Assessment of Financing New Construction 425k € / Overall Financial Situation

Wolf expectation country

Simply cool... I didn't know that yet!

I definitely had offers where the interest rate decreased as the repayment increased. There was then the option to change the repayment rate, and the advisor recommended that I conclude the contract that way and then reduce the repayment after three months.
Conversely, you have to expect higher interest rates with very low repayment.
I myself have three components and the middle repayment rate is 2.4%. Not great either, but better than 1%...

Brief update to the community:

The appointment with the architect took place. He also finds the situation unbelievable (for that money, 10 years ago we would have built villas, not a single-family house). He said we are in a comparably comfortable situation... the real problem lies with those who are currently building and have a half-finished house. He said the calculation from autumn (440k turnkey) can no longer be maintained, but horror scenarios of +20% cost increases wouldn't help anyone either, because it simply does not reflect reality, according to him.

Well, he will definitely prepare a slimmed-down design for us (everything a bit smaller, without a covered terrace, without corner windows, ...) and suggests we reassess the situation together at the end of the year.

I addressed some points from the forum:

He calculated earthworks at €13,000. I asked if that wasn’t too cheap. He said if you have someone who works in civil engineering and rent an excavator, you can even save more than half. Almost nothing needs to be disposed of, since most of the excavation must be filled in again at the other end (diagonal slope across the property).

With our conditions, you can easily save €40-50k through own contributions.

Certain things, like the double garage being a cost driver, he frankly dismissed as nonsense.

We will wait and see how everything develops by the end of the year. Work is going well at least, maybe there will be some income increase by then. I think, besides the paid land, the freely available equity will amount to around €40k by then. Better than nothing... we'll see.

Appointment with the general contractor is coming up, let’s see what he calculates. Should I be careful there? Surely they initially calculate nicely for contract acquisition, right?

Another point: The construction deadline with the municipality has been extended. According to them, the deadline is not decisive and can be extended on a case-by-case basis. Therefore, some pressure has been eased and we can, if it seems sensible in the spring, wait for further developments (both in the private and economic sectors).

Save half. Almost nothing needs to be disposed of, since a large part of the excavation has to be refilled at the other end (diagonal slope through the property).

With our conditions, you can easily save around 40-50k through your own work.

Certain things, like the double garage being a cost driver, he frankly dismissed as complete nonsense.

So I don’t trust the architect.

If you build a basement, you definitely have to go to the disposal site. Even if the slope runs diagonally through the basement, that only means you don’t have to dig at the very edge. You just don’t have to dig the whole slope to basement depth. You don’t fill anything back in.

And that a double garage is not a cost driver? Just budget 30k for that. And if you don’t have it, it’s 30k less. I think that’s called a cost driver.

Well, if I build additional living space in the basement instead of the double garage, then I see the garage as significantly cheaper in terms of cost...

And if nothing is to be filled in next to the house, I don't quite understand how the terrace is supposed to be created at the level of the living/dining area. Doesn't it necessarily have to be filled in there?

We are currently still waiting for the new designs. The architect wants to comply with our wish to make everything simple and smaller, but still nice. I will certainly share it here when there is something new.

Be careful with filling in using excavation material. If it goes badly, you don’t want the excavation in your garden because it might be very clay-rich or simply extremely poor soil. Ours was very sandy and smelled bad. Since we wanted to put topsoil on it anyway, it wasn’t a problem. But if you don’t want to or can’t afford that, you’ll have to remove the excavation material.

We’re not talking about living space in the basement, but about a basement. At least you didn’t mention a living basement in that regard, did you?
The requirements for a garage in the basement are significantly higher than if you simply put a garage on the driveway. Regarding ventilation, sealing from the rest of the basement, the ceiling must be supported structurally if you plan a double garage. I only know my grandparents’ basement garage, and they already had to install an extra steel beam back then for a fairly wide single garage. A normal basement room should be cheaper.
But you can easily ask your architect about the costs. He should be able to give you an estimate of how much you could save by leaving out the basement garage.