Can an average family afford a single-family house at all?

At the beginning of the year, we decided on one of the houses in a new terrace housing development. Recently (beginning of July), the prices for each house were increased by €30,000. Luckily, we were still early. You can’t blame this on the new energy saving regulation; it was already in place at the time. The houses and the equipment haven’t changed either. The distance to FFM is still 20 km. We are happy not to have to pay rent anymore (when the time comes), since our costs compared to rent increase only slightly, but we will then have almost twice the living space. However, from the beginning we only wanted to finance with one income to be prepared for all eventualities (unemployment, another child, etc.). A bigger or “expensive” house wouldn’t have been possible this way either. Even though a palace with staff and a 1500 sqm garden and an XXL pool certainly wouldn’t have been bad. We are completely satisfied with 130 sqm and a small garden. Honestly, I wouldn’t know how to manage even more square meters and a big garden alongside my 40-hour week and child without having to “neglect” my child, my husband, my friends or even myself.

At the beginning of the year, we decided on one of the houses in a new terraced housing development. Recently (early July), the prices for each house were increased by €30,000. Luckily, we were still early. You can't blame the new energy saving regulations for that, as they were already fixed at our time. The houses and the fittings haven't changed either. The distance to FFM is still 20km.

We are happy to no longer have to pay rent (when the time comes), as our costs compared to rent only increase slightly, but we also have almost double the living space.

However, from the beginning, we only wanted to finance with one salary to be prepared for all eventualities (unemployment, another child, etc.). So a bigger or "expensive" house wouldn't have been possible. Although a palace with staff and a 1500sqm garden and an XXL pool certainly wouldn't have been bad

We are completely satisfied with 130sqm and a small garden. Honestly, I wouldn't know how I could maintain more sqm and a big garden alongside my 40-hour week and child without having to "neglect" my child, my husband, my friends, or even myself.

My colleague told me that when she finances a new build around FFM for 700k, it is practically the same whether you rent an apartment in FFM for €1800 cold rent or finance for €2000.

She is right in a way. The only difference is that you can get out of an apartment quickly.

the only difference is you can quickly get out of an apartment

Second only difference: reserves for renovations are already included in the rent. For a house of that size, you have to count another 500,-€ more per month. Third only difference: the additional costs are estimated to be about 50% higher. So another 200,-€.

That's really crazy. There are neighborhoods that were not so popular before, but now they cost as much as in Frankfurt. The rents in Frankfurt are also incredibly high.
10 years ago, I rented an apartment directly in FFM, 2.5 rooms, 56 sqm, right in a center and close to the highway, and I "only" paid €560 warm. A friend pays that much for her recently rented 1.5-room apartment with 25 sqm and a mini kitchenette without an oven.
No, I wouldn't want to live in FFM anymore just for cost reasons alone. I'd rather drive 20 minutes to work in the morning, which I would probably need anyway if I lived directly in FFM.

About moving: does one want to just "quickly" leave the apartment and move with children? Especially when the children then go to school or daycare and are also involved in sports clubs. Unless you find something nearby or are willing to drive the kids from home to school/daycare etc. in the morning before work.

This is really crazy. There are areas that were not so highly sought after before, but now they cost as much as in Frankfurt. Rents in Frankfurt are also incredibly high.
10 years ago I rented an apartment directly in FFM, 2.5 rooms, 56 sqm, right in a center and close to the highway, and paid "only" 560€ warm. A friend pays that much for her recently rented 1.5 room apartment with 25 sqm and a mini kitchenette without an oven.
No, so I wouldn't want to live in FFM anymore just for cost reasons. I'd rather drive 20 minutes to work in the morning, which I would certainly also need if I lived directly in FFM.

About moving: do you want to just "quickly" leave the apartment and move with kids? Especially when the kids go to school or kindergarten and are also active in sports clubs. Unless you find something nearby or are willing to drive the kids from home to school/kindergarten etc. before work.

if you lose the job it is often not a question of just quickly but a necessity

15% increase in three years? That would be fantastic! In the FFM area, we're talking about up to 50%!

That is the seller side with great statistics.

We bought an apartment a few weeks ago - 4 rooms, 116sqm, penthouse. Floor, wall and ceiling work (including materials) is being done by friends of mine. Still, we end up at around €450,000.

Ffm is a special case, there was a report on TV recently.

Investors buy rental properties there and furnish them. Then the tenants are driven out and the penthouse apartments are sold at a high price. I don’t know, this is probably done in other cities as well, although I haven’t heard of anything like that in Cologne yet.