Can You Afford a Custom Luxury Home?

 

It’s the life ambition of many of us to own a luxury home we can call our own. But how much should you expect to pay for an entirely personalized, architecturally significant, superiorly designed custom build? Can your budget stretch for such a bespoke offering?

The answer is: it’s complicated.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, there isn’t a set price for a custom luxury home. The overall cost of a project depends on a whole host of factors that you’ll need to consider when it comes to calculating price. We’ve highlighted just a few of them below:

Planned build location

The location you’re looking to build your luxury home can greatly affect the overall cost of the project. Remember, land is money, and you’ll need to factor in paying for a patch before you even consider the costs of the build itself. The more sought-after an area is, the higher its land will generally be priced.

Planned builder

The most important decision you can make for any luxury home build is your property’s builder. Reputable builders will offer you realistic bids on your custom luxury home based on your requirements. Expect to receive different numbers from different builders – but base your decision on expected quality, not price.

Planned size of the property

The larger a property, the more it’ll cost to build. While size is becoming less important in custom luxury properties – uniqueness and beauty are far higher on most peoples’ priority lists – you should still expect to pay for a property on a per-square-foot basis. Expect to pay between $500 and $700 per square foot for a superior quality build.

Planned architect

No custom luxury home project is possible without an exceptional architect. Sometimes, your builder may recommend you an architect, but ultimately, the decision should be yours only. Look for architects with a proven track record of success and innovation. At least 20 percent of your entire project’s fees will be spent on your architect.

PERSONAL REFLECTION

To truly know whether you can afford a luxury home, you need to look at your own financial situation. The key here is to be realistic – while you might be able to take out a construction loan or a similar form of up-front credit for your build, you’ll usually need to pay this back within a very limited timeframe, usually around 12 months. Don’t expect to be able to pay off a custom luxury home in the same way that you’d pay off a mortgage.

It may take many years of saving before you can even consider a luxury home purchase. But once you’ve made the upfront payment, you’ll normally only need to factor in for maintenance and utility bills going forward.

Ultimately, if you’re trying to decipher whether a custom luxury home is within your budget, whether now or in the foreseeable future, you need to reach out to your builder of choice and inquire about costs. The more specific you can be about exactly what you want, the easier it’ll be to determine an accurate bid. Regardless, you’ll be able to get a better idea of costs per square foot.