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Home construction and labour cost

Construction
3 min read | Samra Zulfiqar  | September 19, 2014

The process of building a house is complicated as it requires the involvement of a lot of professionals whose expertise determine how homey you will find your brand new place. If we discuss the entire process of home construction, we will have to touch upon so many important angles and aspects, each of which demands a detailed and separate article. Therefore, this one limits its focus to the labour required for the construction of the house’s grey structure and its cost.

Contractor/builder

After finalising the blueprints of your house and getting them approved from the authorities concerned, the most important part is finding and hiring the right builder or contractor.

You can go about this in three ways:

  1. You let your architect find the right contractor, who will take care of hiring labourers and look after the entire construction process
  2. You find a contractor yourself and supply them with the designs and give them authority to choose the building material and labourers
  3. You find the contractor yourself but provide them with the required building material to ensure quality

No matter which one of these ways appeals to you more, I would recommend you to let the contractor hire the labourers. In certain cases, the contractors can work along legally established lines to complete the construction process in phases and collect their payment as soon as the work is complete. Such contractors are the established ones who have enough revenue and contacts in the market to take care of the work without bothering you at every step of the process. You can also work the other way round and pay the contractor in advance to proceed with the construction process. In any case, the agreement is written and has legal value, where the interests of both the contractor and the owner are protected by law.

The contractor is then responsible for dealing with all the professionals when it comes to wiring and electrification and plumbing and sanitation, etc. A good contractor would hire labourers for the entire duration of the project rather than getting new ones every week, or worse, every day. This tends to ruin the homogeneity of the structure being built.

Labour Costs

Now let’s get to one of the most important parts of home construction, i.e. labour costs.

At present, the average per-day labour cost is PKR 650, and a skilled mason (aka raaj mistry)can be hired for something between PKR 1,000 to PKR 1,200 per day.

Please note that it suits the labourers to deliver one month’s worth of work in 45 days, for obvious reasons, but a good contractor (which can also be the raaj mistry in some cases) will make sure that the construction process is finished in time without costing you too much extra. Since the contractor is aware of the per-day work capacity of the labours, they will ensure that they don’t cheat in any way.

In almost all cases, the contractors commit to the owner when the individual construction phases of the house, for instance foundation work, will be finished. So if the contractor says 30 days for foundation work, they have to deliver in the committed time. If they fail to do so without valid reasons such as inclement weather or shortage of supplies in the market, you are free to ask questions, and you should!

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Samra Zulfiqar
Samra Zulfiqar is a real estate analyst at Zameen.com. She likes to dig down deep into the real estate market to figure out which projects can get buyers the best returns on their investment.

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  2. Its totally a wrong information. Please first do your home work and then post here.
    Sorry, but its a fact, you labour and mason rates are totally wrong. And the other information is also poor.

    1. Dear Afzal Khan,

      I am sorry if this article could not match your expectation. Well, I do agree that subject demanded a deeper insight and detailed research work, however, the rates quoted here are present market rates, which could be different for different cities and localities.

      This article deserves a sequel, in which I would incorporate more and relevant information. Looks like i have to begin with my homework ASAP.

      Any feedback from you regarding the parts where you think this article lagged would be of help. You can also communicate with me at samra at zameen dot com.

      1. i have a 5 marla plot in sector I—16/4cda I am interested in constructing a cottage i know pipelines have been laid is water available in those lines necessary to start construction.

        1. I am not a construction expert and cannot answer this question, i am sorry. Our FORUM can be of help in this regard. Please post your query there.

    2. Good info found here. Mr Khan Afzal. The labour rates mentioned here was correct rate when the article was published. I think you are a expensive contractor who used to cheat your clients by disclosing double labour rate mentioned here :p
      Take care

  3. Samra,

    Nice article, informative and quite to the point. Particularly for those who are busy in other affairs and can’t spare too much time to monitor construction work. I will appreciate if you could hilight other aspects, while choosing a contractor and areas of contract that need to be considered, before finalizing a construction contract.

  4. Nothing impressive. General information which every body knows. wastage of time …. With Apology with the author.

  5. Hi Samra
    Thanks, Indeed sequel will be more helpful in terms if you include material involved like bajri, cement, tiles sanitary, doors and windows and electricals etc. how and where to approach, prices and availability. Pictures of some good and economical outlooks.

    1. Sure Sarwar sahb, just give me some time and as soon as i am done with my research on the subject, you will have that article live on the blog.

  6. on 01/07/2014 i was at CDA to personally obtain confermation/transfer of ownersshipof my plot 869 i—16/4.i could not get the site plan as the survey officer was on duty at the site,i had to return for karachi the same day please help me get the site plan.i have written to the member Estate on 18th in this regard.i will appreciate your cooperation in this regard,Mr sajjad Mullik Estate officer 111 is a gentleman as i found him at cda

  8. As per my knowledge currently in market labor prices are as follow:

    Mason (Mistari) = Rs- 1200 per day
    Labour (Mazdoor)= Rs- 600 per day

    So Afzal these rates are almost accurate, your thoughts?

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