ᐅ Looking for Architects in Munich and Surrounding Areas (Recommendations?)

Good evening forum community,

we hope you can help us with your experience regarding our search for an architect.
As described in other posts, we are currently planning the construction of a single-family house with the following main details:

• Location: northern suburbs of Munich
• Single-family house, 1.5 storeys (no attic conversion)
• Size: 200 sqm (2,150 sq ft) plus basement
• Building style/finish: modern with large glass surfaces
• Estimated house price: approximately 550,000–600,000 euros

In recent months, we have already used various programs to “design” our house with the desired room layout, etc., and discussed these plans (including 3D views) with the responsible building authorities. After lengthy back and forth, we have also reached an informal agreement regarding exemption requests.

Now we need an experienced architect to put the final touches on the plans, provide good detailed suggestions, and submit the building permit application with us (design phases 1 to 4) (optionally including construction supervision up to phase 8).

We have contacted several architects and had some meetings, but we were quite shocked by the fees, as so far each wants to charge according to HOAI and bill us approximately 25,000–38,000 euros net for phases 1–4. The full scope up to phase 8 would cost about 100,000 euros net...

We are genuinely surprised how some users here in the forum manage to get a building permit for about 10,000 euros and almost none charge according to HOAI. Is this perhaps a “Munich surcharge” in our case?

We might understand that pricing if we were starting completely from scratch and planning multiple house variants first. However, we already have a house plan that has been discussed with the building authorities, so many steps should be omitted or completed much faster.

We really hope you can help us and ideally even recommend an architect with “normal” pricing.

We look forward to your comments.

Best regards,
Sandra & Thomas

Tom_muc schrieb:

Received building permit application for about €10,000 (approx. $11,000)

Or $3,000 net for the application, structural engineering, and energy saving regulations...

How are you approaching architects? Do you know anyone in your personal network who can recommend someone?

Getting recommendations through the forum is of course an option, but sometimes more affordable solutions require good connections.

Do you already have any construction companies in mind? You could ask them who they frequently work with.

We are building in the western part of Munich, and since we didn’t like the modern design style that most construction companies usually offer as standard and wanted a custom house, we thought the best solution would be an architect. Unfortunately, we chose the architect highly recommended by our real estate agent, who was personally very nice but professionally rather inexperienced and extremely slow. He also charged according to the official architects' fee scale, costing us a hefty 18,000 for service phases 1-4. Now we are in the detailed planning phase with our builder and have been assigned another architect there (already included in the house price) for the detailed design. What can I say, in these two weeks we have made more progress than in the previous months—the guy is simply great. We would have saved a lot of money and nerves if we had planned our house with him from the beginning. Through the builder, a free design option turned out to be much more affordable. Therefore, I can only recommend: rather choose a builder that offers free design planning and get to know the architects there. This way you save a lot of money, especially because the architects already know in advance how much extra costs your preferred builder charges and you avoid falling in love with details that architects love (huge windows, galleries, dormers with special shapes, etc.) but that cost a fortune.

Hello Osnabrücker,

thank you for the quick reply. You got application + structural engineer + energy saving regulation for 3000 €? I can hardly believe that...

Well, we have selected some architects in the area. We had a recommendation, but they are fully booked until the end of 2021.

We do not want to build with a general contractor or similar, but plan to tender the trades ourselves later. That’s why we might be looking for architectural support up to phase 8.

Regards
Tom

Hello Julia,

thank you for sharing your experience. Could you please tell us the construction company and the architect you worked with and had such great experiences with?

Thanks and best regards
Thomas

Interesting thread – thanks to Julia from me as well for the detailed experience report. I am also interested in a project in the Munich area and would appreciate further exchange of experiences. Unfortunately, I (also) do not yet have the forum privileges to send private messages.