But is it better to buy a house?

For almost 2 weeks I have been checking out all the websites of real estate agents.

Since today I have come across new builds, purely out of curiosity. I am speechless about the price.

Single-family house (semi-detached) in Erftstadt for 259,410 euros, 136 sqm living space and 301 sqm plot. The price includes the land. The house is being built with Town & Country.

wow....that is very tempting. In addition, there are 22,049 euros in additional costs (notary, real estate transfer tax, land registry entry), without agent fees. We can pay that out of our own pocket. That makes 281,459 euros. Price-wise very reasonable. All-inclusive (worry-free package):
- all architect and structural engineer services
- preparation of the building application
- soil survey
- complete soil preparation with foundation cushion
- foundation slab (according to geological report and structural analysis)
- house built brick by brick with thermal insulation bricks
- solar system for water heating
- energy-saving gas boiler
- triple-glazed windows
- shutters throughout the house
- WC + bathroom fully tiled
- WC + bathroom fully installed with Villeroy & Boch fixtures
- staircase in finished execution, solid wood, glued parquet
- interior doors made of hollow core board with various coatings
- electrical installation by Busch-Jäger or equivalent
- telephone and TV connections in all living rooms as well as
- smoke detectors

Only: what exactly does this mean:
In addition, the usual purchase and locally varying ancillary building costs will be added, which we will determine together; approx. 40,000 euros What can we imagine under this? Something like:

That makes a total of 321,459 euros. The bank will only give us 350,000 euros.

With new construction, we would then only have 1% repayment.

That is too good to be true. Or does it cost more than stated??

Oh yes... almost forgot. My brother-in-law is an architect by profession. Can he be involved to possibly save even more money??

The price is just the Ideal Standard version. You won't be able to save anything more on that with Town & Country. Get the construction service description and go through it point by point with your brother-in-law. Everywhere it says "bauseits" or is not listed at all is not included in the price! Then comes the upgrading. For example, electrical: it's nice when B&J is listed, but in the standard version, the number of sockets is almost always very, very sparse. Or when I read telephone connections in all living rooms. Who still installs telephone sockets today? Nowadays, a properly designed network cabling is done.

These are "from" prices, the scope of services will increase. Schwager cannot do anything about the price. No bank agrees to 1% repayment because it is harakiri.

Forget it. You can't get a house with land and additional costs for 350k. Your brother-in-law should know that as an architect as well.

Forget it. You can’t get a house with land and additional costs for 350k. Your brother-in-law who is an architect should know that too

But....we are about to move into such a house...