Buying house: development costs are too often underestimated

The legal situation is clear: If you want to build a house on a property, you must first open up the building land and make the property accessible. So it says in the Building Code (BauGB).

Four prerequisites must be fulfilled: “A property is only a property if the connection to the public road network, the supply of electricity and water as well as the drainage is ensured,” explains Norbert Maier, specialist for real estate and specialist for building finance at Dr. Small in Regensburg. “Only then does a property also be fully developed in terms of traffic technology and technically.” However, the connection to gas pipes, the telephone or cable network are not absolutely necessary.

Basically, there are two types of development, each of which incurs a unique costs: public and private or internal development. The difference is geographical nature: “The public development applies to the property boundary, the private development from the property border to the house,” Maier sums it up.

While the public development of building land is usually the task of the respective municipality in which this is located, builders must organize the private development of their property. However, the municipality is also involved here, because it must first approved the corresponding applications. The following applies to all development: The property owner assumes the costs. He later receives an invoice for the work that the municipality organizes.

The development costs for a property can vary tremendously, says Maier: “The prices depend on the municipal and regional regulations that are different everywhere.” In addition, other factors such as the location and closeness to possible main connection points, the property area, the amount and usage type of the relevant property play a central role.

However, there is usually a small orientation aid: “In many statutes, at least the scope of the measures to be billed is precisely described. Costs for land acquisition, bike paths, sidewalks, collective streets, parking spaces, green areas and much more can be found in the list of possible development costs,” says Maier.

In Toto, home buyers should prepare for development costs in the five -digit range. “For the vast majority of new building plots, the total development costs are between 15 and 40 euros per square meter,” writes Folkert Siemens on the Haus.de. As a house number, many real estate experts mean a sum between 10,000 and 30,000 euros, which are due for the development of building land on average.

A few helpful average values ​​can be found at Finance Scout24: As a result, the development costs for electricity usually add up to 2000 to 3000 euros, while 2000 to 5000 euros are due for a water connection. For a gas connection, the costs are around 2000 euros, the development costs for telecommunications are often less than 1000 euros.

Important to know that municipalities do not always charge the development contributions in a timely or full amount. “In individual cases, access costs can also occur after the property has been completed, for example if the final costs of the municipality have not yet been determined,” says Dr. Small expert Maier.

Or the work has not yet been completely completed: “A paved road is not always a fully created development system. If, for example, the technically necessary substructure of a local road is missing, it is not to be classified as not permanently manufactured,” said Maier. An example from Neuss shows which curious flowers can do this. Here, some residents of the Selikumer Weg were recently asked for the expansion of a road to the cash register, which had existed for decades – but was not finished because the once agreed turning hammer was still missing. Cost: 360,000 euros.

In addition to late payment requests, it may also be that over time, there are additional costs that may not yet be foreseeable when buying the property. The keyword here is ‘improvement contribution’. According to Maier, these can subsequently be collected for measures that bring advantages to a property, such as a more modern water supply or drainage device. However, there is no nationwide regulation: “Each federal state has its own regulation on the taxes that can be found in the respective local tax laws or the municipal improvement contribution statutes,” says Maier.

For this reason, too, home buyers should pay attention to how the coverage costs are regulated in the contract. According to the expert, clauses are common in emergency contracts, which transfer the development costs to the seller until the day of the transition. From the transfer of ownership, the buyer then bears the risk for all subsequent surveys and future changes in the development systems. The notary can also design these clauses differently.