The basement was financially not feasible for us. If I had the choice, I would build with a basement. Instead, we are now building a large garage with plenty of storage and workshop space.
Basement
+ Utility room separate from the living area (noise)
+ Storage of electrical devices over the winter in a dry place possible
+ Hobby / craft room usable in winter since it is significantly warmer than the garage during winter (unless the garage is heated)
+ in summer, food / drinks can be stored cool and even you yourself – at 30°C outside this is a great effect ; )
+ no need for an expensive large garage since a carport is sufficient
- clearly more expensive to acquire (but if you can replace the garage with a carport because of this, it balances out)
- the additional stairs going down (we don’t get any younger)
I think you can't make a general statement about that. It always depends on the individual. What kind of living space and storage space one needs.
We built our first house with a basement and I curse every day because you have to run down to the basement for every little thing. Half of the basement is storage space, the other half is an office and guest room.
Our second house now has no basement. The utility room is now conveniently located right next to the kitchen with access to the small terrace. We have an extra adjoining room and the office is now also on the ground floor. We would have needed the floor area anyway because we need 4 bedrooms upstairs.
Instead of a basement, we converted the attic with a space-saving staircase (not a pull-down staircase) going up. The conversion of the attic cost us about 15,000 euros and replaces almost the basement in terms of area (60m2 - floor area).
Well, even if we were building with a basement, we wouldn't choose a carport but the garage. We can't park the car in the basement anyway, and I don't like a carport in the first place, and secondly, it simply doesn't have the advantages of a garage. By the way, we are building without a basement, but we have a separate laundry room behind the bathroom and a pantry under the stairs. Besides, I wouldn't know what to put there.
Well, even if we were building with a basement, we wouldn’t choose a carport but the garage. We can’t park the car in the basement anyway, and first of all, I don’t like a carport, and secondly, it just doesn’t have the advantages of a garage. By the way, we are building without a basement but have a separate laundry room behind the bathroom and a pantry under the stairs. Also, I wouldn’t know what to put down there.
What are garage advantages? I only know one, and that would be the door. But anyway, I don’t want to start the next discussion here. I just wanted to describe from my perspective what advantages and disadvantages a basement can have.
I don't have any numbers yet, but I expect additional costs of 30,000 euros compared to the slab foundation. When I think of the basement, I imagine a bar, ping pong table, foosball, darts, laundry room, office/guest room, and fitness corner. For that, no office and no utility room on the ground floor where the space is most valuable. I really hope that we can manage it including the basement.