Ask if home financing is feasible

You can definitely get turnkey houses for around 120k euros. Still, you won’t get the whole thing for 150k. The thinking error simply lies in the fact that there are countless items not included in this 120k, such as parking spaces (to my knowledge, 2 are required), garden landscaping, development costs, property transfer tax, notary, soil surveys, possibly measures for soil improvement/ slope stabilization before you can even build on it, house connections, etc. The additional things like extra sockets, staggered walls, or similar aren’t included at all. The list is certainly not complete, as you definitely have to add rent for at least one year of construction time, while you already have to pay installments for the house plus travel expenses to the construction site. An acquaintance had a "turnkey" build, but that only included plastering above the base. The base sticks out of the slope, and now the buyers have to seal, insulate, and plaster themselves. Fine, you can save money there? Yes, but only if you have time. The acquaintance still hadn’t gotten around to it after 2 years...

With an existing building, you are much cheaper. And if you have it inspected beforehand, you have far fewer nasty surprises and more planning security. It doesn’t have to be the ultimate hut, there are plenty of "divorce houses" built from 2000 onwards on the market.

Hi - yeah, when you think about it, all the things you forget because they hardly or only happen once a year

I made several sample calculations in Excel based on the facts I know (also carefully read the Baunebenkosten info thread here).

There are several variants that I have calculated.

- Purchase of a semi-detached house including land from the builder (since there is nothing concrete in sight, I looked at example offers and interviewed friends)
about 240,000 with 115 sqm living space and including 300 sqm land plus purchase incidental costs and building incidental costs and 20% buffer

- Purchase of a plot of land in a new development area plus development costs, surveying, purchase incidental costs etc. + purchase of a prefab house/solid house (just calculated based on a standard model of a "market leader" as a rough estimate, I currently have no specific provider in view) plus 20% buffer

- Purchase of an existing plot of land, surveying, purchase incidental costs etc. + purchase of a prefab house/solid house (just calculated based on a standard model of a "market leader" as a rough estimate, I currently have no specific provider in view) plus 20% buffer

The last variant seems to me to be the cheapest option if you use similar parameters. Also, I have calculated that I could save over 20,000 in equity by the end of 2015 if all goes well. I am lucky that I get 14 monthly salaries. Who still has that today? By the way, I did not include those in my income above because especially the extra payments (contractually agreed) are great for unusual financial burdens. Actually, I put a negative spin on that for once instead of a positive one

That would be basically from Nov 2014 to Nov 2015. Why only from November? Because I am getting married in August and still have to pay various costs

Here the question is often asked - why I haven’t saved any equity yet. Financially, it was only possible for me to do so for the last 2 years because before that I earned too little and then the 2 years that I now earn well went for a 3-week USA West Coast road trip (a childhood dream) and the wedding afterward. Also, tax class 1 really consumes a lot – but starting August I will be in tax class 3, which is a few hundred euros more per month

Oh, I don’t know. The other day I looked for good rental apartments (no luxury, but 4 rooms around 110 sqm). There you also pay around 1000-1100 cold rent and houses of that size cost 100-200 euros more cold rent

It will be interesting how price increases and interest rates affect the equity I have to save. What do you calculate as the annual price increase? 1.5%? That means that a house costs 200,000 today and 203,000 in a year – so 3,000 of the equity have fallen victim to the price increase and no one knows what the interest rate will look like at the end of 2015 either. That’s exciting and right now I am really clueless, except that I want to wait until mid 2015 before anything happens at all. If necessary, we can still live here for another year – it’s cramped, but doable.

One more thing about prefab/solid houses – don’t worry, I am not naive and I think it is wise to always add at least 20-25% on top of the purchase price.

Regards

Alfons

The price increase cannot be predicted so generally. We bought a house in 2012, in the absolute high-price area. The house was a super bargain; today a comparable house with a comparable plot costs at least twice as much in this area. Back then, there were still other houses in that price range, but nowadays you can hardly see any of them. If you roughly stick to the construction year (we looked from 1975) and the size range, you always end up at about double the price. However, the prices certainly have not risen 100% in 2 years. There is a lot of luck involved. The factor of chance should not be underestimated. The developer houses have remained about the same price. We have several new development areas here where entire row houses are offered ("turnkey"), the price has not changed since then. However, it was already significantly higher from the beginning than the existing property.

Hi - I’ve now made an Excel table that includes the following:

Income/expenses from 01.2015 (building up equity, no children, rental apartment)
Income/expenses from 01.2016 (no children, house)
Income/expenses from 06.2016 (child, parental allowance wife, house)
Income/expenses from 03.2018 (child, wife’s mini-job, house)

I tried to break down all costs somehow – partly from memory, partly from the bank program. I might have forgotten something as well.

Maybe someone with experience would be so kind and take a look? I would then send the Excel file by email. I’m especially interested in whether I’ve foolishly forgotten anything, whether the sums for house ancillary costs are realistic, and whether what remains in the end is enough.

Since I’m exposing myself quite vulnerably in the list, I would prefer if someone would volunteer so I don’t have to make this public here.

Thaaaaank you very much.

PS: The wish to buy something of my own is not a must for me – it’s only about feasibility. I also understand that with a house build/purchase many material desires simply no longer have high priority afterward. But I have no problem with that.

I would simply sit down with a good financier and then decide.

I could recommend ours to you, but it is based in Hannover. I didn't like Baufi24 that much; they first wanted to sell us x insurances along with a brokerage contract.