9509 Real costs of restoration

I would be grateful of any advise regarding the realistic costs of restoration in Le Marche. I had thought that E1200 per sq meter would be about right to restore a "habitable/structurally sound" house - including securing walls, foundations, roof etc.. However, I have just seen a house that is standing & on the poor side of habitable, but the agent advises it would be better to take it all down and rebuild, and the costs would be aound E1200 per sq meter for the complete rebuild so now I am a little confused! If anyone could suggest a realistic figure I should budget for rebuilding from a pile of rubble and restorting a "habitable" house (kind of looks OK externally, needs repointing, conversion of cantina, all internal walls cleaning up, bathroom and kitchen fitted, attention to cracks in walls etc...) it would be a great help. Many thanks. Chris

Category
Building/Renovation

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 05/07/2008 - 05:40

Yes! (Oh, can't get away with so few words...)

There is usually very little difference in cost between building new and restoring something pretty grotty, and €1200 a sq m is a reasonably middle ground building price for either choice. However, if the house has any aspirations to 'character', you will be talked out of retaining much of this if you go the full rebuild route - but on the other hand you will end up (for the same money) with a property with full guarantees, and much more saleable to Italians.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 05/07/2008 - 05:51

That is good to know, thank you. I thought he might be telling me that to make the house appear more attractive to purchase!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 05/07/2008 - 07:17

Restoration is far less predictable, in terms of cost, than replacement; and the dreaded imprevisti (unanticipated works) can accumulate horribly. The things that had the biggest impact on our budget were opening new apertures for doors, cuttiing out bedrock to lower the floor level and raising the gable wall to accommodate the new roof: the computometrico was very specific about the cost of the roof but did not anticipate the structural alteration which had to precede it. We are delighted with the result, though, having retained the original thickness of the walls (1.5 metres in places) and the vaulted ceiling. I would certainly choose renovation over rebuild again- you just need to incorporate a big contingency fund into your budget. For what it's worth, I allowed for an extra 25% and ended up using most of it.