For property buyers, builders and renovators

Every property starts with a square metre.

Helpful advice and practical tools to make every square metre easier to build and renovate.

Explore the guides Check land first

Villa in Punta Bonita: a thatched-roof villa with a pool, terraces and tropical gardens, listed on SlideNDoors — Villa in Punta Bonita – Las Terrenas, Las Terrenas, Samaná, Dominican Republic Photo: SlideNDoors listing. View listing (opens in a new tab)

Private Jungle Casita With Pool: a house with a covered terrace surrounded by tropical planting, listed on SlideNDoors — Private Jungle Casita With Pool, Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, Costa Rica Photo: SlideNDoors listing. View listing (opens in a new tab)

Photos show two real homes from SlideNDoors listings, to illustrate different styles of building. They are not SQMTR projects, price examples or return examples.

What SQMTR does

One calm place to learn the ground rules.

Buying or building abroad means unfamiliar materials, unfamiliar law and unfamiliar numbers. SQMTR puts the basics in plain language so you can ask better questions of surveyors, lawyers and builders. It is a reference, not a property broker, and nothing here promises a return.

Five ways to build

Find the structure behind the surface.

Every home is individual. Start with how it stands up, where it tends to wear, and what to ask about a particular property.

Steel structural frame rising on a building site

Steel-framed buildings

A light, precise skeleton with a very different relationship to heat and moisture.

Read the guide Photo: SSJF01 · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons

Timber studs and roof framing of a house under construction

Timber-framed buildings

A renewable structural frame that depends on staying dry and well detailed.

Read the guide Photo: L Maule · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Concrete block residential building showing masonry construction

Concrete & block buildings

Massive walls and structural frames, with performance shaped by reinforcement and detail.

Read the guide Photo: Paul Sableman · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Close view of red brick wall and mortar joints

Brick buildings

A familiar material used as a structural wall or as an outer weathering layer.

Read the guide Photo: Titus Tscharntke · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Traditional stone house built with natural masonry

Stone & traditional buildings

Local stone and time-tested craft, best understood through their original moisture behaviour.

Read the guide Photo: Flibirigit · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Know the material. Know the land. Know the numbers.

Try a build-and-sell scenario

SQMTR guides can be read without JavaScript. Calculators, saved estimates and interactive selectors require JavaScript. General guidance is not a substitute for local professional advice.