Financing Check: Building a House in 2.5 Years

I don’t see the price. And even less so if prices keep rising. We are currently building in the outskirts of Hamburg and your biggest problem will be the plot of land. Often there are only 500+ sqm plots available and those go for 250,000 EUR or more. The smaller plots are gone in no time... And it should be at least 450 sqm for a single-family house. Otherwise, only a semi-detached house is an option. For me personally, a well-designed semi-detached house on a 450 sqm plot will be nicer than a single-family house on 450 sqm where you then have about 3-4 meters all around, and that’s it. You should really think about whether these are the right areas. Norderstedt has a traffic collapse every day from 3 pm onward. The traffic planning there has completely failed and is not well thought out at all. Hasloh will soon have a new development area... That was also interesting for us, but Hasloh lies directly in the main flight path from Hamburg Airport... To the south, there is always the bottleneck of the Elbtunnel, and when it’s closed nothing moves. Plus the construction site in Bahrenfeld for the next 10? years. The renovation is also supposed to start south of the tunnel until year xy. If the train connection and your jobs fit, you can of course take public transport and at least avoid the daily traffic jam somewhat, but I would check that beforehand. Otherwise, west/east the connection by private car is much better. To the west, the A23 hardly ever has real traffic jams. The construction work at Dreieck-Nordwest is almost finished. If there is still traffic, you always have the option to go via Schenefeld/Lurup/Eidelstedt. To the east, also A24/A1 into Hamburg - if those are closed there are plenty of detours on smaller roads. To the north, you basically only have 3 drivable routes to even get there somehow. Of course, all this sounds a bit tragic, but for example, both of us depend on the car for work and wasting 1-4 hours of lifetime 5 times a week standing in traffic jams was not worth it to us.

Well, he works "remote". So that basically means he doesn't have a commute at all. And if he does, he can definitely time it so that he always drives against peak hours.

Furthermore, he wrote that he has connections to brokers who have a slightly better overview of available plots...

So, IF that happens with your job and your salary and IF the connection to brokers is there and IF they are really able to arrange a plot for you preferentially, then it could all work out.

You will also save a decent amount of money by then. The bonus will probably not be at 1k but significantly above. That must also be pumped into the equity.

So if I look at the forum standard here, then that could definitely work out.

Personally, I would never build a house for +500k with less than 8-10k income. Never! Unless you can expect a larger inheritance or or or...

Thank you very much for your answers. I will take a look at where we can still save a bit. And even though there are still many unknowns, I will keep dreaming about it.

Regarding the house price, I have acquaintances who have now built in the outskirts of Hamburg (Neugraben), their location and house is very similar to what we could imagine, and they managed with 350k without additional costs and floor/painting as DIY work. The plot was 120k. No idea if that is realistic,

No, that is not realistic.
Maybe it was Neu Wulmstorf/Lower Saxony, which borders Neugraben. On a small area, tons of detached houses, semi-detached and terraced houses... all packed closely... okay, train station nearby. But the area is somewhat older. You wouldn’t really want to live in Neugraben. My opinion.

Are there really such cheap plots near Hamburg?

What is “near”? I had colleagues who moved as far as Soltau in the south and Heide in the north. 60km/100km. There you get a plot for under 50,000. If you work at Airbus, you can also find a cheap plot behind Stade, but you’re also 50km from Hamburg. The highway is still under construction.

To the south, you always have the bottleneck Elbe tunnel, if that’s closed nothing works.

To the south you have the Elbe with the Elbe bridge. I have a friend who leaves at 6 am to be at work by 8 am. But in principle, you’re right. Traffic jams aren’t even mentioned on the radio anymore.

For us, i.e. south of Hamburg, many things are still okay (salaries low, land prices low at 300€/sqm)
But even 20 km from Hamburg there are now local resident models, so Hamburgers have a hard time.
Our children didn’t get a plot despite being rooted and having a down-to-earth business chain. They have now bought a house from 2004.

Financially everything looks wonderful on your side.
Your contacts also cannot carve out plots or make building gaps cheaper.
If you plan something in 2022, you should already check now if anything is possible.
But those prices of your friends, I don’t believe that!

So I’m dusting this off here..

A lot has happened with us and somehow not so much. We are on the list for 4 new construction projects, all targeting the marketing phase next year, 3 in Norderstedt and 1 in Neugraben Fischbek. (By the way, the last plot is now on the market in Fischbeker Heidbrook, 1000 m² for 250,000€. Considering it is in Hamburg, very cheap). In Norderstedt, unfortunately, everything will move around 500€ per m². We visited many exhibitors and actually found our house style (captain’s house/Frisian house), fully brick-clad.

Saving is working great too.

But now comes the shocker: out of nowhere we will be gifted an 8-unit apartment building in Düsseldorf Eller by the end of the year. We knew nothing about it, didn’t even know we had such a wealthy relative, it was always said that she was over-indebted. That’s not true, she only said that because of the inheritance. The house is in good condition, but has not been well managed in recent years. The income value based on current rents is about 650k, if one had local customary rents, about one million! According to Sprengnetter desk appraisal.

The condition of the gift, however, is that we do not sell, but manage it and keep it in the xer family.

That will of course make things a lot easier for us. Appointments with the tax advisor and the notary are set.

Therefore, corona isn’t really inconvenient, because many things were delayed and we have a bit more time to save up even more equity.

We hope that with this we can get a somewhat larger plot; actually, our limit for the plot was 200k plus incidental costs, so we might be able to go up to 350k. We are still considering whether to include a granny flat in the house. Everything will definitely have to be carefully calculated.

Congratulations, the devil always shits on the..