Building a 5 marla double-storey house in Lahore costs roughly PKR 1.06 to 1.25 crore complete with standard materials in 2026 — about PKR 5,850 per square foot on around 1,975 square feet of covered area. Grey structure alone runs about PKR 52 to 67 lakh, and the build typically takes 7.5 to 12.5 months from excavation to handover.
Grey structure vs complete
Split the 5 marla number in two. Grey structure — foundation, frame, brickwork, slabs and plaster — is around PKR 52 to 67 lakh, a little under half the total. Finishing — flooring, paint, doors and windows, kitchen, three or so bathrooms, electrical and plumbing — is the rest, and it is where your choices decide whether you land near the bottom or the top of the range. Economy finishing keeps the complete figure closer to a crore; premium tiling, sanitary and woodwork can carry it past PKR 1.3 crore.
What a 5 marla actually gives you
A 5 marla plot in Lahore is 25 by 45 feet. Under DHA's clear-space geometry — and the 5 marla exception that lets the first floor cover 100 percent of the ground floor — you get roughly 1,630 square feet of walled covered area plus a porch, which comfortably fits a three-bedroom G+1 house. Different societies (LDA schemes, Bahria) apply coverage differently, and the calculator constrains your design to whichever one you pick.
What moves the Lahore number
Four levers: your society (DHA, LDA or Bahria change the buildable area and therefore the covered square feet you pay for), your finish tier, whether you add a basement, and material grade. A basement is the single biggest add — it can raise the total meaningfully because it is extra RCC and excavation. Everything else is finishing choices you control room by room.
How long it takes
Plan for roughly 8 to 12 months for a complete standard 5 marla, weather and cash flow permitting. Grey structure closes in the first 3 to 4 months of that; finishing, which runs partly in parallel, fills the rest. Rushing the foundation and slab curing gates to compress this is the classic false economy.
These are researched planning bands, not a quote. For your exact plot, society and finishes, run the numbers through the construction cost calculator, and see the live 5 Marla Lahore cost page for the current itemised breakdown and material quantities.