Cost to build in Eastern Poland - Ideally per m2

Myself and my polish wife have a nice plot near Siedlce in eastern poland. We plan to build a modern home of about 400m2.

We are currently at the budgeting stage and trying to work out costs.

Does anyone have any idea of the rough costs per m2?

Thanks

Dan

materials and labour around 2500-3000 PLN for a white finish.

Depending on how much labour you get and how much materials you lose.

Is it in your experience that lots of materials go missing? Myself or wife would be onsite during the build.

What are peoples experiences of project managers during builds in Poland?

Not in my experience.


Make sure you have the final say - dont give them to much freedom, keep a close eye on all receipts - better still buy the materials yourself.

Very hit and miss i would say, do your research, see previous projects and verify them.

Price wise you get what you pay for, i listed 2500 - 3000 as average, if you want marble flooring though out or laminate, sheet metal roof panels or traditional clay tiles, pretty endless really.

Hi, I live in Scotland and am moving near Siedlce with my Polish wife and we are doing the same thing as you. Hopefully start building this year. We have budgeted about 350K (zl). Are you sure its 400m2? Thats like a factory size. If you stick dobry dom into google and type in the name of our house (dom w kamasjach) you will get an idea. Our house is about 180m2 and that is a 4 bedroom pad. Where is the town, if you dont mind me being nosey?

John

John

Hi, we are also looking to build a house, about 40km south west of Wroclaw. What was the cost of building your property, not including the land? We are looking for a similar layout, open plan downstairs. Any thing you would change?

Thanks
Graeme

A bit lean, must be a small house, if you want to install quality appliances/drapes/doors etc, you may need to double it...

i've never noticed many folk here bother with quality drapes. must be an english thing.

What in Poland or in Eastern Europe?

Just a quick note of my experience in poland and what I have learned about building there. Bought land in 2009 3 months later applied for planning permission to build log cabin went to electric company in the same week planing permision came through. Paid for electric box to be put on site so we could sart building was told it would be there on the land at the end of the summer 2009. Summer 2009 came and went In 2010 we went to poland with the intention of building log cabin as the electric was not on the land the wooden house builders said they needed alot of electric for the chain saws so would not start until electric was connected. We went every month to electric company asking when we would get electric they kept fobbing us off with excuses after excuses. So after more than one year of getting nowhere with our building land we decided to leave poland. We left in april 2011 and still we have heard from family that in sept 2011 still no box on the land. This is the kind of crap you will be dealing with. My advice ti anyone would be not to build in poland maby buy a falling sown wreck and ruin of a house that has water electric and address already there.

I suppose the poor just use old bed sheets or leave exposed windows. I just might qualify the cost of building, in that you can use cheap stuff or five star quality things.

Are drapes now replacing window blinds in Poland?

Surely, if you were serious about building quickly, the contractors could have used a generator on site. You knew you had permission to be connected up to the local supply as you had already paid for the installation. Most contractors I know would have used "petrol" powered chainsaws to avoid having to drag cables all around the site. Maybe a generator for a "Bench saw". If you had constructed the building, this would have put pressure on the media companies to connect you up.

There are always ways of getting around problems if you really want to.

Exactly. Every builder worth his salt has a generator. They wouldn't use electric chainsaws for anything; they use bench saws. I think sister act was badly advised and under-prepared. Her building manager and/or builder should have got things moving with regards the utilities.

We built in the east, where labour is cheaper, so I reckon people should budget for 3,000PLN/m.

We had to pay a higher rate for electricity until the building manager had signed the last page and the authorities has given us final permission to live in the house (a year after we actually moved in). Then the electricity company put us on the normal rate. It's a rip-off, but what can you do? Well, if you have wonderful neighbours, you might be able to come to an arrangement to hook up to their supply. We did that in the early stages when the guys were mixing cement for the foundations and cutting reinforcing steel.

a lot of folks just use blinds... and/or lightweight drapes for decoration.


No. i'd say it's the same as it's ever been.

My insurance company seems to use 3k/m2 as a rebuild cost.

Rebuilding/renovation of a house in poor repair can cost as much as a new build. When we bought our land there was an old house on it which we intended to renovate. We got an architect to come and have a look and he said that it would cost as much to get it up to spec as building a new place. That's what we did and now use the old house for storage and gardening stuff.

Your insurer's quote sounds fair enough.

Yes but it is less tiring and complicated to renovate an old house if it is in acceptable condition than to build a brand new house.

Also if the old house has a nice and typical Polish architecture you know like built in stone or a nice wooden house like those in Zakopane, it would be more interesting than a brand new one with an unremarkable architecture.

I remember beeing a bit shocked when traveling to Ireland and seeing all those "Villas" looking like Spanish Villas, instead of pretty Irish cottages.I thought it was ridiculous.

I mean it is true that for functional reasons it sounds more comfortable to live in a brand new house but I d rather keep in style with Polish architecture then if I were ever going to build a house in Poland or just look for an old one to renovate.

I read an article discussing the blight the lax planning laws has wrought on Ireland's country side, sounds like its even worse than I thought.


The 3K figure is what they give you to build a replacement house, so its the official, true, figure based on what builders are currently charging. Contents is separate of course.

And of course, they would never dream of trying to get away with giving you less money than you actually need, would they?

Its the figure used to calculate how much coverage you have to buy. So its in their interests to to inflate it and receive bigger premiums.

Besides this confirms what other people have said.

Poland is an utter disaster in this respect. Between the utter lack of planning (not laws, there's plenty of them) and the reklama plague, Poland is destroying her countryside. All these morons with half finished houses - I mean, come on!

The UK system of making you either finish the house or demolishing it (and charging you for it) is far more sensible.


Quite normal here, I guess - people are utterly naive and expect things to work in exactly the same way.

I wouldn't build a house here, I simply haven't been here long enough.

Not as bad as it was many years ago Mr D, don't forget people built there own homes on cheap labour (few bottles of vodka) and sometimes used stolen materials etc. Things have tightened up especially with regard to getting permits and inspections. I wonder how construction companies arrive at a figure of 5000zl a metre, not withstanding it takes a average person 2 months to get this sort of money.

more likely what architect one uses

I agree, its annoying to see crappy built, half finished houses. Its economic, once Poland gets richer its governmnet may feel they can enforce similar laws.

Who needs an architect? There are thousands of house plans available online for about 1500-2500PLN. There are so many to choose from that it's a problem settling on just one. Then you can pay an architect to modify the plans if you want. This option is much cheaper than having an architect-designed house. I paid 1500 for plans and another 1000 to modify them.

I hope he helped you build with right materials etc:)

Exactly, who wants to re-invent the wheel?

The tax system doesn't help that. There should be an incentive to build houses in one go rather than over time. Also a planning law to prevent people inhabiting the ground floor and leaving the first floor (or even worse, the external surface of the house) unfinished for years.