Current planning of our new home

Hello dear forum,

My girlfriend and I are currently planning our new home. And the beginning is always the question of what I want to have and whether I can afford it.

About our current situation: We are 36 and 33 years old (me 36, her 33) and both currently fully employed.

My partner currently earns 3700€ net and 2900€. These are the basic incomes without bonuses and Christmas bonuses. These do exist and also make quite a difference but should not be counted as the basis for financing. Furthermore, two children are planned and during that time one income must be foregone and my girlfriend would also prefer to work only 70% afterwards, which would be possible in her job.

We would like to build a house with about 160m2 living space in decent quality (KFW 55, electric shutters, home automation, etc.) without a basement. We are currently leaning towards a prefabricated house and have felt best at Hanse Haus based on our gut feeling so far.

We are currently buying a plot of land and it should be fully developed by the municipality by October 2017. The price including real estate transfer tax and notary is about 120,000€, which will be covered from our cash assets. This should then also be our equity share.

For the house, we are calculating about 290,000€ plus ancillary construction costs of 40,000€. This would mean that we would have to take out a loan of about 320,000€. The question now is whether our wishes are realistic regarding the construction price and ancillary costs.

And how would you best finance something like this? The current offer from Volksbank for the loan amount with a 10-year fixed interest rate is 1.39%... however, the fixed rate period seems too short to me and the risk too high.

Is the question serious? 6600 EUR net and 300k???

290,000 for 160 sqm is too tight. House control with KNX alone costs 30k+. You can afford it... if you want to build somewhat more upscale... calculate at least 2000 EUR per sqm plus things for the outdoor area, kitchen, etc.

The loan would probably be more in the range of 400..450k and that is realistic with that income and equity.

Hello, I also don't see any problems with the income and equity contribution. As for the house price, there are professionals, better to borrow more so you are protected against nasty surprises.

A 10-year fixed interest period is, in my opinion, too much risk with the remaining debt. Don't let anyone sell you a combo like "we also have a home savings plan." Better to contact a broker and choose a long fixed interest period of 15 - 20 years.

Request brokers. Personally, I would opt for interest rate security for at least 20-25 years; if not for the entire financing period. Given your situation, there are plenty of banks/insurances that have suitable offers.

With a very good income, IMHO 15 to 20 years of fixed interest is sufficient. One should occasionally make special repayments from free money.

We already know that we can manage this, but we are naturally rather cautious. However, we have set a personal upper limit of €350,000 in credit and want to stay within that. Some things we can easily do ourselves... I was thinking of floor and wall coverings. Regarding the home automation, I at least wanted to do the programming myself... for the rest, it looks rather bad with a Hanse Haus. They use Loxone as standard and I trust myself with its programming without any problem!

We will arrange a meeting with the Hanse Haus advisor and the one from Fingerhaus and then see where we stand price-wise with our plans!

As for the fixed interest rate, I think we will probably go for about 20 years and by then the loan should be repaid!