Democratic Republic of the Congo · Prices as at August 25, 2026
Cost your build on real prices from the city you are building in
Estimate the real cost of building a house, villa or apartment block. Every price is dated and traceable. Try it without paying, subscribe for the full estimate.
A real estimate, computed live
Two-storey house, 120 m², Kolwezi
$78,000 – $143,000
$920 / m² · 38 weeks
- Masonry and structure$22,000
- Earthworks and foundations$13,000
- Plaster, screed and floor finishes$13,000
- Roof structure and covering$11,000
- 9
- cities covered
- 10
- itemised cost lines
- USD / CDF
- exchange rate refreshed hourly
- Prices surveyed locally
- Live USD/CDF rate
- 9 cities covered
- Free to try, no card needed
- Sources cited and dated
- French and English
Economy (self-build)
$270 – $590
/ m² · Kolwezi
Standard
$590 – $1,100
/ m² · Kolwezi
Premium
$1,100 – $1,950
/ m² · Kolwezi
Luxury
$1,950 – $3,750
/ m² · Kolwezi
A 120 m² standard-finish house in Kolwezi: roughly $71,000 to $130,000.
How it works
Three minutes is enough to get a budget range you can defend.
- 1
Describe the project
Building type, floor area, storeys, city and finish level.
- 2
Refine the specification
Foundations, walls, roof, joinery, power and options like a borehole or solar.
- 3
Get the detail
Trade-by-trade budget, cash-flow schedule, material quantities and labour days.
- 4
Turn it into a quotation
Add your margin, swap our prices for your own suppliers’, and print a client-ready summary.
What the number rests on
Prices from where you build
Cement in Kananga is not cement in Matadi, and the gap reaches 32%. Every price names its source and its date, or admits it is an estimate.
Quantities and member sizes calculated to the Eurocodes
Slabs, beams, columns, footings and load-bearing walls are sized, not assumed. Every check is shown, and the tool says which one fails.
A quantity schedule you can take to a merchant
Not a range: 1,317 blocks, 9 bags of cement and 24 worker-days for a single wall, wastage included. Checkable by hand, exportable as CSV.
Three ways to use it
The same calculation engine, three very different needs.
You are building for yourself
Know what your project costs before you buy the plot, and before a builder quotes you a number.
You are a contractor
Price a job in minutes on your own supplier rates. Set your margin knowing the base rate already carries one, so nothing is counted twice. Then hand the client a version showing the trades and the price, without your ranges or your margin.
You are building from abroad
Sanity-check a budget quoted from Democratic Republic of the Congo when you live in Brussels, Paris or Montreal.
Everything you need
Not just a number. Enough to actually prepare a build.
Breakdown by trade
Ten trades, from earthworks to paint, each with its share of the budget.
Cash-flow schedule
Four dated phases: know when the money leaves, not only how much.
Material quantities
Cement bags, blocks, reinforcement bar, roofing sheets: enough to go and get merchant quotes.
Labour
Worker-days per trade, from labourer to site foreman.
City comparison
The same project in Matadi, Lubumbashi, Kolwezi, or Kananga.
Dual currency
Dollars and local currency, on a rate refreshed hourly.
Your own rates
Replace our averages with your supplier prices. They are remembered.
See it in action
A real example computed right now: 120 m² house, standard finish, Kolwezi.
COST BY TRADE
- Masonry and structure22%
- Earthworks and foundations13%
- Plaster, screed and floor finishes13%
- Roof structure and covering11%
- Doors and windows9%
- Plumbing and sanitary ware8%
- Electrical installation7%
Why not just use a European calculator?
The big American and European cost sites are excellent, but their assumptions do not hold here: labour there outweighs materials two to one, while here it is the other way round. Add the cost of hauling materials inland, the absence of a reliable grid, the need to drill your own water, and the answer changes completely. This estimator starts from the prices of the country you are building in, surveyed on the ground.
City by city
Differences against Kolwezi, anchored on the published cement price surveys. Matadi is the cheapest point in the country; Mbuji-Mayi and Kananga the dearest.
- MatadiKongo-Central−15 %
- BomaKongo-Central−13 %
- KinshasaKinshasa−7 %
- LubumbashiHaut-Katanga−6 %
- LikasiHaut-Katanga−4 %
Cost guides
Sourced, dated benchmarks to frame a budget before you start asking for quotes.
How much does it cost to build a house in the DRC?
Price ranges per m² in Kolwezi, the reference city, and across the rest of the country, trade by trade, for a 120 m² house in 2026.
Read the guide →
Construction material prices in the DRC
Cement, rebar, blocks, roofing sheets, sand and timber: the price ranges seen on the Congolese market.
Read the guide →
Labour costs on a Congolese building site
Daily rates from labourer to site foreman, and what labour really represents in a build budget.
Read the guide →
Frequently asked questions
What does a 120 m² house cost in Kolwezi?
Roughly $71,000 to $130,000 at a standard finish with a contractor, and $32,000 to $71,000 self-building. Kinshasa runs about 7% cheaper: Kolwezi suffers a chronic cement shortage and sustained mining demand.Why are the prices in US dollars?
Because that is how the materials trade works across much of the region: cement, steel and roofing sheets are imported or dollar-indexed. Everything converts to local currency in one click, at the day’s rate.Is the land included?
No. The estimate covers construction only. Land varies too much between districts, often fiftyfold within one city, and it depends on a title the tool cannot verify. Folding it in would make the number meaningless.What does a plot cost in the DRC?
It depends entirely on the district, and no published land survey exists for Kolwezi. In Kinshasa, where the figures do exist, a plot runs from $17/m² in Mont-Ngafula to over $1,000/m² in Gombe. Have the title checked before committing to anything: that is the real risk, well ahead of the price.Can I use this for a client quotation?
Yes, carefully. Turn on the margin, replace our prices with your supplier rates and use the Quotation tab. It remains an estimate: have a proper take-off done before you commit contractually.Where do these prices come from?
From published sources (weekly cement surveys, cost-per-m² studies, the DRC housing profile), supplemented by market estimates. Every line is badged “sourced” or “estimated”, and the Prices page cites the references.
One estimator for the whole continent
Democratic Republic of the Congo is the first country covered. The rest follow, using the same method with locally surveyed prices.
- Democratic Republic of the CongoAvailable
- CameroonAvailable
- Ivory CoastAvailable
- NigeriaAvailable
- GhanaAvailable
- Senegal