It can be a tricky thing, money. I like what it can buy and enable but it can be an awkward thing to have enough of, to ask for, to keep, to share, not to waste, etc, etc. Life would be a lot simpler without having to think about it. Unfortunately, for most of us adults, we do have to think about it, quite a lot.
When managing the build of some flats last year, sometimes a higher price than I thought reasonable led to decisions as to whether the expense could really be justified or what effect a cheaper alternative might have on future revenue. In property, the costs do tend to be big (as anyone with a mortgage probably knows) but thankfully so are the rewards. Property and building figures are like normal life – just with more zeros.
It made me appreciate what good architecture is really worth, in monetary terms. Achieving planning on a plot of land can increase its value by 10 or 20 times before a brick is laid. I have happily helped quite a few clients make life-changing profits using careful design and legal knowledge, sometimes where other, much more expensive, architectural agencies had already tried and failed. It is perhaps unsurprising that Zollikon Architecture has not advertised in years, has frequently worked for multiple clients in one road (the most is now 8 clients in one road – all word of mouth recommendations) and has had to turn away quite a lot of work over the years.
I have seen web sites offering architectural and planning services for a few hundred pounds, while a planning consultant on one job told me the architect’s fees on a modest domestic extension she was involved with had just ticked over into 6 figures. So, should you spend £500 or over £100,000? That’s an incredible spread and whilst the size of investment and returns are often linked, I wouldn’t advise opting for either extreme unless your budget is a broken pushbike or a Bugatti Chiron.
Some agencies have a set menu of charges, others charge per square foot or as a percentage of the build budget. A friend currently working on the design of a FTSE 100 head office in Pall Mall works for a fancied London agency and sometimes charges 20% of project costs, though that does include extensive specifying, build management and… the rent and rates of a rather nice Thames-side office.
Zollikon prefers to provide detailed quotations that list and explain items of work and costs in the interests of clarity – and no hidden charges! (unlike our poor client whose previous agency had failed to obtain planning permission and then asked for another £5000 for a simple written appeal).
Zollikon Architecture works hard to ensure we offer good value for money. I frequently save and enable customers 5, 6 and even 7 figure sums that far outweigh our fees, sometimes with just one crucial thought, comment or snippet of knowledge, though more often after a great deal of hard work. Whether you are building/obtaining planning to enable an improved lifestyle or bank balance, it pays to get the right help, even if that is not the very cheapest that can be found. Zollikon has succeeded many times for clients who have brought us in to help after others have failed.
Conversely, others have lost out by going their own way to save costs:
- One homeowner saved £1000 by using a young structural engineer on his house improvements only to spend £10,000 more on so many steel beams that the building control inspector asked if the client was building a car park or a shopping centre!
- Cost of ‘saving’: £9000.
- A young developer saved £5000 by changing my careful cut roof design on a new build on the advice of his backer’s architect without telling me, only to lose essential natural light (necessitating some remedial clerestory windows as a poor rescue plan) and make impossible the easy loft conversion (adding two bedrooms, a bathroom and a further 80k profit) I had carefully designed in.
- Cost of ‘saving’: £75,000.
- Another made planning permission for a new-build house vastly more difficult, perhaps impossible, because he ignored my advice that in planning, timing and sequence can be everything.
- Cost of ‘saving’: £150,000.
- I have lost count of the number of times research has led me to over-rule solicitor advice and I have later been proved right. I once gave a multi-branch solicitor’s ‘Head of Property’ partner some planning permission tax advice that he said would save a client of his 6 figures – during a meeting for some work he charged me £1000 for and then failed to succeed in!
- Cost of poor advice: £countless.
Much of Zollikon’s work is mentally intense and it sometimes reminds me of the fatigue after a finals or post-grad exam – except they only lasted three hours! But the fruits more than justify our effort and your expense. Clients with transformed lifestyles and net worth show the end results make all the hard work, long hours and money spent extremely worth while.
Zollikon is not the cheapest nor the most expensive, but we believe our service represents great value and a wise investment. We work hard on all our projects to understand and meet customer needs, save costs, maximise assets and enable client benefits worth far more than our fees.
