ᐅ Stopping or pausing a home construction project? Costs too high
Created on: 23 Nov 2021 12:06
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Coffee82
Good morning,
My husband and I want to build a house.
We already have the plot of land. We are now facing an unpleasant situation.
We planned the house roughly with an architect, which went very quickly.
No building permit / planning permission has been applied for yet, and no detailed execution plan has been made.
The architect provided a cost estimate that surprised us a lot.
Of course, we had previously asked acquaintances, friends, and family members about the costs of their construction projects.
Obviously, we only considered recent projects.
The architect’s estimate is more than double what we initially expected—around 4500-5000€/sqm (420-465 USD/sqft).
After this, we consulted a few others locally and two from a bit further away. Everyone seems to agree on the construction costs.
I’m not allowed to share the documents here, but there is really nothing unusual. It’s a KW40+ house with 198 sqm (2132 sqft) of living and usable space, plus a double garage attached to the left side of the house. Of course, no basement.
The specifications given to the architect were average and typical. No marble floors, no smart home features. A simple house like my uncle’s, just new.
It looks like the house will cost around 1 million euros. On top of that, of course, there are additional costs such as fees for the architect, landscaping, etc. Together with the land, the total is so high that we neither can finance it nor afford to pay it.
Unfortunately, the architect had to do quite some work before he could estimate the costs.
Now we are worried that if we cancel the project, the architect will want 15,000 to 20,000 euros for the work he has already done.
What would you do in our place?
Best regards,
Coffee82
My husband and I want to build a house.
We already have the plot of land. We are now facing an unpleasant situation.
We planned the house roughly with an architect, which went very quickly.
No building permit / planning permission has been applied for yet, and no detailed execution plan has been made.
The architect provided a cost estimate that surprised us a lot.
Of course, we had previously asked acquaintances, friends, and family members about the costs of their construction projects.
Obviously, we only considered recent projects.
The architect’s estimate is more than double what we initially expected—around 4500-5000€/sqm (420-465 USD/sqft).
After this, we consulted a few others locally and two from a bit further away. Everyone seems to agree on the construction costs.
I’m not allowed to share the documents here, but there is really nothing unusual. It’s a KW40+ house with 198 sqm (2132 sqft) of living and usable space, plus a double garage attached to the left side of the house. Of course, no basement.
The specifications given to the architect were average and typical. No marble floors, no smart home features. A simple house like my uncle’s, just new.
It looks like the house will cost around 1 million euros. On top of that, of course, there are additional costs such as fees for the architect, landscaping, etc. Together with the land, the total is so high that we neither can finance it nor afford to pay it.
Unfortunately, the architect had to do quite some work before he could estimate the costs.
Now we are worried that if we cancel the project, the architect will want 15,000 to 20,000 euros for the work he has already done.
What would you do in our place?
Best regards,
Coffee82
Myrna_Loy schrieb:
I advocate not cutting too many costs on things that are difficult or expensive to replace later. This includes, for example, flooring and windows.Is flooring difficult to replace? I was thinking more along the lines of things like mechanical ventilation systems, roller shutters, KNX home automation, conduits for wiring, and fireplaces. 😎
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Myrna_Loy29 Nov 2021 15:19One possible issue is that a lot of inspiration for floor plans and must-haves comes from the USA or Scandinavia, where houses are traditionally built much larger and more affordably.
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Myrna_Loy29 Nov 2021 15:20Tom1978 schrieb:
Replacing floor coverings is difficult? I was thinking more along the lines of things like: controlled residential ventilation, roller shutters, KNX, conduit pipes for wiring, fireplace 😎 I'm not going to tear out 100 square meters (1,076 square feet) of fully installed tiles and laminate flooring unless I'm half crazy and masochistic.
Myrna_Loy schrieb:
I’m not going to tear out 100 sqm (1,076 sq ft) of fully installed tiles and laminate flooring. Unless I’m half crazy and masochistic. But it’s still easier to do than other things. I wouldn’t necessarily consider tiles to be difficult to replace. Time-consuming, yes...
@Hangman
Uh, I know a few people who have built or are building in the WOB/GF area. Some of them invest a lot of money into the fittings, following the motto "whatever it takes." You can save five-figure amounts or more on some things without compromising comfort. Don’t get me wrong—if you can afford to order fixtures from Italy, you should definitely do so. They are really beautiful. But that sets the bar for standard extremely high.
The high estimate must come from somewhere. YPG offered the floor plan, and the original poster is responsible for the "standard" fittings themselves.
Uh, I know a few people who have built or are building in the WOB/GF area. Some of them invest a lot of money into the fittings, following the motto "whatever it takes." You can save five-figure amounts or more on some things without compromising comfort. Don’t get me wrong—if you can afford to order fixtures from Italy, you should definitely do so. They are really beautiful. But that sets the bar for standard extremely high.
The high estimate must come from somewhere. YPG offered the floor plan, and the original poster is responsible for the "standard" fittings themselves.
I can confirm what @haydee said. In this area, people like to show off what they have. Many want to keep up with their neighbors, acquaintances, or colleagues and set a fairly high standard. That means the tiles or roof shingles really have to come from Italy because they know someone who has them too. To afford this, people here tightly stretch their financing and include every paid overtime hour in their planning just to meet that “standard.” You wouldn’t believe how many people start to worry a lot when they can’t work as many paid overtime hours as planned over an extended period.
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