Construction financing: Is building a house possible? Please provide an assessment

Yes, the salary situation is really unfavorable and it’s not just about parental leave but the time afterwards. Your wife will probably go part-time? That means a loss of income which is somewhat compensated by shifting tax classes, but it is still a loss of income combined with the costs of children...

Why should the wife go part-time if she earns significantly more than her husband? According to the income, she seems to be in a higher service position and probably has a corresponding educational background. I know few women who give that up to conform to the “traditional” role model. In my personal environment, there are several couples with this constellation. In all cases, the man takes on the main part of the parenting burden. I see nothing that stands in the way of real estate financing.

Why should the woman go part-time when she clearly earns much more than her husband? According to income, she seems to be in the higher service and therefore probably has a corresponding educational background. I know few women who give it up to conform to the "traditional" role model. In my personal environment, there are several couples with this constellation. In all of them, the man takes on the main part of the childcare burden.

I see nothing that speaks against real estate financing.

I know many women who like to live the "traditional" role model. Some of them are academics as well.

Maybe the net income is so different because the man currently has tax class 5 and the woman 3? The OP would have to clarify that for us. For a university-educated man, 1900 net is very, very little in times of skilled labor shortage.

I know few women who give up to conform to the "traditional" role model. In my personal environment, there are several couples with this constellation.

In my environment, too. But also 3 of my graduate engineer female friends, it was not about the traditional role model!, but about simply wanting to enjoy the time with the child/children.

2 of these 3 friends even had a second baby and have been at home for about 5 years!

Therefore, I do not find the aspect so unlikely, even without wanting to conform to the traditional role model, to look at how the income is then distributed and, as already wrote, whether he might possibly have significantly less income than she does due to an unfavorable tax class.

In my opinion, the 500,000.- would not be enough for you with your ideas if you build today.

130sqm * 2,000/sqm = 260,000
Basement (depending on execution) = 60,000
Garage/Carport = 20,000
Outdoor facilities = 20,000
Additional construction costs = 50,000
Buffer/kitchen/furniture etc. = 50,000
Plot (your information) = 200,000

If I calculated correctly 660,000

The above numbers are just rough estimates. There can be more or less anywhere. No matter what. And everyone can give a different number for the individual items. But at the stage you are in, this is a reference point. By the way, the 2,000/sqm is already rather the lower limit in my area of BW. It is almost not enough.

And now calculate 5% price increase on that every year. (No one knows exactly how much). You end up at 765,000

Your salary is certainly good. And who among you goes part-time is your business but you have to talk about it. With the salary distribution, I as a man would not leave the question hanging for long.
Regardless, in my opinion you have too little equity. And if the development continues like this, I also don’t see how you will manage to save enough for a new build in 2-3 years. A large part of your equity build-up is eaten by the price increase.

So either you plan without a basement, cheaper plot, etc. or it will be a very tight squeeze... then maybe rather think about buying used.

Wow, thank you very much for your feedback! You guys are really great

I have tax class 5, my wife has 3.
With tax class 3, I would get about €2550.

I can also easily imagine going on parental leave.

Regarding the move:
Our landlady has given us notice due to personal use (all lawful) and we have to find a new apartment by April. We may need a kitchen for this, which is why the equity to be saved this year may be lower. In addition, we had to buy a used car for my wife now.
A move also costs money.

Yes, for an academic, €3,600 does not seem like much gross salary, but studying nowadays unfortunately does not automatically mean earning a lot, despite having an engineering degree.

If I understood correctly, it is possible for us to finance a house if we adjust a few factors, make compromises, and try to find an affordable construction site.

The equity situation is of course really bad considering the price development in the coming years, as face26 explained.

We will of course keep an eye out for used houses, maybe we’ll find something "gscheids" ^^

A side question:

Are full financings without or with little equity as a "last resort" basically an option for this project, or an absolute no-go?

Of course, it is an option; you just have to pay a proper risk premium and decide if it is worth it to you.