diff --git a/Makefile.include b/Makefile.include
index 7235312eb3fdb5ada9c330155f461dc144252a1a..8a543ba0a30dd64424771c0ebf496ca5d4c543d8 100644
--- a/Makefile.include
+++ b/Makefile.include
@@ -16,7 +16,10 @@ RIOTPROJECT := $(abspath $(RIOTPROJECT))
 # Path to the current directory relative to the git root
 BUILDRELPATH ?= $(shell git rev-parse --show-prefix)
 
-BINDIRBASE ?= $(CURDIR)/bin
+APPDIR ?= $(CURDIR)
+APPDIR := $(abspath $(APPDIR))/
+
+BINDIRBASE ?= $(APPDIR)/bin
 BINDIRBASE := $(abspath $(BINDIRBASE))
 
 BINDIR ?= $(BINDIRBASE)/$(BOARD)
diff --git a/Makefile.vars b/Makefile.vars
index ab69f06e77547d458e51a02472b0d2cdbbf2b7a7..49fca3116cb33cc958eeb24b02da27298c1003e2 100644
--- a/Makefile.vars
+++ b/Makefile.vars
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ export RIOTBOARD             # For third party BOARDs this folder is the base of
 export RIOTPROJECT           # Top level git root of the project being built, or PWD if not a git repository
 export BINDIRBASE            # This is the folder where the application should be built in. For each BOARD a different subfolder is used.
 export BINDIR                # This is the folder where the application should be built in.
+export APPDIR                # The base folder containing the application
 
 export PREFIX                # The prefix of the toolchain commands, e.g. "arm-non-eabi-" or "msp430-".
 export CC                    # The C compiler to use.