I'm planning to build a new house here in Schaffhausen. I've already got the land and such details worked out. The sticking point seems to be what the bank estimates it would cost to build something and what the developer thinks it will cost. I think the bank is way too low in their estimates. They say they estimate with a 750 chf to 850 chf per cubic meter price. The builder (who I agree with) says the cost is more like 1k per chf cubic meter.

Anyone have any thoughts or estimates from other banks on a similar topic?

Search the forum - building costs have already been put up here numerous times.

750-1000chf per m3 isn't unreasonable - it depends entirely on the finish you require.

Our insurance agent used 800/m3 to calculate the rebuild costs of a rustico we bought recently.

Tom

Ok, i'll look them up. However, I really was more interested in what the banks thought the buildings costs were for estimates. But someone just wrote the insurance company thought it would be 800 per cubic meter. Tks!

1000chf per m3 would suggest an uplift of 25% on 2011 values.

If you are building a single family home, to high standard, in a good area which is 180m2+ then 1000chf is a reasonable figure.

Much appreciated. I find it weird why SHKB bank is working with a figure of 850chf as max. I might consider looking at another bank, since this would mean building to a low finish, which is not what we are aiming for..

Thanks again!

Probably because they don´t want to lend you more than that?

They're probably thinking - Land value (LV) + cost to build (C2B) << value of house (HV)

Difference between LV+C2B and HV should be made up with by cash.

For example:
LV = 500k
C2B = 1500k
HV = 1500k

Mortgage will be 1500k * 80% = 1200k
Cash/deposit will be 500k + 1500k - 1200k = 800k

Nah, they are willing to loan me more based on my wage, etc. The issue is they use this number as their figure to estimate the cost. If you wanted gold door handles they would not finance that for example, you'd have to pay that out of your pocket. Its what the bank thinks they can get for the house in the area which it is in vs how much it really costs..

Yup, this is about right. Neither the property is expensive in my opinion based on the market or the house building costs. Just across the street, they are building similar for 300k to 400k more then it will cost me. But that's in a *complex* of houses, so I guess the banks cool with that. Which is a bit unfair frankly.

Interesting. When we built our place - part of a development - none of the banks we approached questioned the value of the property; they just wanted to know the cubic volume, the list price, and how much we wanted to borrow. Maybe the evaluation was within their criteria, so it wasn't an issue.

Yup, I can only imagine that the people building the complex, have one of these guys to crunch the numbers which would be acceptable for banks.

I got off the phone with the bank just now, and they said the new numbers are acceptable to them. We had to change the roof to a gable shape, which increased *air* and thus cubic meters, so it's more favourable now. That's some great logic for you..!

They work backwards, they know the selling price, they want 30% gross profit. The question is can they buy the land & build for 70% of estimated sales cost = go ahead & build.