ᐅ Which features add value for resale?

Dr Hix schrieb:

I think the question is posed incorrectly. Aside from obvious factors like location, living/usable area, floor plan, and plot size or orientation, it’s more about what to avoid.

In my experience, most buyers have few concrete ideas beyond some basic data. So, the generally suitable houses are evaluated by elimination, and the one with the least negative points wins.

In this regard, there are several "building components" that, for cost or technical reasons, cannot or should not be changed anymore, but are a dealbreaker for many buyers (based on local observations). These include, for example:

• Facade with external thermal insulation composite system (ETICS)
• Glazed (shiny) roof tiles
• Radiators instead of underfloor or wall heating systems
• Interior walls made of aerated concrete, clay blocks (Poroton), or other materials with poor sound insulation
• Ceiling height below 250cm (98 inches)

Obvious and overly extensive DIY work by amateurs is also very off-putting.

All positive "features," in my opinion, are too influenced by personal taste and/or current trends to conform to the dictates of resale value.

Almost all houses built with masonry have Poroton as partition walls; what other material besides sand-lime bricks do you have in mind? Also, the thickness matters... I agree with you for 11cm (4.3 inches) Poroton blocks.

First of all, it is necessary to differentiate what kind of house is actually being discussed. For a mass-market model, all of this has a very different relevance compared to a house that is already somewhat unique—whether due to four children’s bedrooms, a glass wall between the entrance hall and garage, barrel roof, or similar features: in those cases, the tile color becomes secondary.

In some parts of Bavaria, there may still be relatively more Protestants than houses without basements. Regarding underfloor heating, I agree that it is well established—it definitely did not appear as a passing trend in the 1980s—but I also agree that it needs to be well planned: in a 60 sqm (650 sq ft) open-plan kitchen-living-dining area—possibly even with a fireplace!—planning just one heating zone would be too sluggish. I also agree with the white-anthracite trend: the pseudo-symmetries of facade layouts, achieved with "smoky eyes" windows, will soon be what shoulder pads once were for blazers—thoroughly out of fashion precisely because they were once too popular. I likewise predict a decline for open kitchens designed mainly for ordering pizza (because if they are actually used, they become less decorative when standing in the living room), as well as for side-by-side refrigerators, which mostly just reenact the living situations of sitcoms. I expect barrier-free showers will become standard, while rain showers and designer double sinks may only see limited adoption, and toilet rooms with glass blocks will be the glass bricks of the coming decade.

Ceiling heights are largely a matter of taste, as are exterior blinds or floor-to-ceiling windows. And although I do not think much of external thermal insulation composite systems (ETICS), apart from the spacing, I do not see it as critical for resale value—simply because so many competing properties will also have them.

By the way, there is already a thread on this topic here: https://www.hausbau-forum.de/threads/erklaerung-der-Hype-s.24943/

Tego12 schrieb:

The list could also generally include prefabricated houses / houses made of wood

A typical prefabricated wall panel contains no more wood by dry weight than a cheap orange juice; buying a prefabricated house out of wood romanticism would hardly seriously cross the mind of even the most Alpha influencer—at least I hope so.

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I think most people don’t really care about materials. Only the typical house-building forum user is interested in that. A wall is a wall.
Maybe some still remember from their grandpa that prefab houses aren’t any good. A lot of poor-quality work was done in the past. But that’s about it.

(... personally, I don’t understand why someone would choose a timber frame for the same price instead of brick. But that’s a matter of personal preference.)

Snowy36 schrieb:

What other materials are you considering besides sand-lime brick?

Drywall construction is also an option to separate rooms without feeling like you have the snorer right next to you in bed. It may be true that, theoretically, similar results can be achieved with thicker porous clay blocks (Poroton), but who wants to give up living space for that?!

11ant schrieb:

I also agree that it needs to be well planned.

That is absolutely necessary, but not because of thermal inertia (which applies to multiple rooms as well as one single room), but because of the possibility to operate heat pumps with such surface heating systems. The ban on oil heating systems is already in place, and gas will follow.

11ant schrieb:

Although I’m not a big fan of ETICS (external thermal insulation composite systems), except for the spacing, I don’t see it as critical for resale value—simply because there will always be many competing properties with the same feature.

That thinking is a bit overcomplicated this time. The original poster is specifically asking about ways to keep the resale value of their house in mind already during construction. So why approve of ETICS just because others make the same mistake, when this is precisely an opportunity to stand out positively from the "crowd"?

Dr Hix schrieb:

but not because of inertia (which affects several circuits as well as just one)

Splitting the length of the pipeline seems to improve this.

Dr Hix schrieb:

Then why accept an external thermal insulation composite system (ETICS) just because others make the same mistake, when it could actually help to stand out positively from the “crowd”?

No, not blindly accept it – but if he tends toward it, he shouldn’t be discouraged from doing so for fear of a negative impact on market value. His building simply won’t fall too far behind for that reason, simply because many other buildings will have the same feature (possible exception: if they are one energy performance standard version older). But within the same energy performance regulation release version, to put it informally, you either have insulating foam or wall thickness.

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Outside the digital world, I have hardly ever met anyone who has reservations about EPS insulation. Around 80% of the houses in new development areas are built this way, including properties valued over a million. Outside of single-family home construction, in my opinion, this is the standard method. Monolithic, highly insulating masonry units do not provide the necessary structural properties for apartment buildings and are also uneconomical.
Future stricter regulations can only be met by monolithic walls with increased thickness.

I would say that ETICS (external thermal insulation composite systems) will continue to dominate. Wood construction is still common in single-family homes but is not suitable for apartment buildings.