ᐅ Realistic Cost Estimate: Single-Family Home with Challenging Site Access

Hello everyone,

I have been following this forum for a while and first of all, a big thank you to everyone who shares their advice here and sometimes also speaks hard truths. I didn’t originally want to create a new thread but intended to form an opinion based on other discussions. However, you convinced me that this building project is too individual for that. So here is our plan:

- Building a new single-family house in the far north of Germany (Schleswig-Flensburg region).
- Plot size is over 1000sqm (10,764 sq ft).
- Total square meters are not so important as long as the layout works.
- Basement is not planned.

What we would like:
- Open-plan kitchen-living area of at least 36m² (388 sq ft).
- Guest room (at least 10m² / 108 sq ft) and small guest bathroom with shower on the ground floor, so that in old age, with disability, or a broken leg, the ground floor can be used independently and possibly serve as a bedroom.
- Utility room / storage room / pantry with heat pump of at least 8m² (86 sq ft) (KfW 40 standard would be great, of course).
- Upper floor with three rooms (1 office, 1 master bedroom, 1 child’s room) each at least 14m² (151 sq ft) and one bathroom. Our dream would be a “walk-in” (what a silly word – aren’t all showers walk-in?) shower to avoid having to clean those limescale-rusty, annoying shower enclosures.
- We could contribute labor for garden landscaping and painting/wallpapering; otherwise, we would prefer a turnkey build.

As for the house style, regionally typical Frisian houses or captain’s houses (with all the “cute” features like small gables, etc.) are in consideration, or also not completely unimaginative “normal” single-family houses. We are not afraid of Bauhaus-style concrete marvels either, but those tend to be more expensive. In terms of fittings, no “gold-plated faucets” and no smart home – but decent and presentable.

The big BUT: the plot is not connected to utilities, and the distance to the street is about 65m (213 ft), of which 50m (164 ft) is a paved driveway and paved parking area that would have to be dug up (across another property). The connection costs and incidental construction costs worry us quite a bit. Does anyone have experience with such a “mammoth connection” for a relatively small building project? What realistic costs should we expect for both?

We would greatly appreciate any thoughts on this project, thank you very much in advance!

schmeissrein schrieb:

I have been following this for a while and first of all, a big thank you to everyone who shares their advice here and sometimes speaks some hard truths.

Well, unfortunately, those hard truths also include the many occasional readers who consistently overlook the request to please include the completed questionnaire in the initial post. Although the forum’s search function definitely needs improvement, the numerous threads on utility connections should be clearly visible; try search terms like pipe head property / rear access / utility providers / fire department ...

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https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/

11ant schrieb:

Well, unfortunately one of the painful truths is the many casual lurkers who always conveniently overlook the request to please include the completed questionnaire in the first post. Although the forum’s search function definitely needs improvement, the numerous threads on utility connections should still be hard to miss; try search terms like pipe head property / rear lot / utility provider / fire department ...

You know, those are actually search terms I wouldn’t have thought of for this property—thanks! I mostly stuck to the thread about experiences with construction companies, but I’ll dig into those threads again 🙂

Are you referring to toxicmolotof’s questionnaire? I did fill it out halfway but then thought that the info about us might not be that relevant to the construction costs themselves and figured no one would want to read that anyway. Or is there another questionnaire I missed?

I would get quotes from the utility providers. Please make sure to request detailed documentation, such as a site plan. Any statement made here could be completely off.

hanghaus2023 schrieb:

I would get quotes from the utility providers. Please ask for detailed documents, for example, a site plan. Any statement without such documentation can be completely off.

Unfortunately, this becomes a catch-22: they all basically refer you to the next party, especially the civil engineers. Oh, and coordinated scheduling is out of the question because their calendars are too full. So it sounds like either the path stays dug up for half a year, or you have to dig multiple times—once for electricity, once for water, and so on... 🙄

According to your specifications, the house costs 125m2 (1350 sq ft) * 3200 Euros = 400k.

However, this does not include a basement, garage, or carport. Additional costs are also not included.

For example, like this: