A friend of mine has been building his place down south over the years. He recently got a quote for building work for $6.5k. He hired the workers on the basis of that quote and total bill was $22k! So much for a recent article indicating that you can get a 4 storey townhouse thrown up for $25k. My wife told me that they can build a decent brick/concrete house in her province for $3-4k. However, for a barang the price would be much higher.

The most important issue is that you need to obtain the land title. So you probably know the requirements for that.

If you do a google search for self-builders in Thailand you will probably find photos of farang builders and their creations. The issues encountered will be very similar to here.

Hi Michael,
I actually work in construction in PP so..yeah...I am very sceptical about the "$25k shop houses" as I know the cost of materials here. Wood is now outrageously expensive and steel is going north every week. Ideally I would like a steel sub-structure and a timber upper. However, I keep coming back to bricks as they are very cheap and so are sheets of MDf etc. I actually really like the cement villas of Kep and this is near where I am hopefully buying our land. I want to build something that is fireproof, theft proof and visually very aesthetic. Similar to the pink one here ;

As it may be the only opportunity I ever get to build my very own house from the ground up, I want to take my time with design and yes...of course I want to do it cheaply ! I have a bunch of Thai sites bookmarked but nothing really eye-catching..

j

lads, I have moved this from the real estate forum as that is more for rentals and sales of real estate.

Cheers AG.

JG get the bloody EAS holiday house up and running son!!!

Moved it to where big boy ?

PP

moved it to

Expat Advisory Service And Travel Asia Forums Forum Index -> Expats Forum Phnom Penh -> by expats for expats cambodia

My husband (Cambodian) has a construction/handyman business and he comes up with these encounters all the time. He puts his quotes in at the 'real' price but most choose the cheaper option and then are dumbfounded when the 'real' bill comes in or disappointed when they get rubbish end products..... go figure.

Pay peanuts you get Monkeys as he likes to say!

The cost of building materials is going sky high (what's not?) as is the cost of living and these guys (builders, electricians, plumbers etc etc) aren't out to rip you off, they aren't going to Europe skiing, just trying to put a roof over their heads.

Sorry, but if you think you are getting a house built for 6.5k... someone is having a lend of you. Realistically, why not go to the timber and steel shops and see what the prices are.

My family have renovated and bulit several homes in Australia and the final time line AND cost is never ever what was set out at the beginning. I think that's universal.

There's my two cents worth!

Good luck

Kathy

PP,

that looks like a cool place. I'm also looking for a plot at the moment, having been priced out of PP, which will be down south. Sinville or thereabouts. My brother trained as an architect although he didn't do his part 3s but loads of his mates are qualified.

Kathy,

I agree with you. Pay peanuts and generally you will get monkeys. That quote btw was for extension work to a pre-existing property. The bloke's Khmer wife used local builders and I don't think they necessarily shopped around for the cheapest of the cheap but simply took someone who seemed decent and was local to them. Btw - any ideas who can tile? Properly I mean and using a tile cutter without gouging big holes in new tiles or masses of cuts.

Forget those thai websites,the dickheads on there have no idea about building.
Construction is till incredibly cheap in canbodia despite hardwood being $750 a cubic metre.Still a fraction of the autsralian price.
Bricks are only $30 a thousand in cambodia and their steel roofs are great.They frame a roof in no time and I like those small clay tiles best.
I have looked at two timber houses under construction on koh okneatai,about sixty square metres for $9000 for a timber house on concrete columns-pretty cheap.
Of course there is no plumbing,electrical,ceilings or interior lining.
But a lot of wood for the money.
Personally I would build in brick with the steel framed roof and clay tiles.I know that heng is building circular masonry units in kampot for $24,000 apiece-cheap for something circular.

Obviously that's $24k build cost but is that internally fitted out too, including bathroom etc? What sort of size are we talking? Any ideas. Couple of storeys? Psqm?

I stumbled across a shop selling some very nice looking concrete besa blocks yesterday. They were good quality and had rims that fitted into each successive block. Did not ask the price /1000 but a simple slab with a bunker style construction out of these concrete blocks , a rendering , many long vertical,shuttered style louvred windows and a tin roof to collect your water for your tank would be cheap as chips. I also like the clay bricks though. For an idea of what you can achieve with $7,000 using these bricks and with a simple tin roof, visit the Coco Tree Cafe on St 113 near Toul Sleng. It would make for a great little house......

Also,,,check out this shot of the office at Le Jardin Cafe. If done on a larger scale it would make a great little house too !

PP

Last year we did some major renovations to a house in Phnom Penh. My (Khmer) wife's advice would be feed them everyday and buy em some beer every now and then to keep em happy. This seemed to work for us as all work got completed in time and to our satisfaction.

Doesn't matter where they are from - construction workers do like a beer at the end of the day to wash to dust off...