Application for plot of land for semi-detached house

Hello everyone,

In a new development area, plots for semi-detached houses are sold by the municipality. For the application for such a plot, among other things, a financing confirmation is required. According to my understanding, for a financing confirmation from a bank, information about the specific plot as well as the building project including prices must be provided. Since the building project here is a semi-detached house, I wonder how one can provide information about this without having spoken to the future neighbor of the second semi-detached house, as the allocation has not yet taken place?

Do you first choose your desired semi-detached house variant alone and use the details of the desired object for the financing confirmation?
How does the process generally proceed after the allocation of the plots? Do the two neighbors then sit down together and choose a semi-detached house? The preferences can be totally different. You basically have to "match" somehow already, right? What are your experiences?

Furthermore, the semi-detached house must comply with the specifications from the development plan. Thus, this must be given to the providers of semi-detached houses at the beginning, correct? Do they then check themselves whether their offer complies with the development plan or is this the responsibility of the client (oneself)?

Based on my questions, it may be clear that I have no experience in this area yet.
Thank you for the clarification.

As I understand it, for a financing confirmation from a bank, among other things, information about the specific plot of land as well as the building project including prices must be provided. Since the building project here is a semi-detached house, I wonder how one can provide information about this without having spoken to the future neighbor of the second semi-detached house, as the allocation has not even taken place yet?

A financing confirmation should be sufficient for the land purchase price. Who cares what you then build (each semi-detached house can also be built differently).

So just go to the bank and have them issue such a document. It's not even worth the paper it's written on anyway.

Hello hanspeter1,

we are currently also building a semi-detached house and have already gone through the whole process, so I can share our experience with you:

Hello everyone,

in a new development area, plots for semi-detached houses are being sold by the municipality. For applying for such a plot, among other things, a financing confirmation is required. As I understand it, for a financing confirmation from a bank, one must provide details about the specific plot as well as the building project including prices. Since the building project here is a semi-detached house, I wonder how one can provide information about this without having spoken to the future neighbor of the second semi-detached house since the allocation has not even taken place yet?

It depends on the bank, but usually not. We went to my house bank back then and told them that we were applying for a plot and if we got it, we wanted to build a semi-detached house on it. They then briefly checked whether we would potentially finance with them (so the effort is not wasted). Then we went through a quick check with fictitious values (plot x€, house approx. y€, incidental costs approx. z€) and checked if it would be feasible with the income. Afterwards, the bank issued a confirmation that they would finance us up to a total sum of x€. The whole process took less than 30 minutes. And for us, the first plot didn’t work out either, and for every further application, I just sent a short email to the financial advisor and he adjusted the date and the object on the confirmation and sent it back to me.

Do you first choose a desired semi-detached house variant on your own and use the details of the desired object for the financing confirmation?

I would primarily take care of the plot first and then the semi-detached house. As described above, you only need a rough benchmark for the house. You can either take this from experience reports here or have 1-2 consultation appointments with house providers and have your desired semi-detached house roughly calculated.

In the end, I have to say that the municipality is actually not very concerned about this. Our financing confirmation back then was about two-thirds of the amount we are spending today. And later you can of course build a super cheap shell house or a luxury villa on it.

How does the process generally work after the allocation of the plots? Do the two neighbors then sit down together and choose a semi-detached house? The ideas can be totally different. You have to somehow already "match" each other, right? What are your experiences?

We bought our half when the neighbor was not yet known. That obviously carries some risk that you don’t get along with your neighbor, that the ideas are completely incompatible, etc. On the other hand, there are single-family home plots here that are so close together, you can always have bad luck with the neighbor. And what if the semi-detached neighbor sells his house again in 3 years?

Of course, it is important that the main features of the house are identical (roof shape and layout). You should discuss this with your future neighbor beforehand and come to an agreement. If later your bricks are gray and his are red, that might not look harmonious, but it doesn’t matter. But if his house is 1m shorter later, then you have to additionally insulate your shared wall at the protruding point, etc.

We had started planning and after a few months the neighbor was then known. We exchanged ideas and briefly shared the rough plans and ideas. It matched relatively well, we had the same ideas, and then it went on.

The optimal way would of course be that you both agree on a construction company and a house and plan and build it together. That saves you costs (only one construction site setup, etc.) and everything fits together later.

To me, it sounds like both plots are allocated simultaneously for you?

In addition, the semi-detached house must comply with the requirements of the development plan. Therefore, the development plan must be submitted to the providers of semi-detached houses at the beginning, correct? Do they then check themselves whether their offer complies with the development plan or is this the responsibility of the client (oneself)?

That (should) be taken care of by the architect of the construction company. It depends a bit on how you build (prefabricated house, general contractor, architect with individual contracts, etc.).

We sent all the plans and the development plan to our general contractor. He then passed it on to the architect, and the architect also checked again whether everything was current and compliant. Then we discussed our ideas and the architect created a draft from our wishes, his experience, and the requirements of the development plan.

We had a somewhat more complicated requirement in the development plan, which the architect initially did not consider properly and we pointed it out to him. So it is always wise to deal with it yourself and check the plans and requirements.

I can give you one more important tip:
If possible, build with the same company. This saves you not only many costs but also a lot of checks and coordination. Unfortunately, that was not the case for us. Our company didn’t really care what the neighbor was building and the other company didn’t care what we were building. We always had to coordinate this ourselves between both and make sure that the houses fit together later. The foundation slab almost didn’t match the height of the neighbor’s, but we noticed it just in time and reported it. Now it looks like the houses will not be exactly congruent in width by a few centimeters.

If you have further questions, feel free to let me know.

You only need the confirmation for the building plot. But of course, it would be sensible to discuss with the bank what might potentially be possible.. if the budget is not sufficient for the construction afterwards, then the purchase of the land only makes limited sense.

Since the building project here is a semi-detached house, I wonder how one can make statements about it without having spoken to the future neighbor of the second semi-detached house since the allocation has not yet taken place?

Do you first choose a desired semi-detached house variant alone and use the specifications of the desired property for the financing confirmation? How does the process generally proceed after the allocation of the plots? Do the two neighbors then sit down together and choose a semi-detached house? The ideas can be completely different, after all. You have to somehow "match" each other directly, right? What are your experiences?

First of all, I happily say "congratulations" to you for being not just a brain owner but also a brain user and recognizing that a semi-detached house is logically only half of a whole – see also "A semi-detached house has TWO halves" (unfortunately, I can't link the relevant post here, but Aunt Google will help).

Your thought about communication with the neighboring half is good – I’m tempted to give you a gold star for that – and it will pay off for you. I would most recommend that you also plan together – which does not necessarily mean building taste-identical houses. They don’t even have to be similar building plans, but your planners should coordinate with each other – especially if one wants to build with and the other without a basement.

From your bank’s point of view, however, a semi-detached house is an independent financing object; the one-sided lack of distance does not change that. Imagine if, in a row of terraced houses, all neighbors had to go to the same bank ;-)

I once had that with a construction project I was interested in. All projects had to be financed by [Umweltbank] and they required 30% equity. But that was still back in 2013 or so.