Its one of the first questions we hear. What is the build cost here in Portugal ?
It’s understandable of course, people do not have unlimited resources and they want to know if their ideas can be achieved within their budget.
Build Cost is probably the hardest question that we have to answer.
This really is one of those (long as a piece of string) answers.
If you go the wrong route and end up with an architect who charges you 6,000 to 8,000 for a 2,800 Euro design project and then use a builder who inflates his price by 10,000 – 15,000 Euros because your foreign and don’t speak Portuguese.
You will already have lost up to 20,000. Before your house is built.
Some people come out here and try to save money by negotiating or playing off suppliers, builders and architects against each other so as to keep the price down. They may think that this process is working but it rarely does and here is a real life example that shows you why.
Take for example my friend Bill he came out here and wanted to carry out a renovation of a large stone built property as cheap as possible. Truth be told he had bought a huge property without thinking about the refurbishment cost. Its a familiar story that we hear from time to time. I heard from an architect friend that bill was asking any architect that he could find to come to his property and give a price for carrying out the design project work. He was surprised that some architects refused to go and look at the work and were not interested in quoting for it.
What Bill didn’t know of course is that most architects practices here share work load. For example a structural engineer may work for 2 other “competitor” architects practices so they know who is looking for a design project and what prices are being quoted.
The temptation to ask builders to quote for work before the plans are passed is asking for trouble because how can the builder know what has been included in the design until he sees the finalized and approved plans.
