Every other figure on this page comes from one place: our own build-up, on our own houses. A standard finished house comes to about Rs 5,977 per square foot of covered area, and grey structure to about Rs 3,291. Below that is the whole thing taken apart — what the money buys, what it assumes, and what it does not cover.
The short version
A 5 marla plot is 1,125 sq ft of land. A double storey with a rooftop mumty on it carries roughly 2,050 sq ft of covered area, and at our standard rate that is about Rs 122.5 lakh to build, finished, before the land. Our own House F-61 in BACHS is built on exactly this basis: 962 sq ft on the ground floor, 903 sq ft on the first and a 185 sq ft mumty.
Use the cost calculator to put your own plot and coverage through it. It shows every line, not just the total.
This is a standard-finish house at Rs 5,977 per square foot. The four numbers are shares of the contract, not percentages of some average — they are what our own jobs came out at.
The same money, sorted by which part of the house it goes into. This is the split we carry in our own estimating, and it is the useful one to argue about — "where did the cost go" is nearly always a question about this list.
Per square metre of covered area. Every quantity below is checked in
verify-calculator.js, and each one rests on an assumption worth knowing,
because the assumption is what makes two builders' numbers differ.
About Rs 3,291 per square foot, which is roughly 55 percent of the finished figure. It covers excavation and foundation, masonry and RCC, staircase to plaster level, internal and external plaster, underground sewerage, water piping, electrical conduiting, roof waterproofing, window grills and the boundary wall.
It does not cover tiles, paint, ceilings, doors, sanitary fittings, lighting or any cabinetry. When someone quotes you a grey rate, ask whether those boundary items are inside or outside it. They are frequently treated differently, and it is a fifth of the contract.
This is the mistake that costs people lakhs. One marla is 225 sq ft, so a 5 marla plot is 1,125 sq ft of land — and nobody builds 1,125 sq ft of house on it, let alone 2,250. Ground floor coverage is capped by your society's by-laws, and until you have those rules in writing a plan is only a drawing.
On our own House F-61, a 1,125 sq ft plot carries 962 sq ft on the ground floor. That is 86% coverage, not half, and BACHS permitted it. Some societies cap at half, some at 80%, some lower. Ask your own society office before you fix a plan, and ask whether a rooftop mumty counts towards the covered area.
About ±18% on any total. Cement and steel move faster than most people expect, and a rate quoted on the phone in March is not the rate that buys the steel in August. That band is why we quote after seeing the plot, in writing, and why we would rather not give you a number that turns out to be a guess.
The calculator lets you change every one of these figures and see what happens to the total, including the wastage, the finish level and your own rate if you have one.
For a standard finished house, our own build-up works out at about Rs 5,977 per square foot of covered area. That includes material, labour, plant, site supervision and contractor margin. Grey structure alone is about Rs 3,291 per square foot. Treat any single figure as a starting point rather than a quotation.
It is at the low end. Most Lahore builders quote between Rs 6,000 and Rs 8,500 per square foot for a standard finished house, and published calculators built on material prices alone come out lower still, near Rs 4,500, because they carry no labour, no supervision and no margin. Ours is a builder's number: it carries all three, which is why it is not the lowest figure you will be given.
Mostly because they are quoting different things. Some rates are material and site labour only. Some exclude design, approvals, wastage and finishing. Some quote against the plot area instead of the covered area, which on a double storey understates the real figure by roughly forty percent. Ask any builder to state the rate against covered area and to say what is excluded.
Covered area, always. A 5 marla plot is 1,125 sq ft of land, but a double storey on it carries roughly 1,900 to 2,050 sq ft of covered area across two floors and a mumty. If anyone gives you a per-square-foot rate against the plot, the real bill lands far higher than they told you.
Excavation and foundation, masonry and RCC slabs beams and columns, staircase to plaster level, internal and external plaster, underground sewerage, water piping, electrical conduiting, roof waterproofing, window grills and the boundary wall with gate columns. It does not include tiles, paint, ceilings, doors, sanitary fittings, lighting or any cabinetry. That is what finishing buys.
About seven months for a two-storey standard-finish house on a normal plot, after design and approvals. Grey structure is faster. Each extra floor adds roughly two months and a basement adds about one. Society approvals are usually the part that moves, not the construction.
The quantities are real and each one states the assumption it rests on. The rates are our own build-up and they are current, but cement and steel move every quarter, so we carry an uncertainty band of about plus or minus eighteen percent on any total. It is an estimate for planning, not a quotation.
Yes, and that is most of our work. We build on existing plots in BACHS, DHA and other Lahore societies, grey structure or finished, at a rate per square foot agreed in writing before we start. We also buy the plot ourselves and sell the finished house.
Delivered houses stand in Blocks E, F and G of Bankers Avenue Cooperative Housing Society, Lahore, and we build across DHA Phase 7, Bedian Road and other private housing societies in the city. Two houses are available now in Block F: five marla, double storey with a rooftop mumty, 2,050 sq ft of covered area, three bedrooms and four bathrooms. Terms are cash against completion — there is no instalment plan.
Every figure on this page is an estimate for planning, not a quotation. A quotation needs the plot, the society's current rules and a drawing.