Building cheaply - this is how it can be done too!

Hello everyone,

I feel it's important to point out here that a house doesn't always have to cost 1500-2000 euros/sqm, as is often claimed here. That used to unsettle me a lot at first because our planned numbers were well below that, and in the end, we quite easily stayed within the plan range. We are just waiting for the tiler and the final sanitary installation, but all prices are already fixed.

Our construction supervisor from the Verband Privater Bauherren is very satisfied with the work done so far – we obviously and hopefully didn’t scrimp in the wrong places. Of course, without much frills, but with the things that were personally important to us and worth the price.

The building was done with "Stadt & Land," who in our case (we are very picky but also supervise everything very closely and detect errors early) did really good work. We had no major problems (smaller ones are completely normal with such a project).

Here are the details of our 1300 euros/sqm house:

192k house with 146 sqm without basement, 1.5 stories, gable roof, light grey plaster, gas+solar collectors+water tank, no underfloor heating, windows/doors inside+outside anthracite, barrier-free showers + walls masonry, stairs special color, double boarding upper floor, surfaces Q3, incl. SAT, no KFW, construction site OWL

65k value of 800 sqm plot (however from family ownership)

7k additional costs (building application, notary, land registry office, construction electricity, water, surveying, construction fence, drainage planning)

6k house connection costs

14k development costs/multiple foundations

9k outdoor facilities (gravel, 70 sqm paving, splash guard, 25 sqm terrace, front garden), EL – possibly another 3/4k here.

7k material for floors/walls in EL

27k kitchen, furniture, lamps, Verband Privater Bauherren supervision

Maybe the other budget builders will join in and show that you can build cost-consciously and therefore not necessarily worse (personal opinion).

Sure, you can always do more, but even if it were affordable for someone, that doesn’t mean they want to pay for it.

In my opinion, the be-all and end-all is an absolutely detailed preliminary planning and the early fixing of all additional costs. We really had to fight at this point and regretted each item afterwards that we hadn’t fixed beforehand (because we let ourselves be talked into it). But most of it we were able to plan well in advance and there were few deviations.

Best regards, hemali2003

For clarification: These are the total costs - everything that follows is also included!

So this is certainly an economical house but in my opinion not a huge bargain. I usually include the additional costs in the price per square meter. In your case, without kitchen and land, that would be around €1600 / m². Or were those included in the 192k? Otherwise, it is indeed economical/solid, but after all also without underfloor heating and KfW.

From my point of view, this is a realistic price for the equipment, and therefore it is considered cheap or inexpensive here in the forum. We paid more like 1650 euros/sqm, but with significantly more extras, overall we also made a very good deal.

No, I never claimed a huge bargain! Of course, with less investment we have less performance, that's clear! But I am absolutely sure that we will still have a nice and livable house.

I have actually only found calculations with 1500-1800 euros plus land and additional costs. Ours differs considerably from that, which is why I have always wondered if I am calculating totally wrong.

That's what this is about for me: to show that you can also build more cheaply.
Less about saying "look, I paid much less than you"!

From my perspective, this is a realistic price for the equipment, and therefore it is considered cheap or inexpensive here in the forum. We paid more like 1650 euros/sq m, but with significantly more extras; overall, we also made a very good deal.

Yes, I do not want to dispute that either! "Cheaper" referred to our total investment, not that we had a better price-performance ratio!

Certainly, in the end, higher-quality materials, better techniques, etc. are installed in many cases. I did not want to dispute that.