What are the realistic costs for a semi-detached house / Kfw70 in Baden-Württemberg?

Hi construction expert,

thank you for your honest words. We just hope we are not being too naive.

An architect contract means nothing other than that you on the one hand have an architect who provides you with all the engineering-required services and you receive an invoice for that. On the other hand, he carries out the tendering, checks the incoming offers, and commissions the craftsmen together with you according to VOB. If you book all service phases with him, he also takes over the site management including documentation; of course, that also costs money.

Of course, we have to pay for this service. It is offered to us for €38,500 including surveying, structural engineering, architecture, and site management. One of our questions is whether this amount is okay or if this item is overpriced.

BUT – you don’t actually save EUR 24.5k in incidental costs, do you?!? These costs => e.g. sewer, gas, water, electricity, internal development, possibly additional foundation costs, down to smaller bills for the chimney sweep or applying for a house number <= still arise AND you pay them!

No, we don’t believe to save EUR 24.5k in incidental costs. Rather, as I wrote above, about EUR 18k. We know that there are additional incidental costs such as the ones you mentioned.

By the way, I would like to once again provide accurate explanations of the terminology here. If you were actually to conclude a real developer contract, you would indeed have to cover all these costs as well (they are included in the total price); but you would have nothing to do with tendering, nor would you have a choice to even consider removing a trade! There would be a maximum of 7 payment steps, with the first being about 30% since the land portion must be paid.

We know that by now. What we currently have in mind is indeed a pure architect contract. I only used the list from the developer variant (which this company also offers) to better illustrate what amount of money is planned for what. How do you otherwise plan your budget with a pure architect contract? You only have exact numbers once you tender the individual trades, right? How do you, for example, arrive at the mentioned EUR 255k for the house including the slab? Do you calculate that based on living area, built volume, or some other basis? So far, I have only found calculations based on living area or built volume.

The example you describe is neither "fish nor fowl" – it lies somewhere in between and "can" work out well, but it "doesn’t have to". For me, the risk is too high.

So would the planning with the land price and a pure architect contract be okay for you if one planned a budget of EUR 433k as you wrote above?

Thanks in advance
Best regards Goblin

But you don’t save the real estate transfer tax, do you? You have to pay the tax on both the house + the land, since there is an economic connection between the land seller and the house builder? Accordingly, the incidental acquisition costs should be the same - whether from the developer or the architect. AND the developer’s statement doesn’t help you at all in this case! The tax office decides whether an economic connection exists!! Surveying services: Fees are charged by the surveying office + the final measurement of the building. These are usually not paid by the house builder, but by the landowner (which you already are with the architect contract) - that’s another 2000 €. Such small things then add up to the sum of 35k € which the construction expert always assumes.

I'll copy a text from the internet:
BFH: Real estate transfer tax on house construction after land purchase remains
If a builder buys a plot of land and subsequently builds on it, the tax offices calculate the real estate transfer tax as if he had purchased a developed property, if they consider the purchase and construction as a single transaction. This practice was to be reviewed by the Federal Fiscal Court (BFH). It has approved it (II R 7/12). Thus, the hope of many builders for tax savings is futile.
wohnen im Eigentum advised in Circular 4‘2012 to keep the taxation in comparable cases open through appeal by referring to the BFH proceedings. That is no longer applicable with the judgment.
However, not every house construction after land acquisition falls under this taxation practice, which also emerges from the judgment. It states that there must be a “legal or at least objectively factual connection” between purchase and construction. A legal connection would be a single contract covering both or a linking of both contracts, for example if the builder commits in the purchase contract to commissioning a specific construction company.
A factual connection exists if the seller offers for the land a construction project that is technically and financially almost fully planned, and the buyer later accepts this offer.
In the decided case, the sellers of the plot were private individuals, a GmbH was the construction company. However, construction service and building land were jointly offered by another GmbH, both companies presented themselves on the market under a common logo as a “strong team.” This was sufficient for the BFH to assume a factual connection between the purchase contract and the construction contract concluded 14 days later.

Is there a factual connection between your land provider and the architect? As you describe the case: clearly! The developer only offers you the land if you either buy everything from him or conclude an architect contract with an architect of his choice,...
But I am not your tax office – no idea how they interpret this -> I would just not rely on it working out and THEREFORE commission the architect!

Hello Wastl,

thank you for the reply. What you copied here is very interesting.

I would say this is really a borderline case for us. The company also offers solely this plot of land for sale. So there is no obligation to build with them or to enter into an architect contract with them. This can also be verified through the offer of the building plot alone on the internet.

So we would have to buy the building plot and then think about who we want to build with. Then it would probably be clearly separated. I will definitely address this with the company again.

Thanks again
Best regards
Goblin

If you buy the property from the same company that also constructs it, the tax office will definitely want to see shams, even if there are a few months in between, so be careful or factor in the extra 5%.

Hello,

you’re really making me sweat with your answers.

I have now researched on the internet again. I think if one pays attention to the design of the purchase contract for the property and to the design of the architect contract, it will work out as we imagine. The information I base my assumption on comes from the internet.

With us, it would also definitely not be fixed how high the actual costs for completing the house construction would be. The architect has already told us this straightforwardly. He gives his estimate but cannot guarantee anything. We are certainly aware that this carries a risk for us.

I still prefer having to put an additional unplanned €20,000 into the house rather than handing over a sure €15,000 to the tax office. This tax certainly does not increase the value of the house. If the money, on the other hand, flows into the equipment, then that is the case.

Best regards Goblin