The facade is the largest maintenance item on a compact building. What you choose sets how often you are on a ladder for the next twenty years.
Thermally modified wood is the low-maintenance timber
Heat treatment removes the sugars that fungi feed on and reduces movement, which is why thermowood stays flat and rot-resistant without preservative. Left alone it silvers to a soft grey. That is weathering, not decay, and it does not shorten the life of the board.
If you want to hold the original honey colour you are back to a UV oil every two to three years, and on a two-storey elevation that is a day's work each time. Decide which you want before you order, because the detailing is the same either way.
Larch and cedar behave differently
Siberian larch is dense, cheap relative to cedar and durable untreated, but it moves more and it bleeds tannin onto anything pale beneath it. Western red cedar is dimensionally calmer and lighter to handle, and costs roughly twice as much.
Both silver. Both need the same ventilated cavity and the same clearance from the ground. Neither survives being fixed tight against a membrane with no air behind it.
Fibre cement and metal remove the ladder
A fibre cement board or a standing-seam metal skin needs washing and nothing else. On a rental unit that nobody visits between guests, that is a genuine operating saving, and both handle coastal salt better than timber.
The trade is appearance and repair. A dented metal panel is replaced, not sanded, and fibre cement cut edges have to be sealed on site or they wick. Neither is difficult; both are unforgiving of a rushed installer.
The detail matters more than the material
Every cladding fails at the same four places: the bottom edge, the window heads, the corner joints and wherever a pipe passes through. A ventilated cavity, a drip at the base and a properly formed head flashing are what decide whether the facade lasts.
Ask to see those four details on a drawing before production. A supplier who cannot produce them is a supplier who is improvising them on site.
Match the finish to the climate
Coastal Denmark and the Dutch coast add salt and constant wind; the Swiss and Austrian altitudes add UV and snow load sitting against the base. Both shorten the interval between treatments on an oiled finish and both favour a material that tolerates neglect.
If the house will be let rather than lived in, weight that heavily. The maintenance you will actually do is the maintenance that fits into a changeover day.