Serial Construction in Procurement Law 2026 – Framework Contracts and Type Approvals

Serial construction means the standardised erection of buildings from type plans. Procurement-law framework conditions for framework agreements and call-off procedures.

Definition: Serial construction refers to the industrial production of buildings or building parts based on standardised type plans and modular components produced in series and assembled on site. It presents public contracting authorities with specific procurement-law challenges when structuring the procurement.

Last updated: January 2026 · Legal basis: Directive 2014/24/EU; BVergG 2018; GWB/VgV/VOB/A; KfW type approval

What is serial construction?

Serial construction – also called modular or industrial construction – is an approach in which buildings are no longer designed individually on site but assembled from prefabricated modules produced in a factory to standardised plans. This approach promises shorter construction times, lower costs and higher quality consistency. For public housing, schools, day-care centres and other infrastructure projects, serial construction has grown significantly in importance in recent years.

Procurement-law classification

In procurement law, serial construction raises above all the question of how the contracting authority should structure the procurement to meet both economic and legal requirements.

Framework agreements

The instrument of the framework agreement is particularly well suited to serial construction, because it enables the contracting authority to engage several providers of standardised building modules over a defined period (a maximum of four years) and to call off specific deliveries in individual cases without having to run a new procedure each time. The European procurement directives and national law (§ 21 VgV; § 151 BVergG 2018) expressly permit framework agreements for this purpose.

Type approvals

In Germany, KfW (the development bank) and the Federal Ministry of Construction have jointly developed a type-approval system for serial construction. In the "Serial and Modular Construction" tender, KfW selected several providers of type-based solutions on the basis of multiple awards, with the building types pre-qualified in procurement-law terms. Municipalities can then call off directly under these framework contracts without running a full procurement procedure of their own.

Tendering standardised services

For the initial selection of providers for serial construction projects, a regular procurement procedure must generally be conducted. The particular feature lies in the description of services: contracting authorities should use functional specifications that prescribe the desired outcome (e.g. living space, energy efficiency, sound insulation, parking spaces) rather than a particular construction method, in order to enable competition between different serial construction systems.

Advantages and challenges

Serial construction offers significant potential for public contracting authorities but also brings specific procurement-law challenges.

Potential:

Up to 25% shorter construction times compared with conventional construction
Cost savings through economies of scale in production
Greater planning certainty for costs and schedules
Easier quality control through factory production

Procurement-law challenges:

Risk of product lock-in with overly specific tenders
Compatibility issues for follow-on contracts where systems are not standardised
The need for functional rather than constructive specifications

Related terms

FAQ

Do I need a new procurement procedure for every call-off from a framework contract for serial construction? No. If the conditions in the framework contract are sufficiently defined, individual call-offs can be made without a new procedure. With framework agreements with several contractors, mini-competitions may be required.

Can I limit serial construction to particular systems or manufacturers? Only where objective reasons exist and the restriction is proportionate. Otherwise the tender must be drafted in a technology-neutral way.

Last updated: January 2026 All information without guarantee. For legally binding advice, please consult a law firm specialising in procurement law.