Elevator cost for a two-family house - experience with the costs?

Hello everyone,

Unfortunately, we are not making progress with our planning. We have a 1000 sqm plot and are planning a multigenerational house, meaning my parents and us as a family with 3 people.

The plot is narrow and long, meaning it is 17.5 meters wide at the front. The older generation would like to be on the ground floor with the garden, which is located to the north.

We cannot fit a single-family house with a bungalow (due to the wishes of the parties). Now we have considered a two-family house. The smaller apartment upstairs with a roof terrace, and downstairs us as a family with access to the garden. But then we would have to plan an elevator looking toward the future.

Does anyone have experience with the costs? We have very different opinions here and the feeling that this installation is rather not desired.

Thank you very much!

Why do you "need" an elevator? As long as you are both building a "multi-generational house" from the actual social idea, you probably need something like that less than if everyone lives separately, because one generation always bears some shared responsibility to help the other generation. I had something like that and the parents lived on the upper floor with a roof terrace, and that was wonderful but also exhausting... a bit of everything; that was how it was for us and probably the parents as well. We benefited and they did too, I hope at least, just each party in a different way. To me, that sounds more like a "everyone lives their own life house," which I can absolutely understand, and it depends on mutual interaction. If you can't agree on these things, I see rather gray prospects for upcoming problems... and I really wouldn't even consider whether the actual problems are really of a constructional nature or will become so. In my opinion, the foremost thing should be the unconditional willingness to live together, and if the building planning is that difficult, maybe it's better to sell the plot and buy something suitable.

Unfortunately, we are not making progress with our planning. We have a 1000 sqm plot and are planning a multi-generation house, i.e. my parents and us as a family of 3 people.

That's nice that the plot has grown by 100 sqm since February, but I still don't understand your problem. Has the demolition of the old building already taken place?

The plot is narrow and long, i.e. at the front it is 17.5 meters wide. The older generation would like to live on the ground floor with the garden that faces north. We cannot fit a single-family house with a bungalow (due to the wishes of the parties). Now we have considered a two-family house. Upstairs the smaller apartment with a roof terrace, downstairs us as a family with the garden.

So the plot has a maximum width of 12.5 meters for the house at the front even in BaWü; and if I interpret it correctly, you originally wanted to build two houses one behind the other. You should show a site plan excerpt where one could actually see building envelopes; for now I doubt the possibility. Now you want to switch to a two-family house. The parents want "ground floor" and you "garden" — is it a hillside location where the parents would live at ground level from the south street and you in the basement towards the north garden? For which party would the small penthouse then be? As you see, without pictures much is unclear or even misleading here. See if you recognize yourself in the problem constellation of :

For the elevator, you must meet all the requirements as in public areas. It's quite an effort. In a single-family house (which is not the case here), you can then do whatever you want at your own risk. For example, only maintenance but no TÜV anymore, no key outside, disable emergency call... The elevator alone costs from €35k upwards. Fully compliant maintenance about €60-100 per month (emergency call + minor maintenance). The "normal" general contractor who only builds small houses has no knowledge of elevators and would rather not do this. It also doesn't work with electrician teams because an electrician must be present at all possible intermediate steps...

much too expensive. Help with shopping and when the time comes, just install lifters...

Or how about alternatively the option:

- Parents downstairs
- you get a rooftop terrace with stairs down to the garden