New construction - How to build economically sensibly?

. My opinion: The entire current energy saving ordinance is a green-ideological educational concept to promote certain industries under the label of saving CO2. No one calculates how much CO2 all these things require in production etc. If you really want to save CO2, take the train, walk, buy a petrol car with 75 hp and a hybrid in addition, do without a wood stove and above all, don’t eat so much meat anymore, then no more rainforest will be cleared for soy plantations. Karsten

This was still missing in this thread: the typical AfD delusions. The Greens have not been in government for ages.

You demand facts, but in the very next half sentence you make several unfounded claims...

It is certainly interesting for many to see whether the same house which I buy, for example, in Hamburg, is suddenly 100k cheaper 250KM away.

Yes, that would be interesting. But here we will not manage that, because we will not find "the same house." If the houses were the same, price differences could, IMHO, only be justified by
- transport costs
- labor costs
- profit margins
because I believe that the building materials within Germany should actually be on the shelves at the same production costs. If you analyze this individually, you might come to insights; I don't know.

For property offers *including* land, the location of course plays a major role; one should not forget that! Here in the countryside, land costs 15 Euros/m², in the city we are already at 150 Euros/m² (20 km as the crow flies apart). That alone is enough for almost 70,000 Euro of calculatory difference for a 500 m² plot. A comparison between the Uckermark and Wiesbaden will look even more dramatic.

I just wanted to independently learn which energetic aspects (standards, building materials, construction methods) are not only beneficial for the general contractors but also for me.

I think I already wrote it. I would build to Energy Saving Ordinance standard and only invest further in insulation beyond that. Depending on (GC/UC/BT or architect? Insulation? Showering behavior? Cooking behavior?) I would then probably install an air-to-water heat pump or a gas condensing boiler. Controlled indoor ventilation for comfort, otherwise no (energy) technology.

If my brother-in-law were an excavator operator and gave me the land, geothermal energy via surface collectors would also be an option. You see, now it’s getting special ...

I think in the countryside, especially in the East, it is simply the labor costs. In construction, you get here what you must get according to the [Mindestlohn Baugewerbe] and no more. It is getting better in some cases now because skilled workers are lacking.

I think in the countryside, especially in the East, it's simply the labor costs.

Certainly one aspect (north-south gradient, Uckermark vs. Baden Württemberg). But the labor costs should hardly play a role between Berlin city and Brandenburg surrounding area; likewise Hamburg city and Schleswig-Holstein countryside. The crews easily drive hundreds of kilometers around, which apparently doesn't matter... Other aspects must then have a greater impact (if the hypothesis that similar houses cost so differently is correct).

The wage differences compared to Berlin definitely exist. Even with the minimum wage in construction, the West minimum wage is paid throughout Berlin and in Brandenburg only the East one. I believe that is almost 4 euros per hour.

In the western part of Germany, no bricklayer gets any minimum wage; they certainly get their 17 euros per hour. In the east, they mostly get what they are legally entitled to, and I believe that is 11.20. A construction company in the east charges about 35 to 40 euros per hour. It will be significantly higher in the west.