Does the real estate market increasingly force more families to build?

Reserves is the magic word.

In the end, you have to answer the question yourself. Do I want to own a property? Do I want to commit, become immobile? Am I settled? Do I say, this is good, let's build huts here? Or am I always on the move, like a migratory bird? Karsten

Now many clinics would be glad if they had retained their staff through company apartments. Would save job ads in London.

Requirements for the apartment/house from 1980, building regulations from 1980, and home ownership would still be affordable. Dressing room, children's bathroom, rain shower, energy saving ordinance are price drivers.

I had hoped for more from the minimum wage. My East German competitors are still ridiculously cheap.
Apart from that, the minimum wage should be tax-free.

I meant it precisely in a positive sense – and not in the negative way you suggested.

This works via the same lever in both directions. If you increase the Hartz IV standard benefit to 800 euros and abolish the "sanctions," the unskilled worker suddenly has at least 1600 euros net in their pocket thanks to the wage distance rule. But if that person already earns 1600, you won't get a skilled worker for that wage, and consequently they will earn well over 2000€ in the future... and so the spiral continues upward. (Numbers are fictional)

In a similar way, the state could simply pay its employees more and thereby compete with the "private sector."

And of course, the state would have the possibility to bluntly relieve income up to a certain amount from taxes/contributions.

But like the entire housing discussion, this has little to do with the topic. The original poster wants to buy, not rent. And basically, there are only 3 options

1) Luck
2) Money
3) Connections

...and often a mix of all of these

The high construction prices keep coming up here again and again. Not that I wouldn’t complain about it too, but one should also put it into some perspective.

Just something to think about, hypothetical case:

500,000€ total costs with 150,000€ equity, ergo 350,000€ financing requirement.
At, say, 1.5% interest rate and 3% initial repayment, that results in a monthly installment of about 1,300€.

Everything was better in the past and real estate was cheaper...

So... 10 years ago? I can say that by chance, because one of my interest rate fixations is expiring, the rate was 4.1%.
Now anyone can sit down and calculate backwards. To end up with a similar term and installment, the property would have to be 100,000€ cheaper.
Then we would be at 400,000€ instead of 500,000€. Inflation aside.
But that would still mean the overall total expense ends up being the same in both cases.

Maybe a substantial part is made up of the shift from falling external capital interest rates to rising construction prices. Added to that is the normal effect of inflation and an energy saving ordinance that no longer allows building like 10 years ago plus significantly higher desired “standards”...

...just something to think about...

But that doesn’t change the issue of scarcity, meaning that even those who want to and can, have a hard time.

There is nothing to relativize. Ten years ago, a single-family house cost only half as much as it does now. The interest rates are just a decimal point...