One of the most common anxieties for people who wish to build their dream home is to preserve the available budget. The construction projects have a bad reputation of getting easily out of rail regarding the Budget. This can be very frustrating for the owner so here are some tips that you should certainly take into account:

Tip#1: Consider your maximum available budget

Before you start spending your 1st euro for the dream of building your home, you should analyse precisely your finances and consider carefully the maximum budget that you are willing to spend for it. The level of this available budget should ensure that will not affect any other aspect of your financial plans (business, family, travel etc.). This amount will be the red line that you will have to preserve no matter what and will include every financial aspect relating to your dream home.

Tip#2: Ask as soon as possible for a professional’s advice

When the available budget is determined, it would be wise to ask for professional consultancy and advice. It is important to ask a professional that you trust (Architect/Engineer/Contractor) and wish him/her to participate in the project. The reason is obvious…There is a common interest for the project to be properly managed and to be at the end successful.

Hiring at the correct time an expert can help you a lot to preserve your budget. Just give him the information regarding the available budget and your  basic wishes regarding the house and get his help to get a first approach regarding the level of the different costs categories such as:

• -Plot purchase price and additional costs occurring by that (Realtor’s fees, notary, lawyer)
• -Architecture and Technical Studies Costs
• -Building Permit Costs
• -Construction Budget (Residence – Landscaping – Access – Network Connection)
• -Electrical Appliances and Furniture

Keep in mind that in this first approach, you cannot be very precise but you just aim to get a first rough idea.

Tip#3: Choose the correct plot of land

Starting from the plot purchase, a technical expert will help you consider technical aspects that will affect your budget and occur from the special characteristics of each plot.

For example:

• -The building rights and restrictions.
• -The plot’s elevations and expenses that will may be necessary.
• -The access to the plot and the location of the future house within the plot.
• -Other special advantages and disadvantages that only an expert has the experience and knowledge to recognise and analyse.

So after you visit the plots that are within your pre-determined acceptable range of prices, ask again for the consultancy of your technical expert (Architect / Engineer / Contractor). There always can be critical parameters that you are maybe not able to realise yourself.

Tip#4: Design on Budget

After your have obtained the plot of land, comes one of the most determinant step for the budget and this is the Design!

Before the design process starts, take some time and make clear to the architects what your priorities are.

If for you the first priority is to take advantage of the maximum available building rights and make an architectural jewel regardless the costs…then OK! But if your first priority is to maintain the pre – determined budget it is important to give this information to the architect in order to consider it at the design process.

Tip#5: Hire a General Contractor

After the design is finished, the next important step that needs to be followed before the issuance of the building permit is to obtain the final budget. The only way to have a concrete idea regarding the budget and lock the costs even before you start building, is to ask for the services of a General Contractor.

A General Contractor will normally make an analytical cost calculation and will be able to give you at this early stage the precise construction costs and also inform you about any uncertainties that will maybe affect the construction budget. This cost calculation will have to be precise, so that if you approve it, there will be no surprises during the execution of the project. In case of risks and uncertainties that cannot be precisely quantified and determined by the Contractor at this early stage, keep a budget as a safety pillow that will cover these uncertainties.

In case the designed project exceeds your available budget, you will still have the chance to redesign the project with your architect and avoid losing time, money and eliminate any financial risk.

In Euroimmo, we offer end-to-end services, as our Team consists of property specialists – agents who support the buyers during the process of the property research – purchase and also of architects and engineers who are available for advice / consultancy at the pre-purchase stage and also for the process of the Design and Construction.

Every project’s budget is precisely determined before the stage of the building permit application, to ensure that no time and money will be wasted.

We are often asked about the steps that we follow when it comes to a new building project.

During the years passed we worked for many clients coming from all over the world and gave a lot of effort to find the optimal workflow, which will have the following characteristics:

• Optimal combination of design and budget: The main goal is to achieve the best aesthetic and functional result in balance with the available budget.
• Flexibility between each step: Each step serves its’ own purpose, however the workflow shall be flexible enough to allow modifications at the previous steps, if necessary.
• Time and finacial effectiveness: (no unnecessary steps back which cost in time and money). The steps of our workflow proceed gradually the project, in order to avoid unwanted losses of time and money. For example, the building permit process starts after all the design and budget aspects are closed, to avoid modifications after the issuance of the permit.

Step 1 – Architecture

The first part of the process consists of receiving the idea and illustrating it in architectural plans (2D) and 3D Visualisations to help the communication and common understanding. Our Architects in cooperation with our Engineers work on the guidelines that the owners have dictaded and in accordance with the specific characteristics of the plot, the composition is executed.

The design workflow is always a very inspiring and motivating process for our Team and the owners, as we make the “first creation" of the project and we cooperate with the owners as a Team for the optimal result aesthetically, functionally and also financially!

Step 2 – Budgeting and Technical Specifications

One main challenge that is regularly faced in the construction field, is the proper management of the finances of a project.
After the design will be completed and all the design parameters have been agreed and properly illustrated, we are able to create the final budget of the project, by breaking down the budget of all the major and minor works necessary for the final delivery.

After the precise measurement and cost analysis of the project, we create a Project’s Book, which includes all the plans, details, technical descriptions and budget analysis of the project and deliver it to the owners.

At this step the owners get a precise budget analysis of the construction project and have the opportunity to examine and manage the finances at an early stage, before the building permit application and without any surprises afterwards.

Step 3 – Technical Studies and Building Permit

At this stage the project is already designed architecturally and also budgeted. Our architects, civil engineers and cooperating engineers undertake the execution of all the necessary technical studies, required for the issuance of the building permit.

Step 4 – Construction Contract

Before the construction process starts, our company and the owners sign a cooperation agreement which describes the legal and financial terms under which the construction will proceed and the obligations of both sides, as a common understanding for a smooth cooperation. The Project’s Book which analyses the technical specifications and the costs of each work is attached to the building contract.

Step 5 – Construction

As the construction project will proceed, we will be in contact via the Project Management platform we use at our projects to communicate with the owners, where we upload pictures of the works executed and also discuss anything necessary.
By that way, we keep track of our discussions, keep everything organised and have a nice collaboration between all our Team’s members and the owners.

Step 6 – Delivery

Upon the delivery, we sign the delivery document, which closes the construction part and opens the after-delivery period, where the owners will use the residence and in case any modification is required or anything needs to be fixed we are available to make it as they wish.

Building Costs

The construction costs always depend on the material decisions and can vary a lot from one project to another. For the purposes of this article, we created an online cost calculator tool, which estimates roughly the approximate building costs, assuming basic – good quality standards, according to our basic technical specifications.

ZERO ENERGY CONSUMPTION BUILDINGS IN GREECE SINCE THE 01/01/2020

Greece as a member of the EU, follows the European norms and standards regarding every legal aspect and this also includes the building regulations. Since 2010 in order to acquire a building permit for a new building or for a large scale renovation of an existing building, one of the necessary studies that must be executed is the Energy Performance Study, following the standards of the K.EN.AK. (Energy Performance Regulation). The Energy Performance study had to certify that the new residence is of an energy class “B+” or higher.

Since Greece was a country where the buildings were intensively energy consuming, the Energy Performance Study and the new inspection process (where after the completion of the construction an independent Energy Inspector certifies the energy class of the building), changed dramatically the building standards. It was unfortunate that during this period Greece was going through a financial crisis which resulted to very low rhythms of building, so the results of the new building standards are not yet translated to a radical change in the energy consumption of the greek buildings.

Since 01/01/2020, every new building shall be ranked as a “A” or “A+” energy consumption grade, which practically means it shall consume almost zero energy. This regulations seems to aim at the correct direction, however it can create some practical challenges to the owners and engineers.

How will the construction industry practically be affected?

In practice, the most obvious change will be on the construction budget. In order to achieve a zero consumption residential building, it will be necessary not only to increase the insulating properties of the building, but also to install HVAC equipment of higher efficiency (and purchase costs) and most of the times it will also be necessary to install energy producing equipment, like photovoltaic (PV) panels or wind generators.

However the PV panels and wind generators cannot be installed everywhere for practical reasons but also because of limitations by the building regulations. For example within an urban environment, it is not easy to insall wind generators, but it is much easier to install a PV system on the flat roof. Contrariwise, in traditional villages it is not allowed to install neither PV panels on the roof nor wind generators, as it will disturb the traditional architecture of the region.

What shall we expect?

There has been a lot of discussion during the past months regarding this important matter. Engineers , Energy Inspectors and the Technical Chamber of Greece have proposed to pause the regulation, until all the direct and indirect problems are solved. One of the most important arguments is that after the financial crisis where the construction sector was annihilated, a measure like this (which we all agree aims at the correct direction) shall not be implemented in a way that will negatively affect this sensitive and important financial sector. So a rational proposal to the Greek government would be to examine any conflict occured by this regulation and other building regulation and solve it as soon as possible.

According to the European guidelines, every country-member of the European Union must adapt on this regulation for zero consumption buildings until the 01/01/2021. At the moment, every new building permit applied after the 01/01/2020 shall predict with the Energy Performance Study that the building will be of “A” grade or higher (“Α+”).

Update 14-04-2020:

The political leadership of the Ministry of Environment and Energy decided to adopt the proposals of the engineers so that from this year the obligation of the construction of all the new buildings with the energy class A and A + specifications will not be applied. The crucial decision was taken in order not to freeze the construction activities and for this reason the Ministry signed the memorandum of cooperation with the Technical Chamber of Greece (TEE), aiming on the one hand to support the construction industry, which received another blow from the coronavirus pandemic.