Construction financing 40,000€ equity, tied to a condominium

Definitely two sizes too big! Even if nothing goes wrong salary-wise, saving for 35 years on this scale will sooner or later lead to serious arguments. No matter how much you love each other And even without this risk, something ALWAYS goes wrong in 35 years. Then the financing hangs by a thread. Who says interest rates won't explode in 15 years? Better leave it...

I also find a financing sum of €392,000 quite hefty given your income. We have a similar income (about €3,700 net per month plus special payments) and will have to finance around €230,000 - €250,000. We definitely would not dare to take on more given our income.

Good morning everyone,

I don’t want to go further into the loan amount, which in my opinion is also too high in relation to the income, but I can only agree with .

In my case, my wife and I have about €4500-5000 net available monthly (currently, as a child is planned). A loan of €270,000 up to max. €300,000 with a monthly burden of no more than €1000 is planned. Anything else would give me a headache.

It might also be advisable, as I have often been advised here, to create a household budget and calculate concretely over a few months.

We have been doing this for about 4 months now, although we skipped the last and this month due to the wedding (lots of income but also expenses).

Best regards, Andreas

just as an example with us it is like this:

monthly at least € 4,800 net (+ shift allowance, 13th salary, holiday pay, special payments)

loan amount: 343,000 (whereby we can pay back 10% directly after completion of construction, this is included as a buffer in case something goes wrong)

monthly burden at € 1,150 if we need the entire amount. But this is not planned (but you never know) otherwise we are at about € 1,000. That is the same as what we currently pay for rent + building savings.

I also find the ratio of credit to income to be too high. However, I have a problem understanding your income calculation:

Salaries:
2000€ gross + variable salary up to 3500€ additionally annually
1400€ gross
Child benefit 192€

2400€
of which 560€ currently go to the apartment (interest + repayment + service charges)
850€ fall away due to parental leave until the end of the year
289€ for a car loan that expires in December
250€ into a home savings contract (or several) which will be dissolved soon

450€ remain for living expenses currently

560 € for the apartment would drop as expenses – of course I understand that. 289 € for a car loan expiring in December – hm okay, that’s possible since there is still some time until the final construction/the full payment of installments. 250 € into home savings contracts – of course – if they are dissolved (What have you planned this money (20k) for?)

850 € falling away due to parental leave until the end of the year?

I don’t understand that. I think your wife currently earns 1,400 € net? Or does she get the 850 € parental allowance and have a 450 € job? In that case, you should urgently adjust your wife’s income (i.e. minus the 850 €). Also, I would then recommend putting any planning on hold until it is clear what your wife is working, how long, and how much she is earning. This should also be confirmed over several months (so that she does not quit the job again due to the double burden of work and children).

I speak from my own experience. Our planning was based on my wife’s income of about 1,000 euros. After parental leave she took a job (part-time in retail) with 1,200 net. However, she could not cope with the double burden of work and child (working hours vs. daycare hours was the biggest issue). After a longer absence due to a work accident, she was given notice and was not unhappy about it. Now she works on a 450 euro basis. She is considering possibly increasing to 20 or 24 hours/week (if the employer allows) – but primarily only in the mornings so there are no problems with the kids (on Fridays and Saturdays she already works in the afternoons because I can take care of the children then). Fortunately, I can cover the gap. However, vacation or similar is absolutely not possible. The current horror scenario for me is if one of the cars breaks down. That would be really tough for us.

Thanks for the (not) so nice story. Unfortunately, these are the cases where a supposed dream financing, which doesn’t fit from the start, collapses. Similar situation with us, wife becomes unemployed with severance pay (we already know that). But we deliberately chose a smaller number. Glad we didn’t put up a 480k house.