Construction costs are currently skyrocketing

I have a possibly somewhat naive question: these price increases for construction steel sound pretty threatening at first. But how much steel is needed for a normal single-family house? Roughly? I just have no idea. If it’s, for example, 5 tons, the additional costs compared to the total price would be negligible. Or is it 200 tons? Or 30? Recently, I read an interview with the CEO of a large Hamburg property developer/project developer, stating that the costs for steel make up only 2% of the total volume. In that case (scaled down to a single-family house), that would be no reason to panic...?!

Standard single-family house 1.5 stories solid with foundation, floor slab and concrete ceiling? I estimate 2.5–5 tons.

Standard single-family house 1.5 stories solid with foundation, base slab and concrete ceiling? I estimate 2.5-5 tons.

OK, thanks! So an increase of €500 would mean additional costs of €1,250 to €2,500. That really shouldn't worry anyone who is building. Then I wonder why the (undoubtedly) sharp rise in the price of steel is so often cited as an example of why construction costs are exploding (which they are also undoubtedly doing).

I have a possibly somewhat naive question: these price increases for construction steel sound quite threatening at first. But how much steel do you even need for a normal single-family house? Roughly speaking? I just have no idea. If it’s, for example, 5 tons, the additional costs compared to the total price would be trivial. Or is it 200 tons? Or 30? Recently I read an interview with the managing director of a large Hamburg builder/developer that the costs for steel account for only 2% of the total volume. In that case (scaled down to a single-family house), that wouldn’t be a reason to panic…?!

That always generally depends on the size/design and layout of the rooms. Large, open rooms without walls – rather a lot of steel needed. Small, closed rooms (which hardly anyone builds nowadays) – rather little steel. But this is not expert knowledge of mine, I just understood it from our architect that way.

I mean, for our single-family house with a large double garage in the basement and open living-dining area + kitchen on the ground floor with floor slab and two reinforced concrete ceilings it’s about 10 tons of steel. If it then costs 600 euros more per ton than a few months ago, you’re at 6,000 euros additional costs. Okay – now you can say: “That’s no problem, you have to calculate that as a buffer or make cuts elsewhere.”

Basically correct. But the additional costs for the steel are then joined by 5,000 euros more for bricks, 5,000 euros for concrete, 7,500 euros for the windows, et cetera. What I want to say is: These small positions in the individual materials unfortunately no longer limit themselves to a specific component of the building – and then quite quickly you get a mid five-figure sum together.

That depends on many factors, such as how much steel is installed. Large window areas that need to be spanned, very large rooms without supporting elements = large spans. Special requests like designing lintels flush with floor or ceiling level = more reinforcement steel, etc. With us including the basement, that's about 5.5 tons.

The steel alone is not a price driver.

Concrete (especially WU)
Plaster
Windows
Tiles
Cables
Prefabricated components
Heating technology
etc.

Everything has massively increased in price for the end consumer in recent months. In total, this quickly results in the mentioned €40k additional costs for a single-family house within 6 to 8 months. BUT this value is only our "worst case" calculation. We will only know for sure in a few days. Until then, we will not panic.

All price increases above 5% must be disclosed in detail by our general contractor according to the contract, with all offers and his calculation. Since I think he only does that reluctantly in all trades, he will consolidate the majority of price increases onto one or two trades which he practically offers himself through company divisions, and the rest remains his book with seven seals ;-)
Since we still get gas from the East, there are hardly any arguments to price even higher than it already is.

By the way, we notice a strong increase in advertising activities from various prefab house builders. We base this on the fact that now all companies where we once showed interest in a house in the show home park but the talks never went beyond exchanging contact data, are now contacting us. They are ringing quite persistently. The portal is also filling regionally again with photo-shop operations including plots.

Since you just mentioned the topic of portals... two of our neighboring properties have, quite incomprehensibly, ended up with a realtor who has been trying for many months to sell semi-detached houses there for 550k each (for context: Hintertupfingen, BR=68€, sold by the municipality for 98€/sqm). Yesterday, the price was then reduced to 498k...

I am noticing this more and more as well. Eight weeks ago, we looked at a (really nice, young) existing house. The price was supposed to be €425,000. Last price checked with the realtor: €415,000. As of today, it is listed for €390,000 – so almost 10% down in a very short time.