Most people dream of living in a luxurious home filled with comfort, style, and peace, especially in rural surroundings.
Planning to build your dream countryside home? This article offers essential tips and guidance to help you begin your journey the right way.
Building a house in a rural area costs upwards from $60,000 AUD extra than the equivalent suburban house. Additional costs include connecting to power and data, installing water tanks and pumps, and setting up a reliable septic system. Also, most rural properties have longer drive ways and fence lines than suburban properties.
In this article, I’ll share extra expenses I encountered and lessons I learned while building my rural residential dream home.
How much does it cost to build a house in rural area?
With cities becoming crowded and block sizes shrinking, more people are drawn to the space and peace of rural living.
Use cost per square meter when estimating home building costs, as total prices vary due to different house sizes. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the average construction cost in 2020 was $1,393.55 per square meter.
To set a realistic budget based on your home’s specifications, consider the following:
- Basic homes (not high-end): $900 – $1,400 per sqm
- High-end homes: $1,700 – $2,800 per sqm or more
However, these figures exclude additional expenses you’ll face when building a home in a rural area, so plan accordingly.
In suburban developments, many services—like water connections, roads, electricity, and data—are already provided or pre-planned by the developer. In contrast, rural builds often require you to arrange and pay for:
- Water tanks and pumps
- Septic systems
- Power and data connections
- Access roads or driveway upgrades
These extra costs can significantly increase your overall build budget, so it’s essential to factor them in from the beginning.
When building a rural home, limited infrastructure means even the basics can become costly. Expect to spend at least $60,000 AUD more than a suburban build. This is just a starting point—it depends on factors like:
- The type of infrastructure you want to connect to
- The size of your home
- The distance from utility connection points
This article covers key rural steps and considerations to help you, whether buying land or already owning a rural property.
Connecting to Power Supply
This is usually the biggest expense, and the decisions you make here can significantly impact the total cost of building. Before making an offer on rural land, learn about power poles—unless you’re planning to go completely off the grid.
Not all power poles are equal, so you must identify one that already has a transformer installed for proper connection. The power poles with a silver bucket on them is usually a power pole with a transformer.
You can’t connect to the other power poles. Find the closest transformer to your block for connection, or alternatively, purchase and install a transformer on a nearby pole. To install a transformer on its own you are looking at approximately $25,000. The further away your house is from the transformer, the more power poles you’ll need, the more expensive it is.
You’ll need to contact the local energy provider and ask a technician how much power is available in that transformer. Transformers do not have endless power capacity. If that transformer’s power supply is fully allocated to neighbours, you’ll be responsible for the cost of a larger transformer.
On top of that you need to get the power from the transformer to your house. I contacted Gavin Gasnier from Gasniers Electrical to get an up-to-date estimate on average electrical connection costs.
As with all the considerations in this blog post, there are huge variances depending on your property. But as a general guidance, Gavin said,
“For a basic rural job, where you connect to a pole with an existing transformer and the edge of your property is within 50-100m of the power pole, it will cost approximately $33,000 inc GST. But you also need to consider that you need to install a meter box and run a low voltage power line to your house, which will also cost upwards from $10,000.”
Another factor to consider is whether the transformer is on your side of any asphalt road. If the transformer is across the road, check council rules as some don’t allow overhead powerlines to cross roads. This means you’ll face extra costs for boring an underground trench beneath the road to bring power to your property.
Lastly, depending on your power needs, cable sizes vary, and each type supports different loads at different price points.
Going Off Grid
When you look at the costs associated with power supply it can be tempting to go off grid. With the increasing technology around solar panels and battery storage, off-grid houses are on the rise. In the past people used to fear that an off-grid house would negatively affect property value prices. When done right, off-grid properties are more appealing to buyers due to rising energy costs and growing environmental concerns.
But while the costs of solar panels, wind turbines and battery storage etc. are all reducing. Any choices you make here are an additional cost that you would not incur in a suburban build.
Water Supply and Pumps
Unlike in town, rural homes require you to establish and manage your own water supply instead of simple builder connections. This could be in the form of rainwater tanks, bore water, or dam water.
Consider water quality, how much you need, household size, and whether drinking and garden water supplies will be kept separate.
Rain water is what most people choose to have on their rural property for drinking. Some people connect a pump to a dam, or install a bore for gardens. Your choices affect tank size required to ensure your family has reliable water supply, even during extended periods of drought.
Our setup consists of two 45,000-liter poly rainwater tanks used exclusively for drinking water storage and household consumption. We also installed a bore system to supply water efficiently for garden irrigation and landscaping purposes. As per council requirements, a 25,000-liter fire water tank with firefighting fittings was installed, though it remains unused. This fire water tank stays full at all times, serving solely as a compliance measure without being actively used.
The price of the tanks alone are approximately $7000 per 45,000L tank and $2500- $3000 for the firewater tank.
You also need to consider the cost of reliable pumps. You’re going to need a pump for your house, and chances are a separate one for your garden.
Some people can drink their bore water, but it must be tested to check mineral content first. Bore water in certain areas can be salty, which may harm soil fertility, so research your region before digging a bore. My bore water contains high iron levels, causing solid structures to turn orange over time. Because of the iron, it’s unsuitable for toilets but perfectly fine for watering the garden. Installing a bore pump is expensive; in our case, we drilled 50 meters deep. We also needed a powerful pump to lift water from that depth and maintain sufficient garden pressure.
Your own septic system
No one is giving your Number 2s the royal treatment except for you in a rural area. It is your cost to install a septic system to treat your sewerage.
Fire control requirements
Staying in a rural and countryside area means being more cautious and taking precautions against possible fire scenarios. With bush fires being a sudden and unexpected occurrence, one needs to install the necessary fire safety equipment.
As mentioned above, depending on your local council regulations, you may need to have an isolated rainwater tank that is only to be used in the event of fire emergency. You may also need to set up fire breaks around your property and other safety measures directed by the fire authorities.
Phone and Internet Connections
With the improvement of satellite technology, it is becoming easier for rural houses to access remote internet connections even if there is no data line nearby. In our case, we chose to run phone and data lines to the house so we could access ADSL.
This is a rapidly evolving space, so you need to check what mobile reception and internet speeds you are able to get on your property. As our house doesn’t get the greatest mobile reception naturally, we purchased a specialty antenna from Telstra so we can get signal within the house.
The Distance From The Closest Town
Transportation of building materials to the construction site could impact your building costs. But in reality, this should be all factored into your building quote from your builder. The further is the distance, the higher the transportation charges.
Rural Fencing
In town you may have a 300 square meter yard and you share the cost of your boundary fence with each of your neighbours. In rural homes, you have two fences to consider. Your house yard fence (if you choose to have one) where the entire cost is yours. As well as any boundary fences which may be a mix of shared fencing with neighbours or fencing that runs next to a road (where the cost is solely yours). Doesn’t sound like much, but rural fencing adds up quick to be quite a considerable expense.
Site Preparation Expenses
This is an obvious expense that could be easily overlooked. If your property is covered in trees, you are likely going to have to clear the parcel of land where you are building your house.
If the land where you plan to build your house in has a slope or is uneven, you may need to level the land before construction can begin. The levelling could be done by either razing the ground or building in more soil to fill in the gaps and holes in the ground. This is a cost-intensive exercise and could impact your home building budget in a big way.
Depending on the ground level, the structural expenses of your house could also increase as it would need to be sturdier and more balanced to bear the load on your house on uneven land. Using material to make the structure, whether wood or steel depending on the ground topography, will also affect the budget of building a house in a rural area.
Land Costs
While not technically a ‘building cost,’ I thought I should quickly address how the price of land could impact how much money you need (if you are just dreaming about your rural home).
Land per meter is cheaper in rural areas, but chances are, you are not going to live on 300m2 out in a rural or semi-rural area. Therefore, there’s a huge chance that your land is going to cost significantly more than if you were to buy a block in town. This varies hugely depending on your location, but the general rule is – the closer your rural block is to a major city, the more expensive it is going to be. There is a high chance that the land alone for your rural block will cost more than a house and land in town put together!
And if you see a rural block of land that is significantly cheaper than others, check that building a house on it is permissible. You need to check that you can build a house on this rural land, as there are plenty of blocks not approved to be lived on and are for other purposes like cattle grazing etc.
Tips for Building a Rural Home
Rural life has its charms and attractions, but they come at an extra price. With proper planning and professional contractors, one can easily build a custom house in a rural area. But it is best to research up front, so you are well prepared to deal with any extra expenses that come your way.
A professional architect or construction company will give you a more detailed budget once you finalize the final design, quality of interiors, flooring, fixtures and fittings, etc. The size of the house, quality of the interiors and fixtures and landscape features are some of the standard factors which play an important part in the overall construction budget of a house in the rural area. But apart from these standard costs, you need to take an active role in managing your house build so the ‘Extras’ do not blow out. If your builder has built homes in the area then they will have a level of experience, but if a builder comes from suburbia to build your house, they too will have a steep learning curve.
There has been a steady rise in the demand for rural or regional properties in Australia. The housing values across regional Australia witnessed a growth of 7.9% – which is four times more than the average growth rate of the capital city regions which only grew 1.7% in the last 12 months up to January 2021.
Planning for Remote-Site Challenges
Building a home in a rural area comes with its own set of hurdles — from access issues and longer material delivery times to the difficulty of finding reliable help on short notice. According to the team at Rednax Recruitment, labour shortages are one of the most common causes of project delays in remote builds. “We see it all the time — jobs running behind simply because there aren’t enough skilled hands available locally,” one of their project leads shared. If you’re taking on a rural build, they suggest planning ahead for labour needs and working with providers who can source experienced workers familiar with regional construction. It’s one of the best ways to avoid costly hold-ups and keep your schedule on track.
So is Building a House in a Rural Area Expensive?
Compared to building a house in the city, building a house in a rural area is going to cost a bit more.
Another factor one needs to consider while building a home in a rural area, away from the town, is the extra expenses you may incur daily travelling to town for any business or personal work. It could also lead to faster wear and tear of your car, leading to recurring car maintenance expenses.
Availability of skilled manpower in the rural areas may also be an issue but can be solved by hiring a professional and competent contractor with a well-experienced team to build your house. However, the benefits that you will enjoy in living in a rural and secluded area will be well worth the time, money, and efforts you spend on building your dream home.
If you enjoyed reading this blog, check out our other blog articles such as Does Cutting New Grass Help It To Grow? or What type of Chainsaw Chain Cuts the Fastest?
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