ᐅ Construction costs are absolutely crazy these days, aren't they?

What do you think about this? At first, I was really surprised by the general contractor quotes I received. We’re planning a single-family house with a basement, about 151 sqm (1,625 sq ft) of living space, plus a single garage. We will handle some work ourselves (interior and exterior painting, laying tiles in the basement, building permit/planning permission via a friend who is an architect). It will be a solid masonry house with 36.5 cm (14.4 inches) Poroton filler blocks, KfW 70 standard, and an air-source heat pump. The cost is around 310,000 EUR. That’s over 2,000 EUR per sqm (about 186 USD per sq ft), excluding additional construction costs and land, and without the kitchen. The current offer doesn’t even include any special features yet at the selection phase. Another 10,000 EUR could easily be added. Incredible...

That's quite a reasonable price for a KfW 70 house with a basement.

Prices can vary significantly depending on the region; where do you plan to build? Nevertheless, based on the details provided, I consider 310,000 EUR to be quite high. Unless the design is very complex—for example, with setbacks, cantilevered floors, balconies, and similar features—in my experience, a price between 240,000 and 270,000 EUR is more appropriate (excluding interior painting, floor coverings, and the garage) for a living area of approximately 150 m2 (1,615 sq ft) with a basement. However, this price range only applies if the list of special features is not too extensive. For a single prefabricated garage, approximately 6,000 EUR is added, depending on size and equipment.

The air-source heat pump (air-to-water heat pump) usually replaces the gas heating system and sometimes a solar system as well, so the additional costs for this feature mainly come from the necessary underfloor heating, but not on a significant scale. With increased wall thickness or improved insulation and the air-source heat pump, substantial measures toward the KfW-70 standard are already included; however, additional insulation in the basement is necessary to meet the KfW-70 standard.

The mentioned owner-performed work on tiling, planning up to the building permit/planning permission stage, and interior/exterior painting does not actually result in the hoped-for savings. Planning costs are not a major factor for the general contractor (GC), especially since they expect to complete the detailed planning anyway.

For owner-performed exterior painting, I advise caution if it involves the exterior plaster, as this is part of a system build-up. In case of damage, it can be difficult to clearly determine responsibility.

Unfortunately, we want to build in a booming region in Bavaria.... So the prices are understandably high. The house already has a recessed entrance and also features large, floor-to-ceiling windows in the living area, including corner windows with big sliding elements/shutters, etc. The house is also designed as a split-level on a slight slope..... Well, there's no helping that. We're still considering the exterior painting work.

Under these circumstances, it sounds different: aside from the region, factors such as split-level designs, large sliding elements, and venetian blinds are already cost drivers. Without knowing more details, the mentioned 310,000 euros can also be realistic.

I hope you have someone by your side who can evaluate and compare the finer points of the offers.
Wishing you success, baucoach...

We don’t really have any support for that... We want to have someone review the contracts before signing. But I’m still comparing the offers myself, as things keep changing. At the moment, we’re not entirely sure what we will actually do ourselves. Even details like the windows (floor-to-ceiling or tilt-and-slide...) are not fully decided yet.