# How much to build a house in Vancouver?



## vi123 (Oct 29, 2015)

Anyone know how much per square foot it costs to build a house in YVR? Assuming a flat lot with easy access, and reasonably high end finishes?

I've heard people saying as much as $400 per square foot. That seems crazy but it might be true. Does that match up with anyone's experience


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## Woz (Sep 5, 2013)

FWIW, a good friend finished a new house in Vancouver in 2015 and said it ended up being $275/sq ft. Finishes look about what you’d expect of new builds in Vancouver: engineered hardwood, granite counter-tops, stainless steel appliances, etc. Nothing that I’d consider extravagant, but not sure if that’s considered reasonably high-end or not.


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## vi123 (Oct 29, 2015)

Woz said:


> FWIW, a good friend finished a new house in Vancouver in 2015 and said it ended up being $275/sq ft. Finishes look about what you’d expect of new builds in Vancouver: engineered hardwood, granite counter-tops, stainless steel appliances, etc. Nothing that I’d consider extravagant, but not sure if that’s considered reasonably high-end or not.


Thanks Woz. Was he/she happy with the end result? I don't suppose you know which builder it was?


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## Woz (Sep 5, 2013)

He was happy with the end result, but it did take a lot longer and a lot more work than he was expecting. It was also a bit more than initially quoted ($250/sq ft). The general contractor wasn’t great which meant he had to be more involved than he was intending to be.

I personally don’t know much about building homes, but a couple of the complaints I heard about were:

Good contractors are pretty in demand right now which means they want to be scheduled 4 weeks in advance and have the area ready for them to work. The schedule can quickly get away from you. If you’re off by a week then the electrician/plumber/drywaller, etc. needs to be rescheduled and they usually weren’t available for 4 weeks. This happened many times and the expected completion date must’ve been pushed back at least 5-10 times.

At the beginning he was being charged for more people/hours than were actually on site. He started doing site checks and keeping track of who’s on site which put an end to that.

The city of Vancouver building regulations were onerous. I can't really remember why. I tuned out for most of those conversations . 

I don’t know if those are common experiences, but that’s what he found.


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## Durise (May 16, 2016)

It's depend on house sq. ft. If you house is 3000 sq. ft. that costs maximum 600,000 so that $200 for every sq. ft.


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## steve41 (Apr 18, 2009)

As well, it is very expensive for a tradesman to live in Vancouver, so they are in scarce supply.


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