Construction prices for 2024/2025: regional supply

Hello everyone,

through a certain local resident model, we as a small family have the opportunity to purchase a plot of land relatively inexpensively by today's standards. However, since we are absolute amateurs when it comes to building a house, I am turning to the experienced ones among you.

We have directly contacted a regional construction company. They specialize in the foundation slab as well as the shell construction. Since we want to check to what extent a house build could fit within the budget, we are currently trying to obtain offers for all conceivable trades. The catch: We only have a detailed idea of our wish and a floor plan (however, not from an architect). One of the contractors has provided us with a realistic? cost overview of the trades, whereby above all we would like to know what costs we can expect from day 0 until the completion of the shell.

Now to the question: Is everything included in this cost overview and if so, are these costs realistic? Or are there actually even items missing that will certainly come up in reality?

Regarding the planning: Bungalow with approx. 130 sqm in solid construction with garage Not basemented

Whether the cost estimate for heating, sanitary, etc. is realistic is secondary here. Initially, everything from the start to the completion of the shell is actually important to me.

Since we want to check to what extent a house construction could fit within the budget, we are currently trying to obtain offers for all conceivable trades. Catch: We only have a detailed idea of our wish and a floor plan (however not from an architect).

Then you might as well roll dice for the prices or base yourself on the general guidelines of +/- €3000/sqm living space plus basement, incidental construction costs, garage/carport, exterior facilities. Apart from that, submitting a layman’s floor plan is (almost) always worthless, because architects study for years to create good floor plans to process all correlations in floor planning.

Whether the cost estimate for heating, sanitary, etc. is realistic is secondary here. Initially, everything from start to completion of the shell construction is actually important to me.

130 sqm for €420k with all incidental costs can fit (see above), but whether all costs are actually covered, we cannot verify (bad soil with replacement will quadruple your earthworks etc.). One socket per room or even a full KNX installation? The construction company will probably only budget what is standard at first – and you will likely order 40 more sockets + LAN + more lights + electric shutters etc. later. P.S. You might use the floor plan for a very first cost calculation, but then please throw it away and have it properly planned by a professional.

But since we are absolute laymen when it comes to the topic of house construction, [...] Whether the cost estimate for heating, sanitary, etc. is realistic is secondary here.

This attitude alone would be enough to prove absolute ignorance. That can make you very, very poor (in the sense of what Homer Simpson means when he says Bart is in deep, deep trouble). First, you should show the plot of land here once, fill out Yvonne’s questionnaire , and at least show the usage template from the development plan here. Does it say an “I” there or how do you get the idea to build 130 sqm (actually a commendable size) precisely as a bungalow (please not “because stairs are expensive,” we already know that joke). The green highlighted lines are probably those referring to the trades carried out by the aforementioned shell builder himself (?) – how does he know the rest of the construction costs so precisely, did he act as a turnkey general contractor in this example? Absolutely forget about “getting offers” as laymen. What you can provide as a basis will be inadequate; and then you get offers where everything you think you understand is actually misunderstandings. A basement yes or no is not a private decision by you; the plot of land sits at the discussion table with a more or less loud voice (always depending on the topography, sometimes additionally on the geology) (see: “With or without basement: a rule as a decision-making tool”), also in my local forum posts under the search term “11ant Kellerregel.”

Phew... you haven't even thought about the equipment room. Based on the numbers alone, it's 150 sqm, with proper wall overlays it can be 10% more. And exactly where you don't want them. One of the offices has no window. And now you have a cost breakdown for a house that, as it is outlined here, will not work.

Oh dear oh dear... I think that here in the forum the words are written so nicely with so much automatism. Of course, that is supposed to mean wall thicknesses. Mea culpa!

First of all, thank you for your feedback. I understand that this is too little for a reliable assessment of the available information. However, we do not know how to obtain such information without immediately spending money (an entrepreneur wanted 5,500€ upfront for a submission plan). If we go ahead with this and then decide against building, we will have wasted this amount. Regarding the technical room: thanks for the hint, one of the offices (the one without a window) is supposed to be the technical room. This is an incorrect designation. The plot is 516 sqm without a slope and already fully developed by the municipality. Do you at least think that the trades highlighted in green (supposed to be carried out by the mentioned entrepreneur) are realistic?