Building land in the middle of nowhere with the house prices?!

But here, very, very many disadvantages of rural life are seen.

There must be a middle ground between the two extremes. Land is not just land, and that does not only depend on the number of inhabitants. If necessary, you just keep looking for a property and location that is in between in terms of infrastructure and price.

The question is, what do I want to have within walking distance, and what am I willing to drive up to 10 minutes for, up to 30 minutes for, and this has to be matched with the specific surroundings and it should also fit your lifestyle. For our part, we have realized over time that we use and appreciate urban infrastructure less and less – so that after 10 years, the city became more of a burden than a benefit.

For example: Our current place also has only 400 inhabitants, but the nearest small town is only 8 minutes away, with a hardware store, Edeka, Rewe, Kaufland and everything that goes with it. Highway access 8 minutes – to the nearest big city 35 minutes. It is a lively place where you can get involved, be it at the spring festival or children’s festival. Through commitment and “looking forward,” there has also been a local biogas district heating system for years, fiber optic to the house, a modern village hall with space theoretically for every resident and a vending farm shop with the most important things.

Integrating into the village community can be easier or harder. But that depends mainly on you. Of course, there are always difficult characters – in the city, where we also lived for 10 years, but at least just as many. Many problems of cities simply do not exist in the village. There is virtually no unemployment, no slums or ghettos, little crime – it is simply “quiet” – with all the advantages and disadvantages.

In the past, it was theoretically just 15 km to work, but depending on track problems and the mood of the train, one took between 30 minutes and 2 hours. Now it is 30 km by car, but reliably driveable within 40 minutes. The employer is also not in the city. Together with home office in the combination 60/40 (remote/on-site), that is absolutely perfect.

In the city, we consider it unrealistic to get an adequate property for under 900k.

What does "adequate" mean to you? Your description sounds a bit like a landlord's attitude. The children need space. Does it have to be their own garden? If so, then the option of a rural plot remains for you. If you trust the children to socialize amicably with others on the street or in the sports club, then a normal townhouse is enough. Besides, you want both: to buy and build the house + land cheaply in the countryside but definitely not accept a lower return. That sounds like child’s dreaming. Tip: In economically bad times, people tend to move downwards and prefer to live smaller and more modestly. Such houses can always be sold. The huge boxes in the countryside, often formerly white plastered, tiled gray, with gray windows and a stupid strip of lawn on the side and all around, are as common as sand by the sea, or rural villas at the sellers’ hoped-for prices.

That's the beauty of a forum. I, as a completely convinced city dweller, present to him all the disadvantages I see. And you convinced country dwellers present to him the advantages.

In the end, he can weigh them against each other and make a decision.

Although the main point of criticism here is not really the village itself. That's okay. It's rather the 50 km one-way commute or the time expenditure of 1 hour 20 minutes to 1 hour 40 minutes in one direction. That's tough, and anyone who has never done it can't imagine how exhausting that can be in the long run.

In this case, there isn’t much personal effort involved.

Phew, the OP is considering this because renovations are out of the question and you are already talking about the personal efforts that are (of course) not feasible in the slightest because the OP lives so incredibly far away or rather, the new development is so incredibly far from the workplaces.

But in everyday life, it’s rather decided by the 5-minute bike ride to the secondary school (for us, getting up at 6 a.m. or so would be the ultimate punishment and the bus in the countryside was really impractical in the mornings…), the 5 minutes on foot to the sports center, the short commute of my wife (less than 10 minutes by bike) etc.

In the big city or rather in a residential area where you actually don’t experience much of the “city” in everyday life?

But there are simply more opportunities in the city to cultivate hobbies beyond riding, athletics, and so on.

Whoever prefers to spice up their life with exotic courses and events like “Chinese for Beginners” or “French cinema with German subtitles,” whoever gets more out of mantra exercises in the office district than a yoga class in a sports hall or finds the sushi from the delivery service too boring, for them the countryside is nothing. We have found that gardening replaces the disco, homemade sushi tastes very good, and the bathing pond replaces the expensive leisure pool. And yes, otherwise you can also check out in a star-shaped way what else is offered outside your usual sphere. Yes, you have to drive there; you get around instead of always only seeing the city limits from the inside. In the village, cheese is made yourself, there are om-meetings in the forest, and the next pub serves homemade kale and smelt generously, but it only costs half as much as in the gourmet palace with convenience products.

the time wasted commuting.

Yes, well said.

Yes, commuting by train is more relaxing than by car. But don’t underestimate the stress factor either. Trains get delayed

I think the stress factor of driving and the next traffic jam is not behind trains in any way.

the current translation of "JWD" is "everyone wants to go there" ;-)

Cool, that’s a good one!

To be honest, we like the place itself less.

Basically, everything has already been said here; it might not even be about distances—if the place doesn’t fit or appeal, you can give all the good advice you want. It’s like a house or a person: either it appeals to you in some way or it doesn’t. Often, there’s nothing you can do or justify with reason. And if you don’t know what this is actually about, place, hobby, personality type, or goal, then you cannot give any advice either. Edit: after some of the arguments here, one shouldn’t work anymore because there’s no time for it anyway.

But you also don't have any children... ypg... to be fair, that has to be said. Children, believe it or not, mix up a lot in life.

Phew, the OP is considering because renovations are out of the question and you’re already talking about the DIY work that (of course) is not doable in the slightest, because the OP lives so incredibly far away or rather, the new development is so incredibly far from the workplaces.

No one is talking about not doable in the slightest. But you also have to be realistic. If you spend 11-12 hours of the day at work or commuting, you won’t get much done during the week. And with accumulated Saturdays, it takes quite a while until the terrace is paved, the garden shed is up, and so on. Not to mention the difficulty of doing DIY work before moving in when you have to travel an hour to and from the construction site every morning and evening.