Building near Leipzig, which budget / financing / which options?

Hello friends of house building.

My wife and I currently live/work near Zurich and would like to return to our home in Leipzig soon for family planning reasons. Therefore, we are currently looking for a property.

We originally wanted an existing property, but we have been watching the market for a while and there is practically nothing available. Therefore, we are now considering possibly building new.

The basic conditions:

Age: 34 (he) and 31 (she)
Children: none yet, but there should be 1 to 2
Income: Is extremely difficult to predict. IT and optometrist (studied optician). In the worst case, it will probably be around €4500 net, but it should tend to be more. Unfortunately, Leipzig is difficult in terms of salary.
Equity: currently about €50,000 liquid, which is available for a loan. However, about €4500 are added monthly at the moment. Once everything is planned, we want to start working on having a child and tend to return around the time of the birth. By July 21, our capital should have grown to about €120,000 (additional funds). In addition, about €25,000 come from my 2nd pillar ([Swiss pension]).

First of all, in principle, before I go into properties: What do you think is realistic for financing?

Without knowing your future salaries, I find it difficult. May I ask why you don't first look for jobs in the area, rent initially, and then oversee the new construction from nearby?

Finding a plot of land in Leipzig is actually even harder than finding a house. 4500 net, as IT and optician, especially when children come along, I see Leipzig quite optimistically but cautiously for now. But that wasn't the question. With 120 equity, you still need at least 500 T€, which is about 1500€ monthly burden. With 3-400 additional costs, that’s about 1.8-1.9 for the house or about 40% of net income, which is substantial but maybe possible – if the 4500 net income proves true. A good ITSE/FISI earns around 42 pa in Leipzig for 40h, that’s 2.2 net, an optician with 20h about 1 net, ergo in total 3.3 net. That is a big gap to 4.5.

well, if children should come, one must realistically question whether there will still be 4,500 net as family income. You can see for yourself, in CH you can save and earn a lot, in Leipzig the situation is more difficult

Do you want to build directly in Leipzig or would the surrounding area also be an option?

Plots in and directly adjacent to Leipzig are hard to find and usually tied to developers. Not quite as expensive, but also not cheap, is Halle (from 200€/sqm). In the "Speckgürtel" between Leipzig/Halle (e.g. Saalekreis/Sandersdorf-Brehna etc.) the situation looks different again. But then it's about 40km to the city center. However, from there you have very good connections in all directions due to the proximity to the A14 / A9.

Depending on which IT field you work in, I see 40k per year in LEJ as the lower end. With a good specialization, earning possibilities are higher. Therefore, it is hard to assess at this point.

Tell me a bit more.

The question is also whether you really want to build/buy in Leipzig. Then I think that’s quite ambitious with your salary. The immediate "commuter belt" with great S-Bahn connections is already quite expensive, but as soon as you go a bit further out, it shouldn’t be a problem at all. By "a bit," I mean about a 30-minute drive during rush hour to the city center.