There are 30 individual Unit Build Costs. Each one is spread over three separate lines to provide flexibility for most types of development - both commercial and residential. You can re-title them as required (notice that re-titling any one entry will apply the same title to all three related lines). The 3 components that make up each Unit Build Cost are: (1) Number of Units, (2) Area per Unit and (3) Rate per Unit.
For example, to build 40,000 sq ft of Offices at £120 per sq ft, enter as 1 Unit of 40000 Area at a Rate of 120. For a Residential development of 10 Townhouses of 950 sq ft at £65 per sq ft, enter as 10 Units of 950 Area at a Rate of 65.
The number of units entry is only useful in the case of new residential development where a number of identical types of unit are being built, for example 10 houses of 950 sq ft each. Where entered as 10 units at 950 sq ft, Prodev will simply multiply these two numbers together to give a total building area of 9,500 sq ft. This entry is seldom used for other types of residential or commercial schemes so, where not required, it is recommended that you leave the number of units entry set at its default value of 1.
To specify a total amount then enter as 1 Unit with an Area of 1 and provide the total cost figure as the Rate (you can also use a Fixed Build Cost item for this purpose). For example if you have a known building price of £2,000,000 then enter it as 1 unit of 1 sq ft at a rate of 2000000. Prodev will recognise that the unit and area components are not relevant and exclude them from the report.
Whenever the cursor is in the Unit Build Cost Section you can use the ‘Units’ button to change the type of building unit. Select the appropriate unit type from the drop down that displays in the top right hand corner of the screen. Note: If you select Sq Feet, Sq Metres or Plots then all three lines are used in the calculation. In other cases (Units and Car Spaces) only the first and third lines are multiplied together because the area component is not relevant to the calculation. Always take care to check this is set up correctly otherwise you could incorrectly calculate costs. A more detailed description of how the ‘Units’ button works is provided in the section ‘Data List Commands’.
Unit Build costs can be excluded from attracting Contingency and Professional Fees by using the ‘No-Fee’ button.