For those who built a house, was it cheaper than buying a pre-built one?

[ReloTH]

Number of reasons to take either avenue but when it simply comes down to the dollar & cents (well THB) all costs considered for those that took the building route - what % do you think you saved (or not) from building ?

 

 

[Hummin]

All depending where, quality, materials chosen, comparing to gathered community or not. 

 

Freestand on your own land, can be as much as 2/3 cheaper but you need to be present 24/7 and understand consruction and materials. 

 

It was a night mare but in the end worth it

 

 

[KhunLA]

Yes, much cheaper & much better quality build.  Though you do need to pay attention as they build.

[Hummin]

25 minutes ago, KhunLA said:

Yes, much cheaper & much better quality build.  Though you do need to pay attention as they build.

And have people on the construction site 24/7, if not they will rob it.

 

If you get a package price, the company lives on the property and are responsible themselves.

 

Common mistakes, what you see on pictures is often not what you get, so make sure you understand every detail of the contract.

 

Know one who was getting a package house, and thought he got kitchen, bathroom, electricity, and all the piping for 1,2 million, but nope. 

 

So many details you will struggle with. 

 

We bought everything ourself, had controll of quality, prices and paid the crew by day, still a nightmare.

 

If you using a company with foreigner who is responsible, and who have good reputation, you will pay the price additionally for his expertise and experience. Still there can be misunderstandings 

 

We built dirt cheap, but so far so good

[newnative]

     It was cheaper building it ourselves but, as others have said, you need to be hands-on, even when you have hired someone, as we did, to do the actual build and be in charge of the construction.   You need to be on hand to check the work, catch mistakes, and make sure you are getting what you have planned for.  The big plus, for us, was getting a house custom built for our wants, needs, and tastes. 

    Many pre-built homes these days have lots of built-in furniture, including beds, bedside tables, tv cabinets, etc.  The bedrooms can end up looking like dorm rooms and the other rooms rather cookie-cutter.  Also, lots of real or fake granite and marble splashed on the walls, huge, gaudy chandeliers, and so on.   Not our taste.  We have lots of art, some of it quite large, and antique Asian furniture to fit in, so many of the pre-built houses with mostly built-in furniture just don't work for us, as we'd have to tear out a lot we didn't like or want, unless we got in early on a build.  

[rumak]

Here come the photos...............

 

 

[KhunLA]

Reading OP again ...

 

... savings, at least 50%, as everything we looked at, was ฿2+M range, not including our solar system, which was ฿450k.

 

House is only ~130m² on 100 tw lot,  1/4 rai = 400m² (20m X 20m lot).   Semi rural, and lot only cost ฿76k (10 yrs ago), and now would be ฿500k.  House 2.5 yrs old.   I wouldn't sell it for less the ฿3M.

 

Buy as much land as you can, as that is what will appreciate in the future.   The building itself, don't expect much of a return, if any.   Two previous house builds appreciated nicely, all because of the land they sat on, not the building.

[mikebike]

As others have said. 50% or more for buying turn key rather than building on your own land.

[KhunLA]

We contracted a builder to build it.  Contract had 'allotments' broken down for roof, tile, cabinets, fixtures (toilet & sinks), painting, doors & windows, all based on blueprint.

 

Block & concrete/cement was all fixed price, and just told her which type of block to use.  Sparky & plumbing was also fixed.

 

We actually shopped for and ordered the roofing material (BluScope rolled steel), fixtures and picked out all the tiles.  Along with cabinets.  Her pricing was very good, and we weren't far off at all.

 

Used a different sliding doors & window crew, than hers, after viewing her previous builds, and didn't care for her subcontractors materials that they used.

 

Some things we picked out were cheaper, and just moved the balance over to things we picked that were more expensive.  Actually balanced out pretty good, very surprisingly.

[Crossy]

Design and build it yourself and get exactly what you want (mostly) 🙂 

 

Crikey, did we really start in 2011? 

 

We are still friends with k. Dusit and his son. They re-built our failing retaining wall (they didn't build the original).

 

 

 

 

[quake]

Pre built, you don't get much choice where to live.

Buy land for wife /company,  build where you want and how you want. 

[ReloTH]

OP here much appreciate everyone sharing your experiences!

 

Reading through the replies perhaps I should have added, with all you learnt through the experience, in hindsight would you recommend it given the THB savings and the freedom to build the design you want?

[G Rex]

Having built 2 houses here - my main piece of advice is choose your builder wisely!

Our first house, 5 years ago, 1.7Mill Baht for a 4 bedroom 190m2 house.  Not premium, but no problems with this one.

Our current house - 5+ Mill Baht for 3 bedroom 2 living area 2 storey house - about 230m2 living area.  With this build, we had to watch our builder (who came highly recommended!) like a hawk. He was constantly looking for ways to shaft us. Cheaper materials, poor building practices etc - but we called him out on most things, and made him rectify issues.  Less than 3 months after moving into our house - he was ghosting us! Not a great issue - as we didn't want him working for us anyway! - and in the next 18 months we have spent another 1.5mill repairing/replacing/rectifying his faults!   When we built our separate gym/pool room/motorbike house - we contracted our builder from our first house - have had no problems with this.

 

Don't expect to 'make' money from a house in LOS. Our first house is still sitting empty after 2 years. Thai are not keen on buying second hand houses. Too many Ghosts!! LOL 

[Kat Hao]

Reminded of the saying "everyone knows price, but very few know value".  So much for your high-end interior finishes, thick hardwood teak floors, granite counters, imported porcelion tile, built-in teak cabinets, European kitchen and bathroom hardware.  These features mean nothing to a person without the knowledge to discern.  To some extent this is true throughout the world, but no where moreso that here.  And if you spent 5 million to build, and then 1.5 million to fix their mistakes, what was the value of your time and agrivation along the way?  In my book, this house cost you far more than 6.5 million when all is said and done.    

[Thingamabob]

Yes, constructing yourself would be significantly cheaper so long as you have a reliable and competent builder who understands your requirements.

[Thingamabob]

Just now, Thingamabob said:

Yes, constructing yourself would be significantly cheaper so long as you have a reliable and competent builder who understands your requirements.

We were fortunate to find an excellent builder.

[arick]

On 5/24/2025 at 2:02 PM, KhunLA said:

Reading OP again ...

 

... savings, at least 50%, as everything we looked at, was ฿2+M range, not including our solar system, which was ฿450k.

 

House is only ~130m² on 100 tw lot,  1/4 rai = 400m² (20m X 20m lot).   Semi rural, and lot only cost ฿76k (10 yrs ago), and now would be ฿500k.  House 2.5 yrs old.   I wouldn't sell it for less the ฿3M.

 

Buy as much land as you can, as that is what will appreciate in the future.   The building itself, don't expect much of a return, if any.   Two previous house builds appreciated nicely, all because of the land they sat on, not the building.

I bought five right for 300,000. 8 years ago wonder how much now. 

[1FinickyOne]

On 5/24/2025 at 12:03 PM, ReloTH said:

Number of reasons to take either avenue but when it simply comes down to the dollar & cents (well THB) all costs considered for those that took the building route - what % do you think you saved (or not) from building ?

 

 

Where I come from time = money... do you count that? Building can be aggravating - does that have a cost? Then again, if you build you get to choose exactly what you want - 1 bedroom, 4 baths, up to you... but yes, things do deteriorate here... there is no simply $ and cents - there is convenience and choice involved... and depreciation... things depreciate here, though land usually appreciates. 

[Luuk Chaai]

On 5/24/2025 at 2:21 PM, KhunLA said:

We contracted a builder to build it.  Contract had 'allotments' broken down for roof, tile, cabinets, fixtures (toilet & sinks), painting, doors & windows, all based on blueprint.

 

Block & concrete/cement was all fixed price, and just told her which type of block to use.  Sparky & plumbing was also fixed.

 

We actually shopped for and ordered the roofing material (BluScope rolled steel), fixtures and picked out all the tiles.  Along with cabinets.  Her pricing was very good, and we weren't far off at all.

 

Used a different sliding doors & window crew, than hers, after viewing her previous builds, and didn't care for her subcontractors materials that they used.

 

Some things we picked out were cheaper, and just moved the balance over to things we picked that were more expensive.  Actually balanced out pretty good, very surprisingly.

pretty much same here .  except we used our own electrician and window fabricater installer

I had all the wiring from outside encased and buried  same with all the water piping from the  "pump room " 

a few extra's were insulated roof/attic space and enlarged bathrooms and 2 meter walkways around the house not your typical 1

kitchen time was actually an addition 20'x30' .just over 6x9 meters which was going to be an open air kitchen ..until i came out one morning and found a Malay Pit Viper waiting for me .... fastest addition of windows and sliding doors you ever saw !

We added  a concrete drive ..  we are set back about  200' from the road so we made a oval driveway  with motorized gate

and the center ( looks like a hockey rink) is a beautiful garden

since then we added on car port  / metal roofing to both sides and an additional 5 meter roof/awning at the rear which we are now enclosing

 this is our laundry room and leads out to the back yard covered  patio and garden

[GreasyFingers]

You will have discovered from all the above posts that building in Thailand can be a nightmare. If you have no design and building experience the nightmare gets worse.

We went the other route and bought an existing older dwelling (we liked the land and location) and the had additions to suit our needs. Yes, building is cheap but involves a lot of anxiety. This is made worse if your wife has no idea of building and tends to side with the Thai builder, only because Thais know everything and the farang is stupid.

If you are going to build you need a very, very strong relationship with you wife. This does not just apply to Thailand as there were many near divorces in the home country when building homes.

[CanadaSam]

Cannot imagine buying pre-build, 3 beds, 1 bathroom type places, bedrooms the size of closets.

 

Have to go through the pain of doing it yourself, supervising daily.

[Hummin]

6 hours ago, Kat Hao said:

Reminded of the saying "everyone knows price, but very few know value".  So much for your high-end interior finishes, thick hardwood teak floors, granite counters, imported porcelion tile, built-in teak cabinets, European kitchen and bathroom hardware.  These features mean nothing to a person without the knowledge to discern.  To some extent this is true throughout the world, but no where moreso that here.  And if you spent 5 million to build, and then 1.5 million to fix their mistakes, what was the value of your time and agrivation along the way?  In my book, this house cost you far more than 6.5 million when all is said and done.    

I wanted a quick kitchen, but that would had cost more than 1/3 the whole farm including land, and in retrospective useless where we are at. 

 

We use the outside kitchen primarily 

 

 

[G Rex]

8 hours ago, Kat Hao said:

Reminded of the saying "everyone knows price, but very few know value".  So much for your high-end interior finishes, thick hardwood teak floors, granite counters, imported porcelion tile, built-in teak cabinets, European kitchen and bathroom hardware.  These features mean nothing to a person without the knowledge to discern.  To some extent this is true throughout the world, but no where moreso that here.  And if you spent 5 million to build, and then 1.5 million to fix their mistakes, what was the value of your time and agrivation along the way?  In my book, this house cost you far more than 6.5 million when all is said and done.    

 

You have no idea what ‘features’ I have in my house.

thanks for your input….

agrivation? Lol          

[khunPer]

On 5/24/2025 at 7:03 AM, ReloTH said:

Number of reasons to take either avenue but when it simply comes down to the dollar & cents (well THB) all costs considered for those that took the building route - what % do you think you saved (or not) from building ?

I saved a bit from building, as I was my own project manager and there was no middle man to make a markup between constructor and final buyer.

 

But more important: I got the house I wanted built with the materials I wanted and I know what is behind the nice paint and tiles, and underneath the floors. When using a turn-key construction, the building construction company might cut some edges on materials, which you cannot see when you get your keys, but after a few years paints drop off and thing begin to break.

 

My foreign next door neighbourgh got a luxury house built at same time as mine – the price was double as much per square meter – made as a turn-key project. A month after they moved in the roof began to leak – lots of silicone was used during their first monsoon rain-storm – later they got major water damages. My roof is still tight after 15 years.

 

After a year the paint began to pieel off, mine still sits nicely on my walls after 15 years. The difference being that I had double layer primer and a little more expensive, and thereby better qaulity paint, coated in three layers onm top of the primer. My neighbourgh got one times primer and two layers of cheap paint (I know what they used, I wouldn't use that on my house).

 

Furthermore you can chose to use aireated concrete for walls insted of cheap blocks, which gives you both a better indoor climate, but also saves electricity when using aircon. And so you can go on with details.

 

But, you need to be present when building your house, to use thar method. And you also need to either check up on varoous thin gs yourself – if you don't know about building construction; which I didn't, but and read and asked and listened a lot – or find some advisor.

[Andycoops]

The advantage of building is that you get a bespoke property and not what someone else has designed.

 

If you live outside of major cities in a rural area there aren't any real estate transactions going on, so building is the only option.

 

[GreasyFingers]

9 hours ago, khunPer said:

When using a turn-key construction, the building construction company might cut some edges on materials, which you cannot see when you get your keys

I know of a project build that had to be completely rewired as the original was not safe. We rewired what we bought but it was an old build so they had cut many corners, including no earth rod.

[Tazmo]

I chose a pre built house mainly because it was near the school to where my Thai wife worked.

It’s in a. “Gated Community “, and feels secured and we have full privacy. Some very nice neighbors, we don’t get over familiar!

 

But after retirement and working in a highly stressed related industry for several decades, there was no way I wanted the hassle, worry and more unnecessary stress and uncertainty of buying land and building. For me it wasn’t worth any sum of money saved, but my health was my priority now.

 

I had the experience of watching friends age from building their own houses. There have had good results and would still boast about how much they save, but they are money driven, different philosophy in life to me. 
 

As with everything else it’s each to his own. One man’s meat is another man’s poison, as the saying goes. All depends on your personality and the genes you inherited, what drives you! 

[The Old Bull]

Electrical and plumbing has evolved lots in the last few years so unless your house in new it will be outdated no matter what it cost. Build your own , spec out the latest and keep an eye on the construction.