Building a house in the DR

Depending on how you build it, figure $450usd (bare) to $700usd (plush) per square meter for a concrete block house at this time.

Do you own the land where you are going to build?

The land can cost more than the construction!CRIS

Damn, I'm a source of information today!

Cost of construction per sq. mt. is about RD$5000,
and the sale price is RD$6500 per sq. mt. Those figures are for Santiago, middle class housing. They go up or down as per your demand for luxury items.

I would suggest one important thing, and it will up the cost: Make your ceilings at least 10 feet! Even 12 feet. Most people that build here have no idea as to the thermal efficiency of traditional houses, even those in the campo. They come here and build houses with the "normal" 8 foot ceinlings and they turn into ovens. Oh the engineers will say: "Oh, you don't need that" but I tell you that it is maybe the most important design feature you can do to lessen the temperature of the dwelling, make the use of ceiling fans more efficient and vastly improve air circulation.

Just a few years talkin' there, pard.

Oh yeah, my source is a 'major' builder around here. Let me know if you want to meet him when you arrive.

HB

Sounds like you have both good,and therefore,expensive tastes.I'm thinking at least

$200,000 US to build what you want! CRIS

Hi HB,
You know we have been constructing a new 2-story apartment duplex building at our hotel in Las Galeras and it will come in around $460 per square meter finished and furnished including appliances (hot-water and A/C, too). We cut every corner and got the best prices we could without compromising quality but then we also have some niceties such as an asphalt-shingled, tongue and groove roof with exposed beams with everything varnished, varnished tongue and groove second floor sleeping lofts that open through louvered double doors onto full-width concrete balconies that are covered with the extended, peaked roof, wrought iron stairs and railings, colored concrete floors that will polish up in time, custom kitchen counters and cupboards (I'm building these), tiled bathrooms, HUGE, fully-screened, custom glass windows that open, and those high ceilings you mentioned. The building has a 22' peak with a 12' ceiling (at the peak) in the sleeping lofts. There is also a window at the rear of each loft for flow-through ventilation should a guest not desire to run the A/C.

I'm describing all this so suarezn can get an idea of what he can build for the money. Construction may be cheaper in the more populated areas where labor is more plentiful and contractors/suppliers will bid against each other, but out here we have to take what we can get and as you know, we bought a lot of materials in Nagua and Santiago just to save money (again thanks for your help).

If I figure in the square footage/meters of the 2nd floor sleeping lofts into the building cost, I come up with $286usd per square meter. The building is 2 story, 16 1/2 feet by 33 feet and contains 2 apartments with the sleeping lofts covering just over half of the first floors of each apartment. As everything had to be duplicated (which you wouldn't do in a regular house) the price rose. For just a bare shell not including furnishings and appliances, the per square meter price was a little under $220usd per square meter including the lofts.

To all,

Since the subject is housing I was wondering if there were any prefabricated or mobile homes in the Dominican Republic.
The type that are popular in Florida.

I've seen them around Ocala as large as 4 bedroom, 2 baths, large closets everything but furniture.
Dont know how many square feet but they were very big.
Ranges $28,000 for 2 bedrooms to $52,000 for 4 bedroom.

Mobile homes or house trailers blow away in hurricanse and you will not find them in the DR.

how do property taxes come into play? do they even exist in the DR?

Suarezn

You can buy land in the country side near Cotui from $RD 4000.00 to $RD 10,000 a Tarea(which is 628m2). So the costs of buying the land will not be a major overall expense.

Though you can get all the basic building materials in Cotui like at the Tornillo Fereteria. Such as blocks, cement and barilla. You will need to go to either SD or Santiago to purchase most of the finishing items like ceramic, sinks, kitchen furniture, light fixings ect.. as the quality in Cotui is really bad. You need to take into account the transport cost to deliver these items.

I know of a few good Maistros if you are interested from Cotui.

good luck

Cotui

There are two nice neighbourhoods in Cotui that I know of. Nothing compared to San Francisco or La Vega. Most of the owners have some kind of connection with the lucrative export business out of Colombia to the US. There are some genuine "ricos" in Cotui. Like the owners of rice factories and some large farms.
To get back to your original question; I am sure that you can find something for under 1 million $RD. In Santo Domingo what you are asking for would cost at least double. The ammount of rooms a house has is not a good method to price a house as it's the finishing that puts value on the property. In Cotui the finishing is really bad. You might want to buy an old house and renovate it with decent materials.

AndyB: Exactly!

HB