Construction Cost Calculator
A neutral construction cost estimate — no lead form, no builder referral, just the numbers
Frequently Asked Questions
Construction costs vary significantly across Pakistan — a grey structure or turnkey build in DHA Lahore or Bahria Town carries a different effective rate per square foot than the same specification in a secondary city like Multan, Faisalabad, Peshawar, or Quetta, largely driven by material transport distance and local labour rates.
Grey structure vs. turnkey — two very different price points
A grey structure covers the structural shell — foundation, walls, roof slab, and basic RCC work — without finishing (no flooring, paint, fixtures, electrical/plumbing fittings, doors, or windows). A turnkey build includes all of that finishing work, ready to move in. The gap between grey structure and turnkey cost per square foot is large enough that comparing two quotes without confirming which tier each one covers is one of the most common ways buyers end up badly surprised by a "final" bill that was only ever a grey-structure estimate.
A worked example
Two contractors quoting for the same house size can appear to have wildly different prices when in fact one quoted grey structure only and the other quoted a full turnkey build — the actual cost gap between the two tiers, applied consistently, usually explains most or all of the apparent discrepancy between quotes that otherwise look incomparable.
How this connects to your other construction planning
This calculator uses standard BOQ (Bill of Quantities) ratios and current material prices for cement, steel, and brick — for a granular, item-by-item material estimate rather than a per-square-foot summary, the dedicated Brick, Concrete, and Steel Quantity calculators break individual materials down separately. Before estimating cost, confirm your actual buildable footprint with the Covered Area Planner, since bylaws in most cities limit how much of a plot can actually be built on.
Common mistakes
Beyond the grey-structure-vs-turnkey confusion, buyers commonly underestimate how much city and locality affect the final per-square-foot rate — a rate that's accurate for a major metro like Lahore or Karachi can meaningfully understate real costs in a location with higher material transport costs, or overstate them in a location with lower labour rates, so treat any single nationwide "average" figure as a rough starting point, not a firm quote.