Garage or hall for 5 cars - How do I approach this?

I think you are imagining it all way too simply. For one, you first have to find a plot where your use with 5 garages is permitted. Water from around 100m² of roof area doesn’t just infiltrate like that, especially since the lawn should remain drivable. etc.

Hello ,

Your idea is unfortunately misguided, unless your vintage cars are worth over €100,000 and are expected to increase significantly in value.

In your case, renting is always cheaper, or you have to find an old barn with 20 parking spaces, buy it, and rent/sell the remaining spaces yourself. But even then, caution is advised: if you buy poorly and underestimate the effort or miscalculate, you will lose money.

It also depends on whether your two models will actually appreciate in value or are likely to depreciate, and how much (annually). There are many vintage cars that are value-stable but do not appreciate – then owning your own garage is definitely not worthwhile.

Best regards

Dirk Grafe

First of all, thanks again for your answers!

The idea is to store my vehicles safely and as cheaply as possible, even for 10 or 20 years. And I don’t care what the walls of the garage are made of because I don’t live in a tornado region.

What kind of designation does the land, which I might buy, need to have? Does it have to be building land in order for me to be allowed to put garages on it?

It would be nice if my cars had such a high value; then I think I would even rent space for them in the Classic Remise in Düsseldorf and definitely not put them in a remote garage. But I do not understand why my plan—whether to rent or buy—should depend on what value development is expected for my cars. Suppose I get two good storage options for 15K, e.g. a double garage with land. Then it still belongs to me after 15 years, even if it might only be worth 13K. If I paid rent for 15 years, maybe 15K would be gone and I would own nothing. And I would always have to fear being evicted. And that is totally independent of what my cars are worth now and in 15 years.

The problem is that you can't just get by with 15k. With the plot of land + additional costs + 5 used garages + sewage connection or infiltration system, you're easily looking at around 50k€. That probably bears no reasonable relation to the car or the rental costs.

Let's assume you get a plot of land. You can build up to the boundary on one side, so you need at least 18m in width (5x3m + 3m distance) and 14m in depth (3m boundary distance + 6m garage + 5m driveway), so 250 m². The price for a poor but buildable plot probably won't be much under 50€ per m² for you. That puts us at 12,500€ plus purchase-related additional costs. The total price is thus around 15,000€. Now come foundations for which you might even get a quantity discount and the sewage connection. Roughly maybe 5,000€-7,500€. And then there are the used garages, which still have to be in good enough condition to be transportable. No idea what that costs, but including transport probably at least 2-3k€ each. Now you're already at 35k€ and everything would have to go perfectly. Only you probably won't find a plot with exactly those dimensions and where you're also allowed to build 5 garages on it. So it gets more expensive.

Suppose I get two good storage options for 15K, e.g. a double garage including land.

The question is where you want to find this barn (it won't be more at that price, you should be clear about that), i.e. at what distance from Dortmund? The follow-up question is then, what are the vehicles to you? Pure investment or self-used old/youngtimers?

In the inner city, with at least 200m² of land, it's quickly 20-60K€ just for the land plus notary fees, property transfer tax, and property tax (annually) on top. In village location about 5K€ for land plus garage(s).

The only possibility at that price is therefore a barn/shelter, which usually has to be divided (or there will often be more space), which causes additional costs. I would therefore lease/rent something like that, otherwise I don't see how it makes sense in my opinion.

Best regards
Dirk Grafe

I give up, reason doesn’t get you anywhere here.

Where is a rental garage unsafe?
What happens to a car in a metal box? It rusts.