KG 100 and KG 200: site and preparatory works

The site value is as a rule not a determination but a purchase price or a valuation figure, for instance from the official land value benchmark. It is not calculated by the designer.

Acquisition costs in cost group 120 are, by contrast, determinable and routinely overlooked. At the third level they contain surveying fees, court fees, notary fees and further positions. Land transfer tax is added, at a rate differing from one federal state to another.

Third-party rights in cost group 130 cover compensation payments, releases and the valuation of easements. This group stays empty on many projects but can carry substantial amounts on encumbered sites.

Important for fee determination: cost group 100 is not chargeable. The designer does not design the site.

Site acquisition costs in cost group 120 are frequently confused with the ancillary construction costs of cost group 700. Linguistic proximity is the only thing they share.

Acquisition costs arise on purchase and concern the property as a legal transaction. Ancillary construction costs arise during design and construction and concern the building project. Neither is chargeable, but they sit in different groups and fall due at different times.

The confusion produces either a double count or a gap. The system of ancillary costs is covered in the article on cost groups 500 to 800.

This group was called Herrichten und Erschließen, preparing and servicing, in earlier editions. Renaming it to preparatory works simultaneously broadened its content.

Site preparation in cost group 210 covers temporary works, demolition and the removal of contamination. Full demolition of an existing building belongs here; partial demolition within a conversion belongs instead to cost group 300.

Compensatory measures and levies in cost group 240 are the quietest position in this group. They arise from nature conservation requirements and municipal bylaws, for instance on sealing of surfaces or tree removal, and are practically never allowed for in early determinations. On projects taking substantial land they can reach a noticeable scale.

The distinction between cost groups 220 and 230 is the commonest allocation question in this group. It decides whether an item is carried as site preparation or as public servicing, which makes a difference to chargeability.

Public servicing covers the works and charges relating to connection to public infrastructure: servicing contributions, cost subsidies and connection charges for water, gas, electricity and waste disposal. They are levied by the municipality or the utility.

Private servicing covers servicing within the site itself, such as private access areas or technical installations outside the building.

A third level is added, and it lies outside this group: the utility connection runs from the site boundary into the building belong to the respective technical installations of cost group 400. Part of the servicing therefore migrates into building services and is easily counted twice, or not at all, when a benchmark is checked.

A process the client perceives as one thing therefore divides across three cost groups. Each boundary sits at a physical point rather than at a utility company's invoice.

This division belongs on the record explicitly within the project, since otherwise it migrates between stages and disrupts cost control. An item that changes group between the cost estimate and the cost calculation produces a variance in both groups that is not one.

Unlike cost group 100, cost group 200 is conditionally chargeable: only to the extent that the designer provides services for it. The allocation therefore follows the actual scope of service rather than the size of the cost.

That is a contractual question rather than a question of determination. Where the lead designer also designs the servicing or assists with demolition, the associated costs are chargeable. Where those services are provided by others, they are not.

The practical consequence is that the scope for cost group 200 must be named in the contract. The system is covered in the branch on chargeable costs.

How large cost group 200 turns out depends less on the building project than on the condition of the site at acquisition. Three stages are to be distinguished.

The difference between the first two rows is why two apparently comparable sites at an identical price per square metre can lead to very different total costs. On undeveloped land the servicing contribution has not yet been paid and falls within cost group 220.

For early cost determination a question therefore precedes any figure: in what condition is the site being acquired and which contributions have already been discharged. The answer normally sits in the purchase contract or can be obtained from the municipality.

On projects on developed or previously used sites, cost group 200 regularly carries items absent from greenfield new build: They are the reason two sites of identical area lead to very different preparation costs. They are nonetheless not chargeable.

Contamination removal. Its extent cannot be quantified before investigation and is frequently greater than assumed once the ground is opened.

Demolition with disposal. Disposal costs depend on contamination and are substantial for buildings of certain construction periods.

Protection measures for adjoining buildings. For excavations in dense surroundings, temporary support and underpinning form a cost block of their own.

These three items are the main reason benchmarks per square metre work so poorly in inner-city existing surroundings: they all sit outside the building cost to which benchmarks refer. Anyone who does not determine them separately understates an inner-city scheme systematically rather than by chance.

• The cost groups of DIN 276 at a glance
• KG 500 to KG 800: external works, furnishings, ancillary costs, financing
• KG 300 building fabric: structure and allocation
• Chargeable costs under DIN 276 and the HOAI
• What a construction cost benchmark includes