Is renovating old buildings worthwhile?

Demolishing a 165m2 house in good condition is almost per se almost criminal, but also certainly not economical if one wants to look at it so soberly. Not looking soberly... when I hear 1909 and with the floor area, then it certainly wasn’t worker accommodation.

I am a big fan of old buildings; we ourselves live in one (mind you, in a house that was built for workers, so simple and small). This is a house building forum, and many tend to prefer new builds here. But in this case, it really makes no sense at all. By the way, our semi-detached house is from 1921, built in post-war turmoil, and the exterior shell is from 1993, yet we have very low ancillary costs. These depend, besides the condition and quality of the renovation, especially on the residents of the house.

In our neighborhood, no one has so far demolished their house and rebuilt. The houses were all built roughly between 1915 and 1935 and all have been renovated. Anyway, I don’t know of any demolitions.

Just show the house and no table.

With the budget (ex Außenanlage), a complete renovation should definitely be possible, so that new-build standards are also achievable in the renovation, even at an "upscale" level.

How long do you plan until the additional costs for the demolition are earned back? According to my rough calculation, with €1700 rent (~€20K per year) and €600K rental costs, that's 30 years. Interest and higher reserves for the large house probably balance out roughly with rent increases. So you have at least 25 years until the rental income in this case brings you an advantage. For that time, you'll have other people in the house, a smaller garden, and probably have to make compromises in the floor plan to accommodate 3 units. For a renovation budget of €300,000, almost everything will be removed except the walls. There is quite a bit that can be done in terms of energy efficiency and building services if done properly. You tend not to get extreme heating costs there; those only occur in unrenovated houses. And if you achieve KfW55, you can also claim more than the €20,000 subsidy.

I also notice many inconsistencies in the list. With a complete renovation you basically have a new building, so the same high living quality. This is also not correct from a tax perspective; currently, there are special deductions for energy-efficient measures. If you rent out part of the property, you can only claim exactly that part. I have already been engaged in a long-standing correspondence with the local tax office regarding this matter. Instead of having several tenants milling around there, I would rather, at some point, acquire a separate small multi-family house or two-family house; that saves nerves.

Thanks for many entries! That sounds unanimously like renovation.

The drawbacks of the new build option (tenant stress, shared garden, much more expensive) have all been correctly recognized. Only, I think I haven’t yet managed to convey the drawbacks of the old building.

It is a clad half-timbered house that really needs a complete renovation. Additionally, the skeletons in the basement surfaced after the purchase, which relativized our renovation plans:

[*]In the kitchen/bathroom area, some beams are rotten. Sill and support beams in at least a 3x3m area must be completely replaced, walls re-framed.
[*]An old owner from around the 60s came up with the brilliant idea to install windows 10cm wider and taper all the support beams right/left of the windows to half their width so the windows would fit. Fortunately, the house hasn’t collapsed yet but we have to replace all these support beams.
[*]Probably the same previous owner combined two single windows into one large one by sawing off the side beams and pushing them inward at the bottom. (see pictures) So the load-bearing structure and statics must be completely restored.
[*]The vaulted cellar is currently quite dry (experts also found nothing) BUT: The neighbor told us recently by chance that the vaulted cellar used to be partially flooded and the house smelled musty. Why that was, why it no longer is, and whether it could happen again in a few years, we don’t know. This probably requires a building forensic analysis. The fact is these old cellars are not built tight and we (that’s my feeling) are sitting on a powder keg. If in 3 years the cellar still has to be waterproofed at high costs, it will definitely blow the budget. That is what concerns us the most about the renovation.

Besides that, basically everything must be done that is required after the shell construction in a new build:

[*]Completely new electrical system
[*]Completely new plumbing (heating, hot/cold water, all bathrooms)
[*]Completely new windows
[*]New doors
[*]New insulation
[*]New exterior plaster
[*]New interior plaster
[*]Attic conversion
[*]Additional roof insulation
[*]New roof covering
[*]Roof dormers
[*]...and everything else I have forgotten.

Therefore, we have to invest at least 200-250k€—which is 50k€ more than we estimated before the purchase. And we practically have only a shell in need of repair on a basement that was once damp...

That’s why we’re increasingly wavering between new build and renovation. Since we cannot manage it alone, we have to rent it out partially. As has been recognized correctly, that also hides many risks and is extremely expensive.

Renovation is certainly doable. The house would surely look good afterwards. But if after x hundred thousand euros the basement gets wet again, new beams above rot as well, and a new build becomes necessary, that would be catastrophic.

Attached are some photos of the house and the problems. (Party wall construction, footprint approx. 9x9m, ceiling height just under 2.6m, sits on a 510m² hillside plot.)


Now to some unpleasant pictures: