Costs

On this page, we share our detailed expenses and statistics to provide prospective homebuilders with a realistic guide and to make cost tracking easier for ourselves. To ensure the figures are interpreted correctly, we have summarized the most important framework conditions of our calculation here.

Gross is what counts

In the construction industry, price quotes are usually given in net amounts. For us as private builders, however, this is not very helpful, as VAT (value-added tax) is a fixed component of the costs. All prices on this page are therefore stated in gross, as this is the actual amount we transferred in the end.

A matter of negotiation: Cash discounts, rebates & quantities

Behind every figure stands an individual construction contract. During the awarding phase, we negotiated the terms with each trade individually. Various factors play a role here that influence the final total:

• Rebates & Cash Discounts: We were often able to agree on regular discounts of 1–3% or benefit from cash discount arrangements (e.g., 2–3% for payment within 14 days).
• Construction Ancillary Cost Flat Rates: Most of our contracts stipulate that the contractors grant a discount of 0.4% for construction electricity and a further 0.4% for construction performance insurance based on the order volume.
• Settlement by Actual Measurement: Quotes almost always include safety margins for quantities. Since we only pay for what was actually used (e.g., actual cubic meters of concrete or less waste), the final invoices often differ positively from the original estimate.

Handling of Change Orders (Nachträge)

A construction project is dynamic. In our breakdown, we distinguish between two types of change orders:

• Construction-related change orders: Necessary adjustments required to react to on-site conditions.
• Special requests: Changes that we decided on after the planning phase. To avoid distorting the statistics for comparison purposes, these "extra wishes" are listed separately, as they were not included in the initial cost estimate.

Why property costs are missing

In earlier versions of this page, we included the property costs, including notary fees and land transfer tax. However, we have decided to remove these items. Property prices are so extremely individual and location-dependent that including them in the general statistics offers little value for comparability. Here, we focus purely on the construction costs.