ᐅ Potential savings with a turnkey prefab house – your assessment?

Hello everyone!

Yesterday, we visited the Viebrockhaus model home park.

We looked at the "V1."

The design is simple and straightforward. But we really like the size, room layout, and construction style—it fits our needs perfectly! That’s how we want it to be, except for two small changes...

The model home was built with "extra features" and to KfW 40+ energy efficiency standard, priced at 260,000€ turnkey!

However, we do not want to build through Viebrockhaus; we prefer to manage the construction ourselves.

We also don’t want to build to the KfW 40 Plus standard, since I’ve read several times that the additional cost is often not worth it...

Additionally, we want to do some work ourselves and have several skilled tradespeople in our family who are willing to support us.

What are your thoughts? How much savings potential do you see compared to the turnkey build from Viebrockhaus?

Is a construction budget of 200,000€ realistic? We don’t want the most expensive bricks or render, nor the most expensive tiles and roof shingles. Just a nice, solid single-family home for the future.

It’s not that we can’t get financing or anything like that. We simply don’t want to take out more money than necessary.

I would really appreciate an expert assessment from you!

So "turnkey" does not mean that everything is included. You do understand that, right? Usually, the foundation slab including earthworks, additional construction costs, garden, kitchen, and upgrades are extra. In total, depending on your requirements, this can add up to 100,000 to 200,000 euros or even more.

How do you plan to build a timber frame yourself, or are you considering Ytong (aerated concrete blocks) instead?

I think the price from Viebrockhaus is already very, very good. For example, they buy windows much cheaper than you could.

You can save money through your own work, though I doubt it’s as much as it used to be.
You have a long construction period – possibly rent and interest on committed funds.
Some trades have seen huge price increases – at least according to the word of mouth here in our town.

Please compile all costs, including additional construction costs, and then go through each item to see what can be saved by doing it yourself.

Bookstar schrieb:
Turnkey does not mean that everything is included. You understand that, right? Usually, the cost of the foundation slab including groundworks, additional construction costs, landscaping, kitchen, and upgrades come on top. In total, depending on the level of finish, that can be between 100,000 to 200,000 euros or even more.

How do you plan to build a timber frame yourself, or are you thinking of using Ytong instead?

I think the price from Viebrockhaus is already very, very good. For example, they buy windows much cheaper than you could.

The display home was already upgraded according to the price list. We also know that the garden and kitchen are not included. I assumed the foundation slab would be included, but we don’t have exact information about that.

It will be Ytong, like the prefabricated house from Viebrockhaus.

Somewhere here in the forum, I read that KfW 40+ standard also means costs of around 40,000 euros plus, roughly estimated, in addition to the energy standard. If you manage to reduce the costs already, you can be quite a bit cheaper...

I know it’s just a rough estimate, but is it really true that prefabricated house providers can now offer houses so “affordably” that it’s no longer worthwhile to build yourself?

The double cost of rent does not apply since the construction site would be at my parents’ former farm, and we wouldn’t pay any rent there.

Just for the house itself, that would be about €1500 per square meter (approximately $160 per square foot), which is a rather basic finish, even for a federal state with comparatively low construction costs like Lower Saxony and some of the new federal states.

With Viebrockhaus, quite a lot was included, but you also indirectly pay for things like the model home parks, of course.

No, the prices generally apply starting from the foundation slab because the company is not familiar with the site, and costs can vary depending on the building plot. At 260,000, you already get a detailed breakdown, and you won’t find a cheaper price yourself. That corresponds to a price of 1,600 euros per square meter (about 148 USD/sq ft), which is already very good.