ᐅ Building a House – Where to Start?

If you get a house for that? Usually, you still have to do a lot of work yourself – so plan for additional time and money.

Hello Ralf,

sometimes the world really is a small village

Ralf J. schrieb:

I’m a bit frustrated right now. My partner and I want to build a house, but we’re lost and don’t know where to start. You find a thousand answers but the questions are always different.

For initial information, you should read carefully here. Many users have shared their experiences on the way to building a house – or not. We try to filter out fakes from real users, so I can assume that most of the experiences posted here reflect the truth; exceptions prove the rule, as always.

Ralf J. schrieb:

In our case, we’re looking for a provider who basically offers everything from a single source: plot, house construction, and everything around it like insurance, additional costs, etc.

That won’t work unless you buy after the house is built; most builders would want some payments during construction progress.

Ralf J. schrieb:

We want to have a turnkey house built with about 100-120m² (1,076-1,292 sq ft) of living space and a small garden. Otherwise, we have no further requirements.

A house with 113m² (1,216 sq ft) on a concrete slab already costs around EUR 170,000 in the turnkey version; on top of that come additional construction costs of about EUR 35,000-40,000, expenses for painting and flooring, the essential landscaping, and the plot itself. Assuming you manage to secure a plot in a floodplain area (as far as I know, only semi-detached house plots are still available), you have to reckon with about EUR 195.00 per m² (18.11 per sq ft). With a reasonable plot size of about 350m² (3,767 sq ft), that’s roughly EUR 68,300, but in total you’d end up at about EUR 303,300. And that’s without budgeting for any “nice to have” features!

Ralf J. schrieb:

Our total budget is EUR 205,000. Whether it’s a bungalow or not is a minor issue for now.

That budget is too low, as I explained in the previous paragraph. By the way, a bungalow of comparable size will cost around EUR 28,000 more.

Ralf J. schrieb:

Thanks for the feedback. We had looked for providers offering prefabricated houses.

High-quality prefab houses are neither cheaper nor are they ready for occupancy any faster.

Ralf J. schrieb:

We recently ran the budget through Interhyp with a consultant…

I see three options, of which I’d like to recommend the last two to you.

1. You consult a different financing advisor (I can help you with this, if you want) and discuss the options available to you. The key is less the interest rate and more the amount of the monthly payments you can afford without having to sacrifice your lifestyle for the dream of building a house.

2. You save for a few more years and see what becomes possible and what the market offers then. I expect that not a few relatively new houses will be available at reasonable prices in maybe 5-6 years.

3. You look for existing properties in the Jüchen area. From my point of view, and if you really “must” buy a house right now, this is the most economically sensible decision. But don’t buy based on a casual viewing alone; always invest in a professional surveyor who will inspect the property with you. Because one thing is certain: with the budget you have, the properties offered will certainly have some flaw that will cost you quite a bit of money in the end. It’s good to know exactly how much “quite a bit” means as a number.

Regards, Bauexperte

With around 205,000 plus or minus, you won’t get very far, not even here in the Northeast. The advertisements always look very appealing, and even if a building project with land is offered to you, expect additional costs or compromises on the house (although with that price, hardly any compromises are possible).
I am currently witnessing this live in my construction area; what the general contractors promise flat rate does not at all align with the development plan → additional costs, if it is even possible to get planning permission / a building permit.

I’m in a hurry, but take a look at Immonet and similar sites to get an idea of how much house you can get for how many euros in your area. These sites also list offers from developers, but the advertised prices never reflect the final costs. They are usually teaser prices without special features or with only basic fittings.

With the overall budget, I would also consider buying after a thorough inspection by an expert. Existing properties often include elements like paving, garden, terrace, shed, etc., which are often not properly accounted for in new builds—and these can be costly. You can always change or replace these later when you have the funds.

Lexmaul79 schrieb:
What’s the use of statistics if you have to pay to see them...?

Ah, very well. I’ll write down 1-2 data points.
Writing down all the data is a bit tedious.

Single-family house construction cost, 2013 North Rhine-Westphalia: 1345 euros per square meter (1345 euros per 10.8 square feet)
Average living space (owner-occupied home) West: 151 square meters (151 square meters / 1625 square feet), East: 131 square meters (131 square meters / 1410 square feet)
Whole federal territory, single-family house construction costs 2007 West: 1344 euros per square meter (1344 euros per 10.8 square feet), East: 1232 euros per square meter (1232 euros per 10.8 square feet)
Price increase 2007 to 2014 according to construction price index about 15%