Cost to rebuild a house

If you’re thinking about carrying out some major structural changes to a house, you could be better off knocking it down and building a new one in its place. It can work out both financially and architecturally beneficial to start from scratch.

Having a property designed and built to your exact specification can actually be less hassle than a complex renovation job. That’s why we’ve put together this guide to look at the average costs to rebuild a house in the UK.

For a breakdown of each cost, we spoke to the online estimators at B3 Cost Consulting – a team of professional Estimators and Quantity Surveyors.

How much would it cost to rebuild my house?

The average cost to rebuild a 3-bedroom house in the UK is around £198,000. That said, the nature of a rebuild is a large project and there are a huge number of factors that will affect the total cost.

One of the most influential factors that will affect the cost to rebuild a house is the location. Property and tradespeople prices vary massively across the UK, so you need to take that into consideration when you’re planning your budget.

We always recommend speaking to local builders, architects and tradespeople to get quotes for accurate costs to rebuild your house. One thing that’s good to remember is that, although bigger houses are more expensive to build, if you double the size it doesn’t necessarily double the cost.

An example of average house rebuild costs:

1,000 square feet (3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms) – £152,000
1,400 square feet (3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms) – £192,000
2,000 square feet (4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, one-car garage) – £261,000

Cost of demolition

To rebuild your house you need to knock down the existing one first, and that costs money. The average demolition cost for a rebuild project is about £32,000. That includes the demolition process and the removal of existing foundations.

Again, demolition is a cost that will vary considerably in different areas of the country. To find out more about the price of knocking down a house, check out our demolition cost guide.

House survey costs

The best way to start figuring out what needs doing and how much it will cost is to hire a surveyor to do a full survey of the existing house. An average house survey costs can range from £250 to £1,500, depending on the size of the property and the complexity of the plans.

You can discuss with them your plans and they’ll be able to carry out detailed measurements of your house and then prepare a professional rebuilding cost assessment. That will give you a good idea of the sort of costs you’ll be looking at for the rebuild project.

To find out more, have a read of our house survey cost guide.

Services and drainage costs

A rebuild project involves a lot of different elements, and one of the costs that many homeowners forget to include is the price of dealing with services and drainage. Before you can start demolishing and rebuilding houses, you need to disconnect the services (water, gas, electricity, etc).

The average cost of disconnecting services is about £5,000. And the cost of carrying out a survey for drainage connections is usually between £250 to £450 per survey.

Factors affecting your house rebuild cost

It’s no surprise that with a house rebuild project, there’s a long list of factors to be considered in order to plan a budget. We won’t list them all here, but some of the major things you need to consider before you start the project are:

• Size of the existing property vs size of new property
• Type of house
• The complexity of house design
• Number and extent of surveys and designs needed
• The extent of demolition and ground prep needed
• Type and quality of materials used
• Quality of tradespeople hired
• Where you live

Renovating vs rebuilding – which should I do?

That’s a good question to be asking yourself right now. But it’s probably one best answered by a surveyor. They’ll be able to tell you exactly what is involved based on your plans and ideas for your home.

Some of the signs that you might want to consider rebuilding rather than simply renovating your existing house include:

Your renovation task list is very long. If you have a lot of complex structural work to carry out on your house to get the finished result that you want, the costs will soon add up. An experienced surveyor will be able to tell when your money is better to spend on renovating or when a rebuild could be a better option.

The property is in terrible condition. Sometimes old or poorly maintained houses are so badly damaged and worn away that they aren’t structurally sound enough to support extensions or renovations. In which case, knocking it down and starting again can be the quickest, safest and most cost-effective route to take.

You want to completely change styles. If you have a run-down period property and are dreaming of a sleek, ultra-modern home I facelift might not work. To get the style you want might take razing your house to the ground and building a modern replacement in its place.

If you want to find out more about the costs of renovating instead of rebuilding your house check out our guide to the cost of renovating a house.

Useful house rebuild checklist

• Knocking down and rebuilding a house is no small feat, so you’ll want to start by speaking to an experienced surveyor and an architect to discuss your options.
• Once you have an idea of what you want to do, contact your local council to find out if you need planning permission or if there are any restrictions on your property or local area.
• Plan a comprehensive budget to include all the possible extras you’ll need to pay for during the project.
• Speak to local surveyors, architects, builders and tradespeople to get their expert advice and accurate quotes for the project.
• Consider hiring a project manager to take on the coordination and execution of the rebuild.
• Shop around for fair and competitive house rebuild costs.
• Always hire a tradesperson with experience, qualifications and accreditations.