[jorian]

Hard and soft costs combined in our local markets run from $150/foot for a rental condo and $300/foot for new house in a desirable neighbourhood. The sky is the limit in terms of luxury homes in the best areas.

I finance a lot of construction projects and the most successful guys buy the land right. You'll never make up for a poor land purchase through cheaper/quicker construction. Many people also underestimate the time value of money. Here in Vancouver permits can take over a year for approval. Longer if you're building multifamily. If you have debt on the project that can kill profit.

I assume you are building to flip. A reasonable developers profit in my market is 13-15%. I have seen 20% but that is largely due to density bonus or up-zoning of some sort on the land. A good friend of mine is a builder in Seattle and regularly gets 30%. He builds to a price in a defined area and always builds flat roof (or shed roof) modern.

Best advice I can give is know your market really well and don't over pay for the dirt. Mike is absolutely correct. Good luck with your project.