ᐅ House Construction Planning: Solid Brick and Mortar House or Prefabricated House? With or Without a Basement?

driver55 schrieb:

Alright, let's get started and fill out the questionnaire.

Which questionnaire?

I just signed up here spontaneously because I was looking for house building forums to find some kind of overall guidance.

You really seem to be just at the beginning of your planning. In Saxony-Anhalt, it makes sense to estimate around 2500€/m² (23$/ft²) of living space and then see how much space is actually feasible. Also, consider how much money will remain for the plot of land – are there available plots in your area? Are they affordable?

Read through the forum about additional building costs (Baunebenkosten), as those can add up significantly.

Is 120m² (1300ft²) apartment too small? In a house, you also need to account for the utility room and the staircase, both of which take up living space. But then immediately aiming for 200-300m² (2150-3230ft²) is completely contrary to “sticking to a budget,” unless the budget is adjusted to Merz’s mid-range.

The prefabricated house industry has model home parks in Hannover, Erfurt, Leipzig, and Berlin. One of these should be reachable by train or car from the Harz region.

i_b_n_a_n schrieb:

There are homeowners who basically build with no budget. But that impression is not created by the introductory sentence above. It is in sharp contrast to the rest (wishes). Set your budget and state it, describe your family situation, room requirements by function (e.g. home office). And provide more information in general. Then advice can work out 😉

So regarding the budget, we are at an absolute maximum of 600,000 € (about $650,000). This already includes reserves.

We want a large open-plan area combining dining, kitchen, and living room, 2 home offices, 1 guest room with a separate bathroom, and a bedroom with a walk-in closet and a large bathroom with a shower and bathtub.

The technical room of the house must be 20–25 m² (215–270 sq ft) and is therefore preferably located in the basement.
Power generation and heat production should be managed through HPS Picea and a ventilation system combined with underfloor heating. (Picea and the ventilation system take up a lot of space, plus the control cabinet and 2–3 small server cabinets.)

The heating and ventilation including the energy system (hydrogen/solar-based) already costs around 100,000–110,000 € (about $110,000–$120,000), not including pipes for the underfloor heating but including the completed ventilation system.
In case the question arises: Picea is a system that guarantees 100% self-produced electricity and therefore does not require a grid connection for power. One will be run to the house as a backup but will not be connected.

Family situation: Only 2 people, married, and there will be no children, so we do not need children’s rooms. (Don’t worry, we are child-friendly; however, we do not feel able to raise children ourselves because we would have to adopt first and the maximum age is likely to be exceeded in about 5 years (35 years). We would not adopt without a genuine wish and would have to make compromises at work that we do not want. And since we do not want to be bad parents by not being fully committed, we simply prefer not to do it.)
Besides, children cost money and since two offices are needed for the house and we generally require a lot of space for ourselves—even if that sounds excessive—that option is not feasible.

The house should ideally be in the style of an urban villa.
As far as we know, a bungalow is more expensive than a multi-story house.
Basement, ground floor, and upper floor are okay.
(The basement should cost around 30,000 € (about $33,000), according to what we have read; furthermore, the extra space gained there would provide significant added value for technical equipment and storage.)
Where the technical room is usually located on the ground floor in typical projects, we would prefer a garage inside the house so that we can access the car directly inside or next to the house without having to go outside.

Land prices are about 30,000 € (about $33,000) per 1000–13,000 m² (11,000–140,000 sq ft) in Halberstadt in the Harz region.

One more thing that might matter:
For old age, we want to design the staircase area so that an elevator or chair lift can be easily installed later because of the multiple floors.

Phew, I hope I could provide you with enough information ^^

There is an almost undeniable "forget it" attitude hovering over the matter regarding the wishes and the budget.

Holzhäuschen schrieb:

You really seem to be at the very beginning of your planning. In Saxony-Anhalt, it makes sense to estimate maybe 2500€/m² (232$/ft²) of living space and then see how many square meters you can actually afford.
Also, consider how much money you’ll have left for the land—are there plots available in your area? Are they affordable?
Read in the forum about additional building costs (Baunebenkosten), as those can add up significantly.

120m² (1292ft²) seems too small? In a house, you’ll also need space for the utility room and stairs, which both reduce living area. But planning for 200-300m² (2153-3229ft²) right away is quite the opposite of "sticking to a budget"—unless you have a budget suitable for mid-range projects like Merz's.

The prefabricated house companies have model house parks in Hannover, Erfurt, Leipzig, Berlin. One of these should definitely be reachable by train or car from the Harz region.

Okay, that’s already a great calculation example.

As I wrote before reading your post, land prices here are mostly negligible.
In some cases, plots are even available for free if you commit to build on them and move in within 3 years, and not rent out the property.
This commitment then lasts 30 years, except in case of death.
This mainly applies to the surrounding villages.
In the city, in new development areas, you roughly pay between 30,000-50,000 euros (33,000-55,000 dollars) for a plot, as a ballpark figure.

So it’s a good location compared to Munich and similar cities.

120m² (1292ft²) too small...
Yes, I know that may sound odd to some.
For one, we don’t like small rooms; we prefer space and openness.
Especially in the living area, it should feel generous.
(We live a rather secluded life with very few contacts, only a small family circle plus two other couples we regularly see. So this house is not meant to impress anyone, just to cover our own needs.)

After deducting 100,000 euros (110,000 dollars) for the heating and power system and another 100,000 euros (110,000 dollars) reserved for additional building costs, theoretically, we have around 400,000 euros (440,000 dollars) left for the construction.
But these numbers are very rough estimates.
Financially, we’re doing fine, but we don’t want to splurge or build a palace.
However, we do want enough space for ourselves.

Why should the technical room be so large?
Because we want a fully equipped smart home.
We’ll use KNX bus technology and need three server cabinets for audio, video, network, private cloud (so absolutely no online clouds), video surveillance systems—everything will be managed through this room.
We prefer a very clean look. No free-standing cabinets in rooms (except built-in furniture; apart from bed and nightstand, no wardrobes or closets should be visible).
This means TVs and speakers should be integrated into or recessed behind walls and ceilings to avoid dust collectors.

I realize that might sound strange to some again.

We are aware that our preferences are unusual.
No children, obsessive neatness, craving for space.
But that’s what brings us satisfaction.
We’re certainly not unfriendly people, but we enjoy being withdrawn and therefore have very few contacts.
In a way, we’re happy without seeing many other people.
There are many reasons from the past for this. (Just as a side note.)

By “sticking to the budget” we mean we don’t want to build a mansion with lots of premium fittings; we want to avoid overstretching financially, so no exaggeration.

When mentioning 200-300m² (2153-3229ft²), we meant over 3 floors but don’t have a precise idea yet of how exactly to calculate that.
If we take our current apartment with 120m² (1292ft²) as a basis, we’d like to have twice as much space, plus the technical room, garage and storage areas.
That’s how we arrived at that size estimate.

Since none of us have really built a house before and my parents have always lived in a multigenerational house, we have to figure things out differently.

I hope we don’t come off as too unsympathetic.
We’re just trying to find a clear starting point.

We know we are quite unusual.

And this forum here is basically our first step to get some clarity.

We’ve already spent an incredible amount of time on the house technology—energy generation, heating, and smart home (which we already have)—as well as on houses in general, aesthetics and floor plans.
But all this info is initially overwhelming due to its sheer volume.

The locations with prefabricated houses mentioned earlier are too far away for us, since as mentioned, we don’t really like going out much.
Of course, it’s possible and manageable.
But it’s not really nearby for us if we only leave the apartment for the essentials.

That doesn’t mean we won’t take steps eventually.
But so far, we haven’t found anything closer to home.

Oh man, now we probably sound really weird.

untergasse43 schrieb:

There is an almost impossible to overlook "forget it" attitude regarding the wishes and the budget.

What exactly is that referring to? ^^