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Turnkey house in Romania: real 2026 prices, what is included and how to buy from abroad
From €39,500 for a 39.6 m² cabin to €151,500 for a 151 m² family house, at about €1,000/m² turnkey — what "la cheie" means in Romania, what the price covers, the plot costs nobody lists, and how the process works when you are not in the country.
Published: September 5, 20265 min read
A turnkey SIP house in Romania costs from about €1,000/m² in 2026: €39,500 for a 39.6 m² cabin, around €100,000 for a 100 m² family house, €151,500 for the largest design in our catalogue. The strip foundation is included; the plot-dependent costs — utility connections and transport — are quoted separately. Below: what "turnkey" means here, the price of every size class, what is and is not included, the timeline, and how it works when you are buying from abroad.
We are the manufacturer: the panels are made at our own factory in Baia Mare, Maramureș, and our own teams assemble the houses. Every figure in this guide is the price shown on the corresponding design page, so you can check it in the configurator.
What "turnkey" means in Romania: la cheie versus la roșu
Romanian offers use two words you will see everywhere. "La roșu" (or "domocomplect" for prefabricated houses) is the closed structure: design, panels, assembly, roof, windows and exterior doors — a house you can walk into but not live in. "La cheie" is the finished house: installations, insulation, interior finishes, doors, floors, a basic bathroom and kitchen. You get the keys and move in.
With SIP panels the two formulas sit at about €500/m² for the insulated kit and about €1,000/m² for the turnkey house — the turnkey version costs roughly double the kit. The vocabulary is explained term by term in our glossary, and the kit formula has its own guide: what a SIP house kit includes.
2026 turnkey prices by size
| Design | Area | Bedrooms | Turnkey from |
|---|---|---|---|
| Barnhouse 749-1 | 39.6 m² | 1 | €39,500 |
| Barnhouse 707 | 49.6 m² | 2 | €49,500 |
| Barnhouse 749-4 | 59.1 m² | 2 | €59,000 |
| A-frame 702 | 74.6 m² | 2 (two levels) | €74,500 |
| Barnhouse 744 | 101 m² | 3 (two levels) | €101,000 |
| Barnhouse 715-8 | 105.1 m² | 2 (two levels) | €105,000 |
| Barnhouse 641 | 151.4 m² | 3 (two levels) | €151,500 |
Seven designs from the catalogue, from the smallest cabin to the largest family house. All prices are indicative "from" prices with the strip foundation included; the final sum is fixed after a consultation about your plot.
The pattern is deliberate: the price scales with the area, so a buyer can budget from the square metres before choosing a design. Most clients land between 50 and 110 m². The two-level barnhouse 715-8 with its glazed gable is the design our first client from Hungary asked about; the barnhouse 744 is the example we took apart chapter by chapter in the 100 m² cost breakdown. All 19 designs, with kit and turnkey prices side by side, are on the price list.
Catalogue: 19 projects with prices (PDF)
All barnhouse and A-frame projects with kit and turnkey prices — free, straight to your inbox.
What the turnkey price includes — and what it does not
Included: the execution design and the full permitting documentation, with the structure calculated to Eurocode; the SIP panels cut in the factory to the design; assembly of the structure; roof; windows and exterior doors; electrical and plumbing installations and heating; additional insulation and interior finishes; interior joinery and floors; a basic bathroom and kitchen fit-out. One responsible party, one deadline.
The foundation: the strip foundation is included in every turnkey price. If your plot needs screw piles, add €3,000; a poured slab adds €5,000. The type depends on the soil and the slope, not on the design, which is why it is always a separate line in the offer.
Not included, because they depend on the plot rather than the house: connections to water, power and sewage (priced by the distance to the network, done with local providers), transport of the kit from Baia Mare (quoted by distance in the offer), the plot itself, the notary and the permit fees at the town hall. Budget these before you fall in love with a design.
The line items buyers from abroad forget
Buy the plot only after you have seen its urban planning certificate (certificat de urbanism): it says what you may build there, how high and how far from the boundary. A geotechnical study tells us which foundation the soil needs. Check the access road — the panels arrive by truck and the structure goes up with a crane. And count the paperwork time honestly: from plot to building permit takes 3–6 months in Romania, and every new house needs a permit, whatever its size — the steps are in our permit guide.
The build itself is the short part: kit production takes 2–4 weeks from order confirmation, the structure goes up in days, and the turnkey house is ready in up to 3 months from deposit and permits in hand. While the file is with the authorities, the factory can already produce the panels.
How it works when you are not in Romania
The first conversation is online: you send the plot location and the urban planning certificate if you already have one, we walk through the designs together, and after the consultation you receive a fixed price for the whole job — it is not recalculated along the way. We adapt the technical documentation of the chosen design to your certificate, so the permit file is ours to prepare, not yours.
Assembly is done by our own teams anywhere in Romania. Hungary is next door — the factory is 70 km from the border — and for sites elsewhere in the EU we agree in the offer either a full assembly team from Baia Mare or a supervising engineer working with a local crew. The warranty covers the load-bearing structure and the thermal insulation, with the term set in the contract.
On land ownership: EU citizens buy land in Romania on the same terms as Romanians; buyers from outside the EU usually build on land held through a Romanian company or by a family member — confirm the route with a notary before you commit to a plot.
Turnkey or kit when you live abroad
The kit makes sense if you have a trusted crew on site to run the second half of the build — installations, finishes, kitchen and bathrooms. From abroad, that coordination is exactly what you cannot do, and a delay in one trade blocks the next. Turnkey means one contract, one deadline and one party to call. That is why nearly every client who is not living in Romania during the build chooses it.
If you want to see how the two formulas differ in the small print, read what the turnkey price actually includes; and if you are still deciding whether SIP is the right technology, our honest list of SIP downsides is the place to start.
How much does a turnkey house cost in Romania per square metre?
With SIP panels from our factory, about €1,000/m² turnkey in 2026: €39,500 for a 39.6 m² cabin, about €100,000 for a 100 m² family house, €151,500 for a 151 m² one. The insulated kit alone is about €500/m².
Does the turnkey price include the foundation and the land?
The strip foundation is included; screw piles add €3,000 and a poured slab €5,000. The land, the utility connections, the transport from Baia Mare, the notary and the permit fees are separate, because they depend on the plot, not on the house.
Can I buy from abroad without being on site?
Yes. The consultation is online, the price is fixed after it, we prepare the technical documentation for the permit, and our own teams assemble the house. In Hungary and the rest of the EU the assembly is done by our team or by a supervising engineer with a local crew, as agreed in the offer.
How long from signing to the keys?
Kit production takes 2–4 weeks, the structure goes up in days, and the turnkey house is ready in up to 3 months from deposit and permits. Add 3–6 months before that for the building permit.
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