Trading up: New-build at an affordable price

A 2,000 sq ft new-build, air-tight home, for upwards of €70,000? Well, that’s for starters at least.

A new expanding Munster company promises to build new homes on individuals’ private sites, to a shell-state, for a rock-bottom and up-front cost of €35 psf. Kompetenz Build Ltd offers a new building approach, at that quoted figure, to the latest (March 2014) building regulations, hitting impressive air-tightness/energy efficient standards en route.

Constructed using a thermohouse (ICF) building system, the €35 psf price is exclusive of VAT (and certain ground conditions might push up prices,) but clarity is brought to offers of: prepared and poured foundations, walls to a U value of 0.195, internal load bearing walls and concrete first floor, roof structure to a U value of 0.15 and windows and doors to a U value of 1.2. Certification is provided for radon barrier, structure and roof, and air-tightness to achieve an ‘A’ BER rating.

Completion costs depend on finishes and spec, trades used and the level of personal input.

“We’ll build an air-tight, weather-tight house shell that allows either a building contractor or self builder to complete the house,” says project manager Philip O’Connor of Kompetenz, actively lining up work in Cork and Kerry.

VERDICT: Likely to be rolled out beyond Kerry once it gets going, there’s clarity in pricing to this stage of building, but it’s not really for novices. It’s a good way for self-builders of comparing build costs from other contractors