One residential development. Two ways to build it. >25% cost advantage.
18 apartments, 1,440 m² of living area, 1,800 m² of gross floor area. On a plot in Dornbirn: once conventionally with a local developer, once modular via Modular Match with a Polish manufacturer. Here are the numbers.
Starting point
- Location: Dornbirn, Vorarlberg
- 18 apartments averaging 80 m²
- 1,440 m² net living area, 1,800 m² gross floor area
- 3 floors, masonry standard, mid-range fit-out
- Rental target: €17.50/m² (Dornbirn market average 2025)
- Identical assumptions: plot, permit, rent level, 4.0% interest
Headline figures
Total advantage: € 1.34m — hard-cost savings, interest savings and brought-forward rental income combined.
12 months earlier finished — and 12 months earlier on the market.
Combined advantage: over € 1.3m.
— on a project with €5.3m of conventional volume.
Side-by-side
Conventional — local developer Vorarlberg
- Build time
- 20 months
- Rentable from
- Month 21
- Yield on cost
- 5.7%
Modular via Modular Match — manufacturer Poland
- Build time
- 8 months
- Rentable from
- Month 9
- Yield on cost
- 7.1%
What's left to do locally
Ex-works completion level: around 88%. Volumetric modules from Poland arrive largely finished — with bathrooms, kitchens, electrics, windows, interior walls. What still happens locally:
What sits between ex-works and ready-to-move-in
| Local service | Quantity basis | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Facade cladding (regionally adaptable, wood batten) | 1,200 m² × €180/m² | € 216,000 |
| Final flooring in apartments | 1,440 m² × €60/m² | € 86,000 |
| Heating + sanitary connection to building network | lump sum | € 95,000 |
| Plastering module joints + exterior works | lump sum | € 75,000 |
| Stairwell + elevator local | lump sum | € 48,000 |
| Total local gap closure | € 520,000 | |
What you actually earn
The construction-cost saving is only part of the advantage. The other is time. If your building is finished twelve months earlier, rental income starts twelve months earlier. On rentable volume of 1,440 m² at an average €17.50/m² net rent:
Total advantage per project
What also speaks for going modular
Soft facts that don't fit into any Excel cell.
EU-internal, OIB-compliant.
Modules conform to CE and EN harmonisation. Modular Match translates specifications into Austrian OIB guidelines and verifies compliance before contract signing.
Acceptance only after two independent inspectors.
One at the Polish plant, one in Dornbirn. Both independent, both included in the Modular Match fee. You don't pay a cent extra for quality assurance.
Established EU logistics.
Module transports inside the EU are routine today — established heavy-haulage corridors, well-practised assembly crews. Permits are country- and route-specific and are coordinated by the supplier. On request we connect you with experienced shipping companies that drive these routes regularly.
Procurement project instead of construction project.
You buy finished modules at fixed terms with a performance bond. No brick-by-brick risk, no coordinating thirty different trades on site, no weather delays.
Predictable cash flow.
Fixed prices and fixed dates from the manufacturer, backed by the factory inspection. Your bank sees a plannable project, not a construction project with an open end.
Modular financed — like conventional.
DACH banks finance modular projects like conventional ones: the collateral is the completed building on local soil, not the manufacturer. On request we connect you with banks experienced in cross-border construction projects.
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