Most first-time villa clients hold a compressed picture of the project: get drawings, get a permit, build. That picture is not wrong, but it hides where the real decisions sit — which is why clients are often unprepared at exactly the moment a decision is theirs to make.
This piece walks the full route of a villa project, from before design begins to handover. For each stage we set out three things: what happens, what it produces, and which decision is yours.
Stage zero: before design starts
Before a line is drawn, we need to know what ground we are working on and under what constraints. If you have not bought the land yet, this stage actually happens before purchase — we covered it in detail in what to check before buying land.
If you already own the plot, these must be clear: registered land use, which boundary the plot falls in and therefore which authority issues the permit, permitted coverage and density, applicable setbacks, and the state of the soil and water table.
Your decision here: a real budget and a spatial brief. Not "roughly how much", but the ceiling you are genuinely willing to reach — because every later decision is tied to that number.
Phase zero: study and analysis
In the formal vocabulary of architectural services this is “phase zero”: understanding the project before designing it. It covers the client’s requirements, the site’s topography, climate, position, environmental constraints, and the governing regulations and standards.
In the northern climate this stage carries more weight. Wind direction, sun path, slope and the route rainwater takes all enter the work here. When we elongated the plan east–west at Villa 425, that was not a decision taken mid-design; it came out of this analysis.
Output: the project brief, and the set of constraints the design has to sit inside.
Phase one: schematic design
This is where the idea takes shape. Phase one drawings show where the building sits on the plot, how spaces are arranged and related, and the general character of the elevations. The output exists to be understood and approved, not built from.
Your decision at this stage is the most consequential of the whole project. Change is still cheap here — a line moves. After this, the cost of every change rises quickly. Our article on common villa design mistakes explains why changing drawings after construction starts is among the most frequent causes of cost overrun.
So take your time. Test the plan against your actual daily life: where you eat breakfast, how a guest enters, where things get stored. Ask these questions now, not once the walls are up.
Phase two: construction documents
Here the phase one design is redrawn to comply with the national building regulations — without changing its nature — and taken to executable detail. Structural, mechanical and electrical drawings are coordinated at this point.
This is the stage clients understand least and benefit from most. The precision of the phase two drawings determines how many decisions get improvised on site — and every improvised decision is an opportunity for error and rework.
The building permit
The formal route, in brief: the owner applies for a permit; the issuing authority (the municipality inside city limits, the rural administration and Housing Foundation within a Hadi plan fabric) inspects the plot and establishes coverage, number of storeys and setback lines; a drawing instruction is issued on that basis.
Drawings are then prepared by an engineer holding a practice licence from the Engineering Organisation, the owner contracts a supervising engineer, and once the drawings are checked and the file completed, the permit is issued.
Keep two roles distinct, because clients routinely conflate them: the supervising engineer must continuously verify that construction conforms to the approved drawings and national regulations, and report violations to the permit authority. The licensed executor is the party carrying out the work. These should not be the same person.
Choosing a contract model
- Fixed price: the total is set at the outset and the contractor carries the risk of price movement. Suited to a client who wants a definite figure — but the contractor prices that risk in, and under inflation gains an incentive to economise on quality.
- Cost plus management fee: the client pays actual material and labour costs and the contractor takes a percentage for managing and executing. More transparent and flexible, with quality easier to control, but the final figure is not fixed at the start and it demands closer client involvement.
- Turnkey (design and build): one party is responsible for the whole route. Simpler for the client to manage since there is a single point of contact, at the cost of less independent oversight of detail.
Your decision: this is less a technical choice than a question of how much time you can give the project and how much cost uncertainty you can tolerate.
Construction
- Setting out and excavation: a surveyor marks the exact position of columns and foundations on the ground, and earth is removed to the level shown in the drawings.
- Foundations: where the soil study proves itself. In the north, a high water table can turn this into the most expensive unplanned part of the project.
- Structural frame: concrete or steel, per the structural drawings.
- Enclosure: walls and roof.
- Services: mechanical and electrical runs, before surfaces are closed up.
- Finishes: plaster, tiling, surface preparation.
- Fit-out and landscaping.
What clients realise late: this order is not rearrangeable. Decisions about socket positions and pipe routes must be made before plastering; changing them afterwards means demolition. This is exactly why precise phase two drawings show up directly in construction cost.
Completion certificate and handover
Once construction is finished and the supervising engineer signs off, a completion certificate is issued — the basis for obtaining the deed and for lawful occupation. Without it, the building is not administratively complete.
What actually shortens this route?
We have deliberately given no timeline here, because the real duration of each stage depends on the site, the area, the contract model and even the season, and any figure we put down would mislead you about your own project.
But one pattern holds: projects that spend longer in design move faster and cheaper through construction. Haste in phases one and two is always repaid on site, with interest.
If you own a plot and want to know what route your project would actually take, get in touch and we will talk it through against your specific site.
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