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A real estate agent in Costa Rica mentioned on their website that cost of construction has come down to $70 a square foot in the Jaco area. Is this true? I was quoted $100 a sq. ft. last year.
Waldog
Hi Waldog. It really depends on the builder and the quality of the material. Homes can still be built for under $50 per square foot but not to North American Standards. So the person that quoted $100 per square foot is probably still going to quote you the same maybe alittle bit less but we haven’t seen cost drop 30% in the past year even though they should have. 🙂
Thanks for the info Lisle55. I’m hoping to build soon and $70 a sq. sf. would be ideal for me on a good quality home. Would you have any recommendations on a good and honest builder?
It’s critical that you know just what is (and more importantly, what is not) included in any price anyone quotes you. Yes, you can build a shell for $70 a square foot. That’s for certain. But you may learn the hard way that finish products (doors, windows, tile, electrical and plumbing fixtures, cabinetry, countertops, etc) are not included.
If they are included, then you need to be sure that the amounts budgeted will actually pay for what you want. It’s a common practice (“trick”?) of contractors worldwide to underquote these allowances to make their bids seem more affordable than they really are.
Likewise, it’s important to know just what quality of materials are quoted. There are perfectly good metal roofing materials, for example, and there are roofing materials that are little more than metal foil. Which one will you be getting?
I agree with Lisle in that prices should have come down some, and in some respects they have. What hasn’t come down much are material cost, which over the last five years have probably doubled. I have an excellent local builder here in Esterillos Oeste who is currently building an 1800 sq foot home for a client and the cost is approximately $85 per sq foot. He has built 5 or 6 homes in this area as well as lives here, so he stand behind his work and I have no reservations recommending him to someone. You can build for less than $100 per sq foot, but as Lisle also pointed out, a lot depends on the finishes, materials, etc. that you want in a home.
I have a lot in Esterillos, I would like to have the name of your builder @ $85/sq. Current pricing I have rec’d makes building now prohibitive.
Thanks
dk, if material costs have not come down then it’s unlikely that total building costs have either. About 70 – 80% of the cost of building is in materials, not labor. And since labor costs are legally regulated, the only other wiggle room lies in a contractor’s profit margin. It’s true that a contractor may be prepared to flex some, but if s/he concedes much there won’t be much reason to take on the project.
Hi David, I agree, but because of the slow down in building some builders have cut their profit margins and in fact some material cost have come down, at least in our area. So that was my only point about prices having come down in some respects. I think two, many builders were over priced in their price per sq footage and at a time when things were busy they relied on Gringo buyers who didn’t know any better. Someone coming from California where prices are over $300 a sq foot to build a home is going to think they are getting a hell of deal when they are quoted $120 a sq foot down here. So some of the decrease you might see is simply a builder hungry for work offering a more reasonable price than previously.
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