By Umar Nsubuga
To build a home of your dreams means you will get to determine the project from beginning to end. But with this also comes the potential for unexpected expenses and exceeding the budget.
Construction is looked as an expensive venture generally.
A lot of people who would like to build their own home are many times deterred because they think that they are earning very little salaries.
In general, construction of a house from low earnings is difficult, but is achievable. A lot of discipline is required to save money and to hire the right people to do the work.
Abdu-Wahab Nyanzi an architect with JR Consultants says, if a client can save sh200,000 per month as a minimum, the client can build his or her own home slowly and live comfortably without the hustle of paying rent.
With such a salary it is better to build a two bedroom unit with a lounge, dining room, shared bathroom and a kitchen.
The estimated cost might be sh50m to completion if the client follows the cost management proposals.
How you can build
Take a loan where the repayment instalments are equal to the savings you have accumulated such that you don’t take a very long time, while building. A loan helps the client get all the money in bulk to push the project to completion in the shortest time possible, says Nyanzi.
The second option is to hold the monthly savings on an account or in safe place till you accumulate enough to build. Under this arrangement, the best thing is to breakdown the project into phases.
Procurement of materials for the; foundation, walling to window, walling to ring beam, the ring beam, walling after ring beam, procurement of roofing timber and roofing sheets, plastering and then windows.
Nyanzi says, once the project is broken down into these small manageable units, the client can start saving for each one of them individually without worrying about the whole project.
Every person would like to build a house at the lowest cost. Most of them are unfortunately not willing to reduce cost by following advice of architects.
“Most clients want to achieve this by asking the builder to reduce his fees as if the builder is operating with super normal profits. Our local builders (masons) working on most individual houses operate with very little margins and so can only bring down the cost of construction by compromising on the quality of construction,” he says.
Therefore, the practice of cost reduction and management starts right from the time of discussing your project with an architect.
How you can achieve your dream house at a reasonable cost
Nyanzi says a professional plan of the house with maximum utilisation of space and with considerations of structural engineering to reduce structural cost is the major cost reduction decision that architects make.
The architect will point out most of the construction cost reduction methods as listed below and more depending on the clients’ need.
Proper supervision
The site should be supervised by a qualified architect right from foundation to completion.
This will help avoid errors that might lead to demolitions, re-work, and wrong interpretation of drawings and loss of time due to delays.
Have you built a house on a sh1m monthly salary? Type HOMES, leave a space, then your RESPONSE and send to 8338
