Construction costs are currently skyrocketing

During high interest rate phases, 1% repayment for a term of 32 years was sufficient.

It would now be interesting to know how long financing with 38% of income lasted on average from the 70s to the 90s and how long it now lasts with an average of 25%! Interest rates were also significantly higher back then, so the repayments would theoretically have to have been lower. It would also certainly be interesting to compare equity ratios from then to today. No idea if there were as many 110% financings back then as there are today? I strongly doubt that.

Just the whole streaming offers for TV alone (I know people who spend over €80! per month on it...)

That means that German homeowners spend on average 25 percent of their income on interest and repayment.

I would add a healthy dose of skepticism here. The average household net income is about €3600, so 25% would be an €800 payment. Let's assume that homeowners earn above average and increase that by 50%, then it's still only €1200. For new financings, that is pretty low or stretched incredibly long. I strongly suspect that old financings simply distort the statistics here. Those who took out a loan 20 years ago and just continue paying the rate have, of course, a fairly low ratio

So, based on memories from the 1990s and partly the late 1980s, the typical financing back then always aimed at repayment within 25 to well over 30 years. Anything beyond the age of 65 (the retirement age at the time) was considered improper and something the bank would not approve. 110% financing was unknown for single-family homes. A 60% loan-to-value ratio was common; up to 80% was possible but was already considered more like harakiri, especially among the older generation. :) A lot of muscle power was used and also counted as equity. Back then, many more acquaintances and friends got involved in the construction; it felt like there were proportionally more craftsmen than today. The building plan was drawn and submitted by the cousin (foreman), who also supervised the shell construction, which was carried out together with members from the football club and two uncles. The roof frame was erected by a friend of a friend on several Saturdays with helpers provided. The roof was covered and the heating installed perhaps again on a contractual basis. Other interior work was often done with the extended family; simpler tasks like installing insulation or painting were sometimes assigned to neighborhood kids in their teens for a small fee. In the villages, after work and on Saturdays, you could hear hammering, drilling, and sawing everywhere. Many houses were not plastered on the outside until years later; the outdoor facilities were only rudimentarily present at move-in, limited to the essentials. Man, that makes you feel old... by the way, I was born in 1975 myself and lived back then in the Vorspessart.