hollow block. And, there were about 50 to 60 hollow blocks stacked up waiting to be used.

 

The house should have been completed or nearly completed.  I didn't see any evidence of any expensive purchases in their home so I believe the father couldn't count a large sum of money so when he purchased building materials he just laid all of the money he had that day on the counter and let them take what they wanted.

 

I believe the camera was sold at a Pawn Shop before I sent the money to build the house and they were afraid to make pictures but finally did to know what my reaction would be before I saw what little was done in person.

 

CebuDreamer,

 

I know you plan to have your wife there while the house is being built but I would still demand to see pictures of the progress every week and to know how much was spent that week.
 

Edited March 20, 2013 by Americano

[Americano]

CebuDreamer,

 

Here's another story to back up my comment to you. I have heard several stories but this one I know the family and see them often.

 

A Filipina OFW left her mother and father's house almost two years ago to work in another country.  She has been sending money home regularly to remodel the house and to build another bedroom onto it.  The daughter believes the work is being done and may even believe its completed by now.  The fact is no work has been done at all. The house is still the same as the day she left.  Evidently she hasn't asked to see any pictures or her parents made excuses why they can't send any pictures.

 

She was planning to come home on vacation for Christmas of last year.  Her next door neighbors along with my wife and I were thinking, oh no the you know what is going to hit the fan.  Well she didn't have enough money to buy the expensive plane ticket.  The constant demand for more and more money kept her from coming home and continued the scam a few more months.  I hope when the young lady finds out what her parents have been doing to her that she never sends any money to them again.  What kind of parents would lie to their own daughter like that?

 

 

Here's the best advice I can give you when actually building a house in the Philippines:

 

To protect your building materials from thieves, build your security fence first and have at least two people inside the fence who you are sure you can trust.  And, they may need to work in shifts so one of them can watch the other workers at all times.

 

Building materials are stolen on nearly all constructions sites where the materials are not secured and guarded properly.

Edited March 20, 2013 by Americano