Construction costs are currently skyrocketing

I just think... those who financed 8-10 years ago will have already paid off something by the time of refinancing. Back then, young families may have already gone through the toddler/single earner phase. And there might have been a small salary increase here and there. Possibly, one also has the option to reduce the higher installment a bit through lower amortization/longer term. And suddenly I don’t necessarily see heaps of financings failing now.

Sure, there will be one or the other failed refinancing. And a sudden increased burden of that magnitude can initially hurt a lot. But whether because of that, the houses of cards really collapse one after another because everyone financed so tightly and that "tight" situation never improved over the entire fixed interest period? Well, I don’t know.

In that respect, I’m with you. You only get really wiser afterward. The colleague who fixed his contract at the end of 2020/beginning of 2021 – everyone called him crazy because of the high costs, and right now he’s thinking "Thank God I did that." Maybe in 2 years I’ll regret that we fixed something just now because everything actually got better much faster than expected. Or it will remain "meh" for a long time or get worse and then I’ll think "well, it didn’t matter/was even better this way, at least now we have something nice." :)

It becomes interesting if the refinancing amount is higher than the house value. Then it blows up.

It becomes interesting when the refinancing is higher than the house value. Then it blows up.

The probability of this is almost zero. 10 years of rising prices, now stagnation. 10 years of repayment.

A friend of my husband actually miscalculated with the [Anschlussfinanzierung]. He bet on further falling interest rates and is now selling his rented condominium to put the proceeds into financing the house. However, it's more about maintaining the current high standard of living. No real emergency.

We are among those who, quite strangely, made a financing "in the middle" of the crisis.
We negotiated the fixed contract at the beginning of the year, and the financing is from mid-April.
I still remember we were visiting family here, doing some renovations in the old house for moving in during the summer, and I had an online appointment for financing advice exactly in the week before Easter. The gentleman from Interhyp explained that many banks had already increased rates and that Ing would also make a jump from 0.33% directly after Easter. We could still get 2.54% if we had everything on his desk by Thursday at 4 p.m. So, armed only with a work laptop and a phone, we set about gathering all the documents. My family only half understood the fuss; my mom is always skeptical when someone pressures like that because of "time," but my gut feeling said "better do it – it can't hurt."
We managed to get everything through the door that Thursday, and ING accepted. In the weeks that followed, we had more talks and alternative models – but purely because of the higher interest costs, which were already between 2.7-2.9% at all banks, none was more attractive than the first.

Back in April, when the contract from ING arrived, we had a bit of a surprised look because of the "high interest rates" compared to our financing from 2020. Even the family pitied us a little.
Today, half a year later, I am extremely glad that everything went the way it did. At today's interest rates, our financing would be more than €700 more expensive per month, and we would not build the house in this form/size.

And today we received a letter saying that our gas price is DROPPING. Yes, you read that right. We are still under price lock, now benefiting from the lower VAT, etc. Still, the fact is that our price has actually gone down.

Crazy. I've only had this for a year, so it doesn't affect me too much, but as a current oil customer, I feel a bit ripped off. In December, gas installment payments will be covered, the gas price brake comes – and people who currently pay 400-500€ / month for heating oil in old houses are just left out in the cold.

But then they have radiant heat throughout the whole house, right?

In our area, there is a pellet plant... Waste from a sawmill, beetle-infested wood, etc. is processed there... So you know people who work there... The ton of pellets costs about €30 to produce... That hasn't changed, the guys say