Anyone wanting to build a house in Austria must consider more than just the pure costs for materials and tradespeople. To determine if and how much house you can afford, you must include many factors in this calculation. Collectively, these are referred to as incidental construction costs. The following costs are incurred when building a house and should not be underestimated.
Budget planning: How much house can I afford?
For most people, the expenses for their own property are the highest amounts they will spend in their lives. In this day and age, prices for land and living space are particularly high. Many people do not manage to fulfill their dream of home ownership.
- To determine whether you can afford your own house, you must therefore calculate carefully so as not to overextend yourself.
For this, we need an overview of our capital with current expenses and income, as well as a plan of roughly how much building a house would cost. Anyone who forgets a cost factor here will run into financial difficulties later.
- Resources such as a house construction cost overview are valuable helpers that draw our attention to potential costs.
Cost overview for house construction: What does it include?
How many costs we face when building a house is highly individual. Someone who hires an architect has different expenses than a person who uses a kit for a prefabricated house. To calculate whether we can afford our specific wishes, it is therefore always necessary to calculate and compare for ourselves.
The expenses for the house can be divided into:
Construction costs
- These include all expenses incurred for the actual construction of the house, such as payment to construction companies and the costs of individual materials.
Incidental construction costs
- Incidental construction costs are all expenses that are not directly related to the construction itself, but enable it or are legally necessary for its implementation, such as notary fees for the land register entry.
Incidental construction costs in particular are quickly underestimated by private builders. They include many different things that can easily be overlooked.
Incidental construction costs: Hidden expenses when building a house
Incidental construction costs arise in a wide variety of contexts. They are often small amounts compared to the expenses for the construction itself. But even the small costs for individual incidental expenses add up to a large amount that can get us into financial trouble.
Incidental construction costs include, for example:
Fees for the building permit
- Costs for expert reports (e.g., soil reports)
- Fees for acceptance
- Fees for connections to the utility network (water, electricity, etc.)
- Fees for the notary for the land register entry
- Costs for insurance (e.g., shell construction insurance)
- Levies for
- taxes (e.g., real estate transfer tax when purchasing land)Commission for the real estate agent
- Costs for site setup (e.g., setting up a construction road for heavy vehicles)
- Observe the service description: What is already covered in the construction costs?
Under certain circumstances, some of these incidental costs are already covered by the construction service provider. However, this is not always guaranteed. To avoid being surprised by costs you did not expect, it is important to pay attention to the construction contract you sign with the service provider.
There you can find out, for example, whether the service provider provides construction site toilets themselves or whether these must be organized by you.
- Calculate generously
Construction sites are not always 100% predictable. It is quite possible that problems only arise during construction that lead to higher costs:
If, for example, we want a basement, it must be excavated. If we have enough space on the property to distribute the soil, this is no additional financial effort. However, if the volume of the excavation is particularly large, additional costs for disposal are incurred.
- The soil report is also an imprecise cost factor. The builder bears the building ground risk. The ground must be stable enough to secure the structural integrity of the house and must not contain any hazardous substances. If the ground turns out to have low load-bearing capacity or if pollutants have to be disposed of, the costs for the additional effort and materials for the replacement increase.
- To ensure we don't get into trouble, we should include a buffer in our budget for such cases.
When building a house, it is not just the costs for the construction service provider and the material that are incurred. Many other cost factors, such as expenses for expert reports, notaries, taxes, and insurance, increase the total expenses we face.
Conclusion
These incidental costs should not be underestimated. Even if individual expenses such as broker commissions are low, the amounts quickly add up. To be able to finance the house construction, we must also include them in our calculation. You should calculate generously. Unexpected costs, for example for the correction of unsuitable building ground, can otherwise break your budget.
Online, we can find many helpful resources and checklists so that we do not lose sight of any incidental costs.
Posted on: 13.10.2022
