Cost of Building a house from scratch and plot permissions

@Yuri1976

I think "regulated" plots are a lot less hassle than unregulated plots (forests, agricultural land, etc.).

Existing houses are good because they're on regulated land, and they'll have services already connected (water, electricity, septic/sewer). You can also - without applying for permission - knock down a ruin, and build a brand new house on the same footprint.

I have a friend in Plovdiv who imports pre-fabricated houses from Turkey. He does the plans and gets the building permits for the client. I imagine you could get a local architect to do the same for you, if you wanted to build from scratch. He put one up in a village near Plovdiv as his own house, and it looks very swanky. It's a large 2 bed, about 120 m2... and it's coming in at around 90,000 euros (finished and ready to live in).

"Prefabricated" means different things to different people, so it can be a bit confusing and/or seem a bit "low rent". But, usually, the house is built in a factory somewhere, and then the "bits" are transported, and simply assembled on-site (usually on a prepared concrete base). The wall panels might be fully-finished both inside and outside, or there might be some degree of conventional finishing (e.g. cladding on outside, plasterboarding and painting on inside). There are a number of suppliers doing this in Bulgaria, and it seems to be quite a popular option (lower building cost than conventional build). And very convenient for foreigners who don't speak the language, and don't want the time/aggravation of managing a build. My buddy has two ranges: a lower cost which looks a bit prefab... and a more expensive one with very contemporary designs, that looks like traditional construction.

At the simpler end, there are cabins made from SIPs. I made one recently, using 5cm SIPs. It was not as cheap as I expected, coming in at around 16k for a 32 m2 (1 bed) build. And 5cm proved to be a false economy, it's not warm enough and has too much condensation. My village neighbour is a super-practical guy, and he says he would never renovate a Bulgarian house. He loves SIPs! He lays a concrete foundation, builds (welds & bolts) a steel frame, then installs the SIPs. He does this for both agricultural/engineering buildings, and residential. He says it's by far the easiest and cheapest construction method. SIPs have different finishes (e.g. red embossed tile effect is popular for roof), or you can attach decorative cladding.

@gwynj Intersting read as always . But if I may ask , what does SIP mean ?

@sammut115

Oops, silly me! SIP = Structural Insulated Panel. It's a "sandwich" of some kind of building material (like OSB, Oriented Strand Wood) on both sides, and a layer of insulation inside. The outside can be unfinished (if it's OSB, for example), or it can have finished coatings (one side for interior, the other for exterior). There are lots of variations, but it's a very popular and common construction panel now.

In our village, the most commonly used is a roof SIP (instead of the old-time corrugated steel roof which has no insulation), which is used as the roof of the garage, or the roof of your store room (especially when you make one between your house and your neighbour's wall).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structural_insulated_panel

@gwynj Thanks for your explanation . In an earlier post you mentioned that you have a friend in Plovdiv who imports these ready made structures from Turkey . As it happens I have been doing some research on prefabricated homes from Turkey and it really looks as its a very viable solution . However if there is someone who can supply from BG at a similar cost I would be very interested . Would you be able to forward me his details by any chance ? Thanks , Mario

@sammut115

Anton has an office in downtown Plovdiv, and he has a website with a bunch of info (homeskisiov dot com) including a PDF catalog with a bunch of different models.

Until 2014, the cost of constraction was 500€/m². Bulgarian  Building Construction Sees 25% Increase in 2014 under the  EU low.

I suppose the price may double now. But it will be quality house.

You can build (physical work) your house by yourself only if the house is below 100 sq.m. If the house is bigger you need a certified building company.