7 ms·

When I visited family in Canada, I found that the floor plans of the houses there were much more attractive than most found in Germany, but what I also said is:

by geff82 5y ago

When I visited family in Canada, I found that the floor plans of the houses there were much more attractive than most found in Germany, but what I also said is: The quality even of the door to the house is less than the quality of the door to my toilet. My dream would be: North American floor plans with German/Swiss build quality. Those would be the best houses in the world.

rsynnott 5y ago
Those would cost an absolute fortune (and I’m sure they exist on the ultra high end in the US). Typical American home construction seems to be ~100usd/sqft; Germany appears to be 2-3000eur/sqm. And very (IMO pointlessly) big houses are currently in vogue in the US; there’d probably be limited market for moderate sized houses of high quality construction vs 3000sqft houses of cheap construction.
- mschuster91 5y ago
  > Germany appears to be 2-3000eur/sqm. Most of this, especially in urban areas, is "thanks" to explosion in construction ground prices - up to 70% and more of the price of flats is the share of the underlying plot (https://www.sueddeutsche.de/muenchen/muenchen-grundstueckspreis-immobilien-bodenrichtwert-1.4580410 https://www.sueddeutsche.de/muenchen/muenchen-grundstueckspr...).
  - rsynnott 5y ago
    Net of land costs in both cases. Though to be clear they’re just the first figures I found, and the German figures in particular are all over the place.
- rocqua 5y ago
  Converting the US price to eur/sqm yields 925 eur/sqm. Making US prices 2-3 times cheaper than EU prices.
- avianlyric 5y ago
  You’ve swapped all the units in your comparison, making it a little tricky to actually do a comparison. So make it a little easier for everyone: $100/sqft ≈ 925€/sqm 2-3000€/sqm ≈ $216-324/sqft Or double to tripped per unit area.
- dsq 5y ago
  I did a little arithmetic, at 1.16 dollars per euro and 11.11 sqft per sqm, and reulted in 1228 eur/sqm in the US, compared with 2-3000 eur/sqm in Germany. So half or a third the cost. That is significant. [Edited: I see others have had the same idea to regularize the units, now we can check each other's work ;)].
- georgeoliver 5y ago
  > Typical American home construction seems to be ~100usd/sqft US building costs are highly variable by region. If you're going to compare to anywhere in the EU it'd be better to control for COL. Here in Seattle our builds start at $300/sq.ft.
Fricken 5y ago
"Nothing but gyp rock, chip board and vinyl siding. The cheapest materials you can buy!", my grandpa would lament whenever we would drive past freshly erected sprawl. He was getting a little senile at that time, so he would say it a lot.
9dev 5y ago
Exactly! Gosh, I never understood why placing a bathroom next to the bedroom - the first and last room you visit everyday - is such a foreign idea to german architects...
- MatekCopatek 5y ago
  This could be a space-saving measure. A bathroom also needs to be used by other occupants of the house/apartment (children, guests staying over etc.) and if it's only available by passing through the master bedroom, it becomes a privacy issue. As a consequence, you need to add more bathrooms (which requires additional space and money) or make the primary one accessible in a more public way (from the hallway).
  - 9dev 5y ago
    That's a valid concern, I wouldn't want guests to have to move through my bedroom to access the toilet either. However I've seen lots of American apartments with a two door bathroom - one to the master bedroom, the other to the hallway. That definitely does make the most sense in my opinion. Aside from this, even in spacious and expensive German flats or houses, this isn't common.
- funcDropShadow 5y ago
  The point is, that they usually plan one bathroom per floor, not per bedroom. The primary reasons for that are prices and available space. At the moment it is quite hard to buy land on which you can build a large house in Germany. It is not only expensive, but there is often almost nothing available.
- saiya-jin 5y ago
  Maybe to not disturb your SO with flushing/shower etc? If I will ever building a house toilet & bathroom will have to be as far from sleeping parts as possible. Quality of deep sleep is far more important than walking 5m extra from time to time
  - geff82 5y ago
tjansen 5y ago
There are a few companies that build such houses, like bostonhaus.de and whitehouse.de .

by geff82 5y ago

rsynnott 5y ago

Those would cost an absolute fortune (and I’m sure they exist on the ultra high end in the US). Typical American home construction seems to be ~100usd/sqft; Germany appears to be 2-3000eur/sqm. And very (IMO pointlessly) big houses are currently in vogue in the US; there’d probably be limited market for moderate sized houses of high quality construction vs 3000sqft houses of cheap construction.

mschuster91 5y ago
> Germany appears to be 2-3000eur/sqm. Most of this, especially in urban areas, is "thanks" to explosion in construction ground prices - up to 70% and more of the price of flats is the share of the underlying plot (https://www.sueddeutsche.de/muenchen/muenchen-grundstueckspreis-immobilien-bodenrichtwert-1.4580410 https://www.sueddeutsche.de/muenchen/muenchen-grundstueckspr...).
- rsynnott 5y ago
  Net of land costs in both cases. Though to be clear they’re just the first figures I found, and the German figures in particular are all over the place.
rocqua 5y ago
Converting the US price to eur/sqm yields 925 eur/sqm. Making US prices 2-3 times cheaper than EU prices.
avianlyric 5y ago
You’ve swapped all the units in your comparison, making it a little tricky to actually do a comparison. So make it a little easier for everyone: $100/sqft ≈ 925€/sqm 2-3000€/sqm ≈ $216-324/sqft Or double to tripped per unit area.
dsq 5y ago
I did a little arithmetic, at 1.16 dollars per euro and 11.11 sqft per sqm, and reulted in 1228 eur/sqm in the US, compared with 2-3000 eur/sqm in Germany. So half or a third the cost. That is significant. [Edited: I see others have had the same idea to regularize the units, now we can check each other's work ;)].
georgeoliver 5y ago
> Typical American home construction seems to be ~100usd/sqft US building costs are highly variable by region. If you're going to compare to anywhere in the EU it'd be better to control for COL. Here in Seattle our builds start at $300/sq.ft.

Fricken 5y ago

"Nothing but gyp rock, chip board and vinyl siding. The cheapest materials you can buy!", my grandpa would lament whenever we would drive past freshly erected sprawl. He was getting a little senile at that time, so he would say it a lot.

9dev 5y ago

Exactly! Gosh, I never understood why placing a bathroom next to the bedroom - the first and last room you visit everyday - is such a foreign idea to german architects...

MatekCopatek 5y ago
This could be a space-saving measure. A bathroom also needs to be used by other occupants of the house/apartment (children, guests staying over etc.) and if it's only available by passing through the master bedroom, it becomes a privacy issue. As a consequence, you need to add more bathrooms (which requires additional space and money) or make the primary one accessible in a more public way (from the hallway).
- 9dev 5y ago
  That's a valid concern, I wouldn't want guests to have to move through my bedroom to access the toilet either. However I've seen lots of American apartments with a two door bathroom - one to the master bedroom, the other to the hallway. That definitely does make the most sense in my opinion. Aside from this, even in spacious and expensive German flats or houses, this isn't common.
funcDropShadow 5y ago
The point is, that they usually plan one bathroom per floor, not per bedroom. The primary reasons for that are prices and available space. At the moment it is quite hard to buy land on which you can build a large house in Germany. It is not only expensive, but there is often almost nothing available.
saiya-jin 5y ago
Maybe to not disturb your SO with flushing/shower etc? If I will ever building a house toilet & bathroom will have to be as far from sleeping parts as possible. Quality of deep sleep is far more important than walking 5m extra from time to time
- geff82 5y ago

tjansen 5y ago

There are a few companies that build such houses, like bostonhaus.de and whitehouse.de .