A small request: Do you have any advice for us?

Just a quick calculation, roughly: 250,000 divided by 145 square meters equals 1724 euros/sqm. If you’re not skilled in craftsmanship, it gets significantly more expensive. Fits perfectly into our scheme from last year (as mentioned, 1850 on average).

@christoph: Do you have a real offer or a catalog with a price list? Even if you have the lowest demands on the equipment and contribute your own work, under 1400/sqm is probably not feasible. Add at least 30,000 euros on top.

The additional cost for turnkey including good materials: €14,000

We are now at the end of the planning phase... the price has kept rising because our demands have increased, and we have added quite a bit technically. The price for the house could be reduced by about €20,000 by removing internet cabling, the gas connection for the hob, the enthalpy exchanger for the ventilation system, removing the fireplace and all related items, removing the water softening system, and reverting to standard bathroom tiles. But it’s not worth it.

You have to decide before the start of the project whether you want to build as cheaply as possible or do it properly. That also means not saving on the equipment. And if you decide to take that step, the catalog prices of the suppliers also immediately go higher.

We are quite satisfied with our supplier; we could almost always live well with the standard or might have even chosen exactly that. But when you see what extra prices are sometimes charged for accessories, you as a customer get angry.

Good example: KFW 55 floor retractable ladder. This costs €1,400 with installation from our supplier. A similar one can be ordered from Hornbach for €370... well, but then you bear the risk yourself, the house supplier withdraws from responsibility, etc. Another example, interior doors: we like the standard doors, so no problem for us, but others wanted to upgrade here and would have had to pay a surcharge that is what the same door costs on the market. For a downgraded door, you get about €400 credited. This is already calculated tightly, and especially customers who want “everything from a single source” have to comply or cause stress themselves.

For us, a lot of own effort is out of the question, and honestly, every single point that we had to organize ourselves outside turned into pure chaos. You get offers, weeks later you ask again, and no one knows anything about the offer, you don’t get callbacks for weeks, etc.

These are just a few descriptions so you can get an idea of how and where the price differences come from. I couldn’t explain it to myself until I was able to see the differences between two prefabricated houses nearby in a construction area. Two suppliers, €50,000 price difference, but almost the same illustrations in the brochure. The differences in the building structure (for me as a layman... tapping on the wall, soundproofing) are enormous. I would be annoyed to have spent a lot of money on a cardboard house.

Just by the way: 180,000 for the house, do you have a basis for the price? I'm just asking because this seems very low to me, or rather, realistic construction costs (building + incidental building costs, without land) last year were around 1850€ per square meter of living space (at least in our building area in Hesse, over 2000€ was also easily achievable).

The 1850 EURONEN are without a basement, right?

Yes, without a basement. With a basement, it is again a question of calculation method. If you count the basement as 0 living area, you are more likely at 2200 euros/sqm; if you include all sqm in the calculation, maybe around 1500.

Hello Christoph,

I have the offer from a prefabricated house company here, which breaks down as follows:

Promotional house "A": 161m² living space, €127,500, knee wall height 1.30m
Offer "B": 150m², €147,900, two full floors - hip roof
Included in the price each time: turnkey house including gas with solar technology or alternatively geothermal heat pump, without painting/wallpapering and carpet/laminate from the top edge of the foundation slab/basement ceiling.

Promotional house "A" would mean a sqm price/living space of €791.93 (€934.78 incl. BP) and offer "B" a sqm price/living space of €986.00 (€1,112.66 incl. BP), and that even with a geothermal heat pump. In my opinion, there is definitely more than one thing wrong with these prices, especially when you consider that quality-stable prefabricated houses are considerably more expensive than solidly built houses. For a reasonably well-built single-family house, you have to reckon with a sqm price/living space of €1,350.00 - without renewable technologies.

For the promotional house, I additionally calculate €20,000, which will be added during the customization and adaptation for the 1st floor. (We want the parents' bedroom on the ground floor and on the 1st floor four equally sized rooms and one bathroom.)

That would then result in a sqm price/living space of €1,059.01 incl. BP; therefore not more realistic.

Offer "B", as it is equipped as standard, is okay for us. €5,000 should be sufficient for customization.

And that corresponds to a sqm price/living space of €1,146.00 also incl. BP; still far from a serious price calculation.

... How would you carry out the calculation?

All price information you provided here is far from reality for a turnkey prefabricated house or the underlying construction description (BB) is limited to a minimum of services. Or is it an extra-European provider?

Offer "A" should realistically be in the range of €285,000 and offer "B" around €268,000 for a prefabricated house – built according to valid technology and energy saving regulations – both price estimates including geothermal heat pump and one borehole, without painting work and floor coverings. On top of these prices, typical incidental construction costs of €35,000-40,000 as well as further reserves for possible additional foundation costs, garage and outdoor facilities as well as extras must be considered.

I strongly recommend that you obtain information about the provider and have its construction description as well as the entire contract documents before signing the contract checked. I am sure you will find explanations for the subterranean pricing there.

Kind regards

Man, then I ended up getting a really good deal. :D

My cabin (freely planned, Energy Saving Ordinance, brick element house, solid equipment, no basement) is therefore priced at 1550,- per sqm of net living area, or 1282,- including the walkable attic.

Prices are for the house only, without land and additional construction costs.

Own contribution: only outdoor facilities, except for the splash guard. I also had the general contractor do that, as well as everything remotely related to the house, to avoid later disputes regarding the warranty.