Construction costs are currently skyrocketing

At our hardware store, half of the parking lot has suddenly become a very full storage area, who is supposed to install all of this now, purchased at a high cost and now ...

The interest rates for 10-year mortgage loans have been below 3% (2.99%) again for some time now, according to Interhyp.

The short-term trend is rather downward; the 10-year swap for federal bonds is falling slowly but steadily (continuously from 2.41 to 1.74 over the past four weeks).

For me, as for so many others, the question of profitability arises. If I only consume 3000 kWh of electricity per year and the photovoltaic system is supposed to cost 30,000 euros, then in my eyes it is a waste of money.

Fiscally, it is not a model in terms of profitability that investors would recommend, that is true. But if you never start, the time horizon for profitability does not begin to run! And photovoltaics will be a topic in the coming years. That is why one can only hope that something will happen soon on the equity side. But I see it similarly to you. Apart from the storage issue, there is simply no other long-term politically stable perspective in the photovoltaics topic. These uncertainties add to it.

Hello everyone,

I have been following here for a while, but a question arises about what your opinion is:

- Building permit will be approved shortly
- Extension with around 90m² (separate apartment, kitchen, bathroom, heating, etc.)

GU is currently putting together the final prices, supply chains, etc.
Next year there is also a renovation of the "main house" planned.

At the moment we are heading towards a recession estimated to last 2-6 quarters. On the other hand, we have inflation estimated at worst-case 10%. How exactly does this affect the prices of individual trades?
My chain would be:

1. Inflation deters many from building
2. As a result, availability of materials and raw materials stabilizes again
3. Due to cancellations, craftsmen have more capacity again
4. Wages rise in the long term

Conclusion: Building will hardly become more expensive in the next few months because craftsmen want to take on work and have capacity due to cancellations. Materials will also be available. Wage increases will primarily become noticeable in 2023.

What do you think?

Thanks and regards
rg

What do you think?

Hard to predict. Part of the material prices are due to energy becoming more expensive. Cement, glass, firing clay, etc. simply require a lot of energy, which mainly comes from gas (in cement often also from "co-firing" with waste). A collapsing demand only helps to a limited extent. I am also not sure whether demand will really collapse that much. Sure, new construction is rather poor. But more renovation is planned and needed than before. Demand will rather shift a bit. Renovation requires less concrete and fewer bricks, but more insulation, windows, building services. And some will take the opportunity to renovate their bathrooms as well...

We have now decided against a stationary storage system in the basement for the topic of photovoltaics and are focusing on bidirectional charging. VW is currently working on a wallbox that will be reasonably priced. An electric car that can do bidirectional charging with a 55kW battery costs around €45,000 (Kia and Hyundai, for example, already have a model that can do this). We are getting rid of our combustion engine car, adding some money (about as much as a 7.5kW storage system in the basement would cost), and then we have a storage system six times as large that also takes us the 6,000 km we drive per year from A to B.

The model is obviously not economical for everyone, but from April to September it brings us very close to the autonomy threshold. And switching from our combustion engine car to the electric car even lowers the maintenance costs in our case.

Charging and discharging with these comparatively low currents does not stress the battery nearly as much as the 250kW charging station on the highway.

Basically, I think the earlier you get started with photovoltaics, the longer you benefit from the business case. In the end, we are all limited in time ;-)