Construction costs to achieve KFW 55 funding

Hello everyone,

regarding our planned house construction, I am currently wondering whether my cost estimate is far from reality. A budget of 300k is planned. A suitable plot of land has been found with all the trimmings for 40K.

Desirable would be a single-family house of 160m² with:
- 2-story construction
- Gable roof approx. 30°
- Sand-lime brick with clinker
- Photovoltaic system without storage
- Heat pump (air-to-water or ground collector)
- Heat storage
- Central ventilation with heat recovery
- Underfloor heating
- possibly KNX
- without fireplace

The goal is to achieve the KfW 55 subsidy. Is this possible?

Hello,

Basement yes/no?

What is the condition of the plot, does a lot need to be moved here regardless of the soil report?
Plot 40K including all incidental purchase costs?
If I roughly calculate, so plot + incidental construction costs + buffer, about ~200k remains for the house.

Outdoor area, carport, garage?
Prefab house or brick by brick? I think brick by brick because of "calcium silicate brick with clinker"

If the experts show up now and calculate everything for you, it will probably be more of a thumbs down. I am somewhat more open, but even with a lot of self-effort and if you drop things like KNX, it probably won’t work.

KfW 55 and 160 sqm living space you should budget at least 300k for the house.

Have you already submitted a building application? Probably not, so you may build according to the Energy Saving Ordinance 2016 = additional costs.

Regards, Marcus

Thank you for your response.

I made a mistake. A budget of 350k is planned. For the land, the surveying, soil investigation, taxes, notary, and additional fees are included. Additional construction costs without the base slab and earthworks as well as the interior furnishings and outdoor area are planned with 60k. Thus, 250k remain for the house.

- A basement is not planned
- Stone on stone
- Own work is only planned for the interior finishing

The building application has not yet been submitted. We have an appointment with an architect soon. In advance, I just wanted to know if it is even possible.

In the last post something went wrong. Since I can no longer edit or delete it, maybe someone knows how to do that?

Now to the topic:

So the budget is 350K. The plot of land is calculated at 40K. Included are surveying, soil report, taxes, notary and additional fees. The plot is almost 1000m² in size. That’s why a heat pump with ground collectors might be an option. For new builds, there is a 5000€ subsidy from Bafa with an annual performance factor above 4.5.

The ancillary building costs without the base plate and earthworks as well as the interior fittings and outdoor facilities (carport) are planned with 60K.

That leaves 250K for the actual house.

- A basement is not planned
- Brick by brick
- Own work is only planned for the interior finishing. Pulling cables, floor coverings, painting work, as well as attic expansion. Paving and roofing would also be done by ourselves.

The question is where one gets to with:
- Photovoltaics without storage
- Heat pump (air-water or geothermal collector)
- Heat storage
- Central ventilation with heat recovery
- Underfloor heating
- possibly KNX

I think 350K is a substantial amount of money with which it should be possible to build a house according to the latest standards. Or am I seeing that wrong?

I think 350K is a chunk of money, with which it should be possible to build a house according to the latest standards. Or am I wrong?

As I said, I can completely understand that, I also see myself rather on your side or think similarly, I wouldn’t necessarily call it naive, rather critically realistic.

350k is a chunk of money, no question. If that was the budget for the house alone, I would say, yeah, you can get something done with that.

Now this budget also swallows a chunk of costs, let’s call them "ancillary construction costs," which are not necessarily the house itself but have to be paid nonetheless. See above, so that the chunk for the "house" noticeably shrinks to 250k euros.

And now it gets very, very tight, we still haven’t even talked about a "buffer," what about furniture (kitchen), moving, double burdens etc., or if a trade gets out of hand.

I don’t want to talk down your project, I would rather be happy if you find ways and possibilities, but it will be very difficult.

Should I tell you about our first experience regarding new construction? Summer 2015, we had been unsuccessfully looking for a good used property up to 400k for a long time. Then my wife had the idea of new construction. I was very, very skeptical (mathematician, conservative, ...). We went to a park, appointment at Weberhaus (you can surely mention them, right?)

It was a very good conversation, no question, but our ideas were just too far apart. With our chunk of money of 400k, a new build was utopian. A standard 160 sqm living space house on 2 floors without a basement alone would have started at about 320k. I think at the very bottom of the list with land, garage, basement and all the extras, it was something like 650k euros here.

So we gave up on new construction and kept looking unsuccessfully for used properties. Unfortunately, we also had time pressure, so later we had to deal intensively with new construction and had to increase the budget significantly.

So now we will build new, house budget is set at 500k euros. Many here are skeptical that it will be enough, but we are fighting for our dream.
We are also not swimming with the tide here, are dealing intensively with the topic and are convinced that you can build well with good money without it getting out of hand. We will report.

Among other things, we also received plenty of ridicule because we first looked for someone who wanted to build with us and then specifically sought a plot of land. And lo and behold, yesterday the certificate from the notary came, proud landowners. The building application has long been submitted and is being processed. We have not yet finalized financing either, all in good time.

Even if my post might not help you much, please take away:

[*]350k is a chunk of money, but in house construction currently unfortunately very, very tight (depending on the region and requirements)
[*]don’t lump everything together
[*]and keep your head up, fight for your goal/dream, even if the road gets bumpy.

Marcus

I like to compare with the car industry because many things run in parallel, even though the comparisons are sometimes flawed. You want an A6, but your budget only allows for a Skoda Superb. Both are good cars, but the Superb is simply not an A6. Besides that, there are other factors, but I don’t want to list them all here. Now you have to decide what you want. It’s that simple.