Assess slope

A few days ago, we opened the topic of semi-detached house yes or no here and received great help, unfortunately the construction company is now backing out and is not selling for the time being.

With incredible luck, however, we received a call from the city yesterday that the buyer of a plot in another new development area has dropped out. We were there, location fits, surroundings too, unfortunately a bit of a slope which we cannot assess, and we would like to get advice here again. Also regarding the development plan. I have attached screenshots for this. The plot is 28 meters long and has a height difference of 3 meters, with the slope being steepest at the beginning and flattening out towards the back. We wanted to build with a basement anyway, the house should have 140-160 sqm of living space and a double garage.[ATTACH alt="Screenshot_20191030-150228_Adobe Acrobat.jpg" type="full"]39451[/ATTACH]

Assessing a hillside location without being on site and knowing the soil is hardly possible.
A basement is potentially somewhat cheaper and has the chance for natural daylight on the hillside side, which is already a pretty good thing.
A level parking space for cars is potentially somewhat more expensive.
If the slope needs to be retained in some places, that is a cost factor.
For appealing garden design, a hillside location is a great thing – as long as you do not cling to the idea of a perfectly flat central lawn area or want to install a particularly large pool.
It is usually advantageous if the hillside property is accessed and developed "from above".

We have about 9 m of elevation difference over 30 m. So, it's even more complicated. What exactly is your question? Generally, you should plan more for earthworks and terrain modeling. You should also consider involving an architect at least up to and including the approval planning stage. They plan more individually with regard to the slope. (At least that was my experience)

Yes, I actually haven’t really asked a question, I’m a bit overwhelmed because so much is happening at once

I actually wanted to have an exchange of experience about how "steep" such a slope / incline is. When you stand in front of the property, it doesn’t seem like much to a layperson. We have a construction company in close consideration that is building 2 other houses in the new development area that have a bit more of a hillside location like ours. She said, but we wanted that too, to build the house higher up towards the street as well as the garage. The way it is drawn in the attached site plan, we don’t want it like that anyway. The hillside property is accessed from the top and it can’t be done any other way.

The construction company said the property would be very good to build on without additional costs for supports etc. What also works in our favor is that the excavated soil from the basement can be used to raise the garden a bit and also to balance out the double garage above. This way we would have less to transport away and dispose of.

The construction company works together with an architect and we would do the entire planning with him, he would then also submit it for approval.

[SOURCE="hampshire, post: 353558, member: 46205"] Estimating a slope without being on site and knowing the soil is hardly possible. A basement will potentially be somewhat cheaper and has the chance for daylight on the slope side, which is already a pretty good thing. A flat parking space for cars will potentially be somewhat more expensive. If the slope needs to be retained in some places, that is a cost factor. For an appealing garden design, a slope is a great thing – as long as you are not fixated on the idea of a perfectly level central lawn area or want to install a particularly large pool. Usually, it is advantageous if the hillside property is accessed and developed "from above." [/SOURCE]

I took pictures of the property today but wasn't sure if they are really helpful here, because you can't really see the slope that well. If you want, I can post them.

A soil/ground test has not been done yet. Would you not buy the property without this? We planned to do it afterwards, regarding the basement excavation.

As a layman, I would say that the slope does not need to be retained, as it is very evenly sloping. Only the first 3-4 meters are a little steeper. On the left and right, single-family homes are also being built; these plots are similar to ours.

So a pool or the like is not planned, only a play tower with sandbox, slide, and so on, and lawn. It will be rather a simple garden since neither of us is a gardener.

Then everything is all good.

Tip: have the architect draw in all retaining walls and have the general contractor price them. Afterwards, there could be a nasty surprise.