"Schlüsselfertig Neubau Haus" - Germany

I'm looking at possibly acquiring a new-build house in Germany. A lot of the houses on offer are described as 'schlüsselfertig', which I assume means they are practically ready to move in after they are completed.

Can anyone tell me though, to what extent does 'ready to move in' mean? Should one assume there would be a fitted kitchen, however rudimentary? A toilet and bath? Or would I be lucky to have light fittings even?

Of course, I would check what would be included before signing a contract , but at this stage I wish to know what is being offered before deciding if a new build would be feasible (and given the nose-diving exchange rate, affordable).

Check this Fertighaus portal ... and its alphabetic list of producers

What normally happens is that the house includes basic bathroom and kitchen fittings, but as the house is built, you go and meet the builders and choose alternatives if you want them ( and want to pay more for them )
At least that was what we found when we were looking at newbuild.

It depends on the house, but usually it means it's ready for moving in like any other apartment in germany. So it's painted and there's a bathroom, there might be some kind of carpet/laminate/pvc and the garden might already be done (=earth and gras instead of dirt and gravel), there is most likely no kitchen and no lights.

But it really depends on the house/price/contract, there is no standard.

Like with all these sorts of things be very very careful - especially if you're buying a house off plan, which is usual, rather than walking in to it and buying after seeing. Often you end up paying a fortune for a nice house/flat that's kitted out with the most basic kitchen and bathroom suite, with cheap and nasty fittings that will all need replacing within a few years. You can go to Wilhelm Gienger on some industrial estate in north Munich and see what they fit in bathrooms in such places when they get a contract from a builder - it's utter crap. Cheap and you can see it, and usually everyone who goes for these types of places upgrades at very significant cost.

Oh, and there's the inevitable shoddy workmanship to contend with...

My advice, DON'T. I am in deep trouble because of it. Or at least do not choose Massa Haus

Hmm, looks like I'll have to factor in the price of fitting my own kitchen and bathroom, but at least I wouldn't have the worry that there'd be no toilet on day one.


What? World Enviable German Workmanship (T) ?

It's pretty hard to find a German on a building site these days, apparently... Not all the Poles are bad, some are very good, but I know a few people who used to work for these big building companies who undertake these sorts of developments and there is no attention to detail, and lots of attention to cost cutting...

I've been reading the Which Essential Guide "Buying Property Abroad". It's very informative, clearly written and gives lots of tips on things to watch out for when buying abroad. One thing it says about buying off plan is that some companies will do a good job on producing a well-appointed show house/apartment... then cut corners on the rest.

As far as I know there is never kitchen fitted. In general, the key ready option, the ones I have looked at at least, means you have to put on the wallpaper, paint, and in some cases you have to do the flooring as well. The electricity and plumbing usually is included, but I cannot be sure if it is the same with each company.

it's different depending on which company you have building your house.
sometimes you can even negotiate some 'Eigenleistungen' that you can do yourselves later on to save yourself some costs.
you'll need to look at the info from the building company.

the company we are interested in has a big showroom outside Bavaria with all the fixtures and fittings, bathroom suites, staircases, doors etc that buyers can choose to have put into their house. seems quite good to me!
some are 'standard', some you have to pay extra for.l

Perhaps it's also worth adding that I, like many others on this board, have 'bought abroad' flats or houses that are already standing without any serious problems or being ripped off - we all have stories of people buying off plan, or building their own place or whatever and inevitably something goes wrong as there's just so much more to do. That said buying off plan is extremely tough to do and end up having delivered exactly what you expected and not a cheap clone that matches the same description. Just because it's newer doesn't mean it's better...

There are few things to be careful of, again perhaps it is not all companies, but with Massa Haus that is the case.

First, the real calculation is done only after the bank approves the estimated price When you buy the piece of land, with the OK of the Representative that the house you chose does fit on the land, have it in writing, since it is not the case, and then you try to customize it, each single change is charged, but you only find out once everything is final.

Second, they give you a catalogue to choose the doors, windows and other options such as the color of the house, but there are no prices, you have to make sure of the costs.

They might give you extra cost estimates so that you can calculate your budget, example, they had indicated MAX. 6,000 for digging, when in reality it is costing between 13,000 to 16,000.

In principle, every single step you take, please do it in writing, these companies have bullit proof contracts, not easy to sue them.

Look at this picture. We chose a house with basement, it had a special free kitchen, and a Ford car, and doing the job ourselves we were going to save enough money to do luxuries. It ended up, no car, no kitchen, 1 year of delay, meaning paying the land and going almost bankrupt. At this point I will probably try to sell the house as Ausbauhaus, I am not sure if I will succeed, but in total it has been a nightmare. Please choose carefully.

Flipside is that I was nothing other than totally impressed with quality of workmanship, timings, costings etc here in Germany. It doesn't all have to be bad news. I only saw German workers on site.

Just thought I'd point out the confusion on this thread between Schlüsselfertig (ready to move in) and Fertighaus (pre-fabricated).

We bought Schlüsselfertig and had to arrange our own kitchen (as we had expected and indeed wanted), tiles, flooring and bathroom fittings (except shower cubicle) were all included in the price up to a certain price range (per square metre or fitting), but we could have our choice and optionally pay extra (or less).

Read the contract carefully for what they are offering to do with the garden etc. too. It's easy to forget and end up with just basic earth with roots and stones in it, as it's a common place for builders to cut costs.

yes reading the contract carefully is essential. we had native German speaking friends who'd had a house built last year to go through ours with us.
getting everything in writing is important too, as is making sure you're on site frequently checking things are going to plan.

We spent some time last year considering the option of building a house. The in-laws were prepared to sell us some land at a very good price. We finally decided against it and instead bought one already standing. (built 1980, renovated and better insulated 1995) Being able to see, touch and walk through a place before plonking down a lot of money does have some advantages. One of the main reasons for our decision was that my German husband travels a lot for business, so that I'd end up having to be the superviser. At least that is what friends who built houses advised - that someone be on site at practically all times to ensure better quality work and that no mistakes were made. One friend related how the bathroom water pipes were about to be installed in the incorrect place, but he noticed that the worker was starting to work in the wrong corner and stopped him before any real damage was done. But I'm not sure I could be that assertive, or that the guys would pay attention to me.

I truly can understand the desire to have your own house built to your specifications. The house we bought isn't my dream home, but it is comfortable and has most of what I wanted. And it only needed a little paint before moving in. Kitchen and some furniture was included (e.g. custom built wall unit in living room) We've been here now 9 months, and so far have had no unpleasant surprises.

While looking around for building lots and new home builders, I'd say keep an eye out on resales in the area where you want to live. Buying a relatively newer house, rather than building, can end up being a lot cheaper, with much less stress and frustration.

Cheers!

During our flat's relatively extensive but non-structural renovation I was on site 2-3 hours every day, often making surprise visits at different times, to observe, review, and control what the boys were doing. It's essential. Going back to the OP's apparent suggestion about buying from plan while not in the country - I'd say it was very unwise...

I had a a so-called schlüsselfertig haus built. We tried to keep costs down but I think we still spent around 17.000€ in extras. (underfloor heating, electric blinds for windows, extra electric points, Velux windows in the roof, finishing of cellar, better bathroom - it all mounts up!)

What caught us by surprise was outside stuff like laying a path, paving the parking space, putting in a door step.

Also be careful with the Grunderwerbsteuer - we were told that you only pay on the land, but the Finanzamt have assessed us on the whole price including the building work.

If I had known at the beginning how much work it was, I probably wouldn't have done it, but in the end it was OK. We had no problems with quality - the builder quite often had things corrected that we hadn't spotted. You got to feel you trust the builder (but make sure you hire a surveyor to check the work as well!!!).

Somewhat off-topic, but does anyone know of any firms that specialise in "green" building or renovating, whether houses or apartments? I'm having a bit of trouble finding someone who might handle all aspects of such a project.

The trouble is, unless you're an architect/builder/electrician, etc., how could you be sure that the contract actually covered everything that needed to be covered and the specifications were detailed enough? You might end up discovering that they'd forgotten something essential that you hadn't even thought of. Plus, how would you know whether the materials they were planning to use were of good enough quality for you, or even corresponded to what was in the show house, just by reading the words on paper? If the contract said that the walls would be built of top-of-the-range Fungatrone and the windows equipped with high-quality Zook frames, so what? How does that guarantee that the end result won't be naff (unless you're an expert and know what they're on about)? Same goes for checking up on them. Unless you know what exactly they should be doing, it would be difficult to know whether they were working properly or not.

I haven't the first clue about building quality, but when I see some new buildings going up, they often just look so flimsy and insubstantial: thin concrete walls, teeny balconies, small windows with plasticky-looking frames. I'd want to see the finished product before committing so much money to it.

well in our case, we´ve consulted friends who had a house built last year; we´ve gone through the Bauvertrag with them, and they´ve advised us accordingly from their own good and bad experiences.
I´d never buy a pre-fabricated house, rather I´d certainly prefer to buy an on-site built house that could be visited visit during the building phase to check all is going according to plan and the materials promised in the contract are indeed being used.

our friends were quite pleased with their house once it had been built.

This depends on the builder...schluselfertig should mean "complete" as in the German "meaning" which rougly equates to..haus, windows, sanitary and some kind of flooring.
Kitchen will not be included as will absolutely nothing outside of the HAUS perimeter i.e. paths driveways, garden, grass, fencing.even the stone boundary that goes about 30 cm around the haus will be extra.
You have to go through the builders spec with a fine toothed comb, some builders charge for diging the hole, some include it, some charge for backfilling, some include it. Some will provide the water supply and electric during the build some will not. Aslo, you may have to pay to get rid of the surplus soil from the kellar.

If you are having a kelear, the ground type will have quite a difference in the cost of the cellar, a soil test is needed and then if its well drained, no problem, if its not they have to tank it and it costs about 10-15k more.

Most companies have 3 levels of finish, raw build (shell only), technich fertig...with heating and elec but nothing else, and schlusselfertig, "Our building company had an extra level "bezugsfertig"

I asked lots of folks what it meant but no-one knew!!

Aslo, you have to be sure that your plot is "voll Erschlossen" that should mean that water, elec etc is up to the boundary other wise, getting the water to your plot could cost you a small fortune.

We are about halfway through our build so lots os suprises still to come.

Aslo...as a previous poster said, the standard sanitary that comes included will be the absolute basic and if you chose from Geinger, consult a merchant banker!!

At least I now know tha standard buiders German for, "it will cost a fortune"...Piemaldaumen...or something like that...Pie x your thumbs...this amount is normally about 10k be warned and have fun with your house

PS

sorry about the poor typing but its a busy day and I wanted to give you some pointers from our experiences

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