Differences in construction costs by federal state

Hello everyone,

Many posts seem to revolve around house building projects in economically strong regions, e.g. Bavaria or Baden-Württemberg (I know that Bavaria is large and there are different regions).

I live in the Magdeburg area and wonder whether one can factor in a relevant price difference in a direct construction cost comparison (for example to the Augsburg region) or whether the difference is rather marginal. After all, the material will cost the same everywhere.

Very specifically, probably no one can answer that, but maybe you can say something about the cost differences by federal state / region?

There is a statistic from the Federal Statistical Office regarding average construction costs per sqm per federal state, but I don't really consider it meaningful. If the builders in their federal state earn significantly less money, then the houses are also equipped more simply and accordingly the average construction costs per sqm in that federal state are also lower.

In Saxony-Anhalt it will be significantly cheaper than near Ingolstadt or Stuttgart. In SH and MVP it is the same. Wages are lower, building land cheaper, but also other, simpler building habits. The houses are often a bit smaller, mostly without basements, simpler equipped in terms of technology. If I walked through our settlement with you, you would notice how rarely roller shutters are installed, how often you encounter simple plastic front doors, how predominant the concrete roof tile is, how often you find fairly small window formats, how rarely fences are set, how few garages there are, and if there are any, they are prefabricated models made of concrete....etc.

Does the BKI not exactly reflect your question?

Best regards

Wages are lower, land for building is cheaper, but also different, simpler building habits.

So the construction costs are the same, but the builders have different desires. Simple in Bavaria is also not expensive (and 10-15% higher labor costs do not make construction prices explode).

Overall, construction costs are quite similar everywhere. 10% is quite a lot in €, but it remains "only" 10%.

Plots are the much bigger leverage. Condominiums in Munich, for example, cost so much because up to 60% of the purchase price is for the plot of land. In no-man’s-land in Saxony-Anhalt it might be only 10%. And already the same apartment in Munich is more than twice as expensive (additionally somewhat higher construction costs due to higher wages and a seller’s market).

Material will ultimately cost the same everywhere.

But not the transport. Whatever. We have a north/south as well as an east/west gradient, more like a slope: it’s more expensive in the south and west. This is partly due to the fact that salaries are different. Bavaria is said to be quite expensive, but even there you have rather rural regions that are still down-to-earth. Plots are more likely to be stony or on a slope in the south, whereas elsewhere there are flood-prone areas, all of which make building more expensive. There are many here in the forum from the inexpensive SH and Nds regions, and everyone around Munich complains. You read about frustrated people who have been looking for a building plot in the south for several years, just as you do about northern home builders who have still managed to get affordable land. And as already says: a cellar that has to hold back a slope is naturally more expensive than a slab foundation, which northerners like to use. I personally have the feeling that there is a latent border roughly between Hannover and Berlin: the builders below it tend to go overboard with the fittings and forget that a house is not everything you should live for ;)

(I know that Bavaria is large and there are different regions).

I am not sure to what extent this might be less true for Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, but generally I believe no federal state is even remotely homogeneous, and conversely in all of them the countryside is more strongly populated by locals and the metropolitan areas and their surroundings more strongly by newcomers who bring their habits with them (and then want to set up their loden coat shop with leather pants garage in Hanover – of course surrounded by anthracite-colored gabions, because modern is how you are, right).