My wife and I have started to look for a primary residence to buy in the greater Lausanne area.
I, personally, would be happy with a sur-plan, and have the latest construction-tech from the get-go, but this seems to be a … discussion that I’m losing.
I’m wondering if there’s a general ‘cheat sheet’ or guide anywhere – especially for Swiss prices! – on estimating renovation costs?
Think of a number then treble it. Less glibly… pay an architect to do an estimate (and provide feedback on what is ‘allowed’)… it’ll cost ‘a lot’ but then you’ll know what you’re doing when it comes to offers, mortgages, loans etc.
The rest depends on what you actually need - i.e the details.
Try Renovero or other similar sites for free quotes. Include lots of details inc. photographs for a more accurate quote.
The more expensive ones aren’t necessarily better and may just be trying to rip you off.
Recently we’ve asked for quotes for renewing our 40 year old kitchen. Lowest, so far is around 46K and highest is 98K. The lower quote seems to be the best quality …
The best money we spent was on the architect who came round, told us what he thought the property was worth and how much it would cost to renovate. He did it for 2 properties and we happily walked away from one after his advice.
On Renovero you may get a bunch of token responses, you’ll still have to discuss in detail with those who reply to have at least a very approximative estimate. And then these are random companies you know nothing about.
Way better to ask around people who were happy with a company and ask such recommended companies for a quote.
Many cheaper companies employ immigrants who might be skilled etc but they are underpaid, and such company might be yet another instance of “rack up unpaid bills and down payments, go bankrupt, repeat” - there is a whole lot of such “entrepreneurs” in the Lausanne region, many of them Albanians from Kosovo but that’s not restricted to them. They or their family members will have a trail of bankruptcies in the commercial register (see Moneyhouse) - all the brothers, uncles etc.
I’ve almost paid in the area of 150k of renovation down-payment to my own compatriot, but I finally backed of from the house purchase (ah, the times when a 1M house seemed expensive), and then he stole from other people about 50k of a down payment. Unfortunately, I wasn’t smart enough to google his name, he had already a bankruptcy in… France. Rule number one: never pay any down payment; if you really trust someone then only after a tangible work is completed just for that work and materials. If you’re not satisfied with the work, then you have completely no leverage to get it fixed once you pay.
BTW: a bathroom from scratch - i.e. some pipes installed/replaced, all new stuff installed, heating, new tiles etc - count 30k at least.
Best advice ever. It’s actually how the banks work when financing your mortgage for a property that you bought off-plan. It’s how things are done here, generally speaking.
My best advice is, when you do finally put a cost to the renovation, have at least one third extra on hand. If you think it will cost 100k, have at least 150k available.
In my experience this more or less holds true for any size of renovation.
Some companies get lots of bad reviews.
Some get only excellent reviews.
You can only write a review for work carried out after accepting a quote through Renovera so it’s pretty trustworthy.
I had a friend who did this and paid in 1/3 installments. After he paid 2/3 the builder never bothered to come back, he was getting paid more starting other projects and it wasn’t worth him spending time to finish the work. So make sure you reserve enough!
