Construction costs are currently skyrocketing

When it crashes shortly before retirement and the assets are halved just like that, good night ;) To recover from such a crash (including by buying cheaper) you need cash and above all time. You tend not to have either shortly before retirement. Surely not everyone will be well diversified invested and also regularly shift into safer asset classes.

It is usually advised to gradually reduce the proportion of stocks in the portfolio as one gets older and replace them with safer assets. The same applies to medium-term investment goals - initiate the exit in time.

But do you know what practice looks like? Colloquially: Greed eats brains.

I can only speak from the Berlin/Potsdam area. Here, neither option is currently worthwhile :) For example, we currently have a 10-year-old rental contract in an exceptionally nice panel building and pay 550 € warm for 70 sqm. For the next tenant, the rent rises to at least 800 €.

We faced the choice of living rent-free without stress and looked for nice apartments with 100 sqm+ including garden shares or to build instead. The first problem was finding an apartment that meets our wishes. Almost impossible. Then there are the prices. Below 1,500 € cold rent is not possible. With 2 parking spaces, you're easily at 1,600-1,650 €. And then always the stress of rent adjustment. So we decided against it. But only because we found an affordable plot of land. Otherwise, we would probably keep living in the panel building.

Our dream house including land costs "only" 550,000 € + interest. We will probably pay more than cold rent in the next 25 years, but we will always have a residual value (land + building). And that currently lies undeveloped and cautiously estimated at a market value of 365,000 €.

And that is exactly where you viewed the apartments? I somehow doubt that there are available plots of land in areas where an apartment costs 1500€ cold rent...

Honestly, I don't understand the question.