What Impacts An Architect’s Design Fees?

Architectural fees sometimes rise as a project progresses. Which can be frustrating when you’re trying to stick to a budget on your house project. Why does this happen? And what can you do to help keep costs under control?

Let’s look at several reasons why fees—and the cost of your custom project—might end up being more than you expected.

Construction Costs Drive Design Fees

The biggest driver of architectural fees is the cost of construction. Two factors determine this cost:

The complexity of the building
The size of the building

Both of these factors are highly variable during the early stages of design. This is the nature of custom projects; the design changes as you go.

When the scope of the project changes—that is, the complexity or size changes—design fees rise. That’s because each change means your architect needs to go back and either create a new design or alter the existing design. Design changes add hours to your architectural fees.

Hourly vs. Fixed Pricing

Architects offer fixed pricing for projects with a pre-defined scope of work, like some commercial buildings or a multi-family project, such as an apartment building.

For custom home projects, architects generally charge an hourly fee. This is because the scope of the project—its complexity and size—changes as the design develops. Fixed design fees would hinder the number of changes you’re able to make during the design process.

Since your architect cannot predict how much time it will take to design a custom house from beginning to end, they charge an hourly rate on custom home design.

Final Design Costs Aren’t Predictable, But Design Percentages Are

Though your architect cannot always predict how many hours they will spend on your project at the beginning of the process, the percentage rate of their fees almost always ends up being 10-15% of the cost of construction.

This means your architect can give you an estimate of what their services will cost based on the square footage of the house you would like to build.

At our first meetings with custom home clients, we start with the client’s construction budget and divide it by the going rate of construction per square foot to determine the size of the house their budget will allow. This rough estimate is just for the house and does not include site work or "soft costs," such as permitting fees, architectural and structural design, and other consultants. Design fees are typically 10-15% of this rough estimate.

This would be fairly helpful except for the fact that most clients end up changing their minds about what they would like as the design develops.

That’s the nature of creation. It always evolves over time.

If you’re working with us and you decide you’d actually like higher quality windows, this adds complexity to the design, requiring extra time. (The way each type of window works within a structure is not the same.)

If you decide you don’t need a powder room off the kitchen, this changes the layout of the space or changes the size of the house, requiring extra time. (We need to rework the area where there used to be a powder room or redo the design to make the house slightly smaller.)

If you decide that you need an extra bedroom after all, this adds size or complexity to the design, requiring extra time. (We either need to rework the design to include an extra room within the agreed-upon square footage or add square footage.)

If you decide you’d like the current design rendered as a passive house, this adds a lot of complexity, requiring extra time. (Even if the house is the same square footage and footprint, we need to rework the entire design to accommodate the materials and systems a passive building requires.)

Even though these sorts of changes add hours, however, the percentage of an architect’s fees still almost always fall within the expected percentage range.

To Control Costs, Find a Contractor Early

In a perfect world, it takes about a year for planning and design and a year for construction of your new home. If you set a reasonable budget for yourself and have time to be fully committed throughout the process, two years from the start of design to move-in date is an achievable goal.

But even in the best of circumstances, things can change. During the year before construction begins—or during construction—costs of materials can change, inflation can rise or fall, or unforeseen circumstances can extend the timeline.

To get a more solid estimate of the cost of your custom house, bring in a contractor who can help give you more detailed estimates as the design evolves.

Choose a contractor early

Getting a contractor on board early in the process can help you stay aware of rising costs or delays and track what the budget looks like during each phase of the process—in detail. Your contractor is the one who will give you and your architect refined feedback along the way.

Sign a pre-construction agreement

If you’re not ready to commit to a particular contractor, you can sign a pre-construction agreement with the contractor you feel most comfortable with at the moment.

This type of agreement gives you the benefit of an early bid but does not commit you to the contractor for the entire project. You only pay the contractor for the hours it takes them to estimate the cost in detail.

Choose a contractor you trust

As you’re choosing a contractor, we recommend that you pay close attention to good working rapport, the amount of trust you feel with them, and their level of transparency. If you know you can trust them, then you’ll know that you’re getting accurate information when costs rise and that they’ll be honest with you about where those costs are coming from.

Ask yourself who you can imagine working closely with for a year and who you think will communicate well with you. That’s the one to hire.

© Artisans Group Architecture + Planning — Sustainable Architecture, Passive House, and Passive Building Design Experts

Posted on July 10, 2026