ᐅ Stopping or pausing a home construction project? Costs too high
Created on: 23 Nov 2021 12:06
C
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
Benutzer200 schrieb:
Up to page 22, @Coffee82 was still diligently reading everything. Then they left the discussion because no expected answers came... Saturday 6:42 PM, less than 48 hours ago and therefore too early for a missing person report concerning an adult.
I assume that the next chance to talk with the architect hasn’t happened yet or hasn’t produced any reportable results. So there’s no need to formally withdraw from the discussion here or request time off ;-)
Myrna_Loy schrieb:
One issue might be that a lot of inspiration for floor plans and must-haves comes from the USA or Scandinavia, where traditionally homes are built much larger and at much lower cost. Not all Americans are like the Ewings or Carringtons, and you shouldn’t take the Scandinavia from ZDF romantic TV dramas too literally either ;-)
Mike29 schrieb:
In this area, people like to show off what they have. And conversely: the trend to “skip the basement” isn’t driven by a desire for less storage space, but also because the “shine factor” of underground rooms is basically zero. A storage room with a six-meter (20 feet) wide sectional door actually looks better in many ways. And having cars parked in front of the house is even better ;-)
https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
Tolentino schrieb:
I’ll put it this way: if I were paid for overtime, I would also build with a basement and without doing any work myself... I’ll put it this way: if the planned overtime disappears, managing the loan payments might become difficult. I prefer to plan just with my base salary, so any paid overtime is extra, and I’m not forced to work it.
Hangman schrieb:
OK, I hadn’t realized Gifhorn is the new Monaco 😎 Well, the case of “I’m buying two plots because the house won’t fit on one” happens more often.
M
Myrna_Loy29 Nov 2021 16:3511ant schrieb:
Not all Americans are named Ewing or Carrington, and you shouldn’t take the Scandinavia from ZDF Herzkino too literally ;-)
The average new single-family house in the USA has about 235 sqm (2,530 sq ft) of living space. In Germany, the average new build is around 140 sqm (1,510 sq ft) of living space. My grandparents’ house, at approximately 280 sqm (3,010 sq ft), was one of the smaller homes in their middle-class suburb. When my parents moved to Germany, they stored almost all their furniture because it didn’t fit into the “small” rooms.
You don’t have to be a Kennedy to have a lot of living space. That allows for features like mudrooms, laundry rooms, walk-in closets, and more to fit comfortably into the floor plans.
Giffhorn is more of an underdog. Living near the small car manufacturer in WOB isn’t bad at all.
If you can afford it and enjoy it, feel free to include high-end design elements.
A friend described our house as simple. That’s true, we only spent a fraction on the interior finishes. I find his house very nice and tasteful, but I’m not willing to spend that much money just on appearance.
If you can afford it and enjoy it, feel free to include high-end design elements.
A friend described our house as simple. That’s true, we only spent a fraction on the interior finishes. I find his house very nice and tasteful, but I’m not willing to spend that much money just on appearance.
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