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

We have thought about whether we want to afford what we can theoretically afford.

When we had the topic of building a house, amounts of around 400k were discussed in the end, which we could have afforded with an income of just under 4500 euros and about 85k equity. But the question of whether we actually want that outweighed.

Do I want such a "block" on my leg, which could possibly fix my financial framework for the next 30 years?

We decided against it because, as is often written here, we would certainly have exceeded our limits with the justification "you only build once."

In the end, we went for a smaller option. A 7-year-old semi-detached house, which we will finish paying off in 15 years.

Almost 1 year after moving in, I can say that it was the best solution for us!!

In principle, I also think that an average family can afford a house, if they keep their demands within the corresponding range.

Which additional costs are around €200 higher for 130m², and for a new building you initially don’t need €500 in reserves...

Insurances, heating, electricity, garbage, garden maintenance, property tax...
And investing €50,000 every 10 years in a property worth €700,000 is not something I consider excessive. The alternative is taking out a loan for the roof after 30 years. It can make sense, but it doesn’t have to.

That was good. Don’t you have garbage, heating costs, electricity, water, etc. in an apartment?
We now have about €50 more in the house than in our previous 60m² apartment. Most of that is made up of property tax and insurances, which we didn’t even have partly in the apartment...

That was good. Don’t you have no trash, no heating costs and no electricity, water etc. in an apartment?
We now have about 50 € more in the house than in our previous 60m² apartment. Most of that is made up of property tax and insurance, which we partly didn’t have at all in the apartment...

Of course I have everything too. But in a multi-family house, everything is cheaper/less. That is the reason why people live together under one roof.

Good - for me it is based on calculations that may be wrong (since I have not moved yet). But I know the numbers from the building insurance, 6 times more property tax, much more area to heat, etc., or I can calculate them quite well.

But I am willing to soften my initial post to the extent that I simply want to advise to compare carefully and not just throw two numbers "rent vs. buy" into the ring. And in addition, I recommend a complete breakdown of all ongoing costs, broken down by month. Maybe one could even create a collective thread for this (similar to incidental building costs). This could be especially helpful for young home builders.

We also researched all additional costs before the purchase and listed them in an Excel spreadsheet. Costs that we were not sure about, as they had not yet been incurred, we roughly estimated based on internet research.

Well - for me it is based on calculations that may be wrong (since I haven’t moved yet). But I know the numbers from the building insurance, 6 times more property tax, much more heated area, etc., or I can calculate them quite well.

But I am willing to soften my original post to the effect that I would simply advise to compare carefully and not just throw two numbers “rent vs. buy” into the ring. And additionally, I recommend a complete list of all ongoing costs, broken down monthly. Maybe one could even create a collective thread for this (analogous to the additional construction costs). This could be especially helpful for young homebuilders.

Comparing heating costs is tricky. If you have lived in an existing property, the heating costs per m² are probably significantly higher. Our apartment was in a house from 1996 and had about double the consumption per m² (according to the energy certificate) and that roughly matches. This is again comparing apples and oranges, but down to the exact euro it is hardly possible. Ultimately, as I said, in the rather new apartment we had all incl. a little more than €300 ancillary costs and now about €370 for a whole house.