Financing for new construction: realistic or rather wishful thinking?

We finally ended up with a rate of 1625 and realize that this is also our absolute limit. Vacations, repairs on the car/house, new car, outings with the children, birthday parties, Christmas, school supplies, and so on... One doesn’t want to and sometimes can’t do without all of that,

So a lifestyle of 3,600€ each month just about fits for you to feel good. Let’s subtract 400€ for the house utilities.

All I can say is: oops – what kind of lifestyle is that if you spend almost 40k every year on consumption and luxury. You have to really want to afford that first.

I can only say: oops – what kind of lifestyle is that if you spend almost 40k every year on consumption and luxury. You have to be willing to afford that first.

Exactly, a new pair of shoes every day.

we have already run the numbers with a bank and they would even give us a loan with a monthly payment of €2,500.00.

Do you have that in writing? Or could that be a misunderstanding?
That’s almost negligent. I can’t imagine that.

House (including kitchen and materials for walls/floors): €405,000.00

And I also consider this tight sum for “house costs” (for 140sqm?) not to be “right.” For one thing, you never include the kitchen in the house price. The kitchen is furniture and is not financed by some banks either.
The same applies to additional purchase costs.
I would first make a proper calculation out of it.
Equity will probably then be used for the kitchen, lamps, bathroom furniture etc.
Then you deduct your own work to get an overview of how many hours you have to work on the construction.
With a child and a job, it is not necessarily a given that you can do everything you think you can.
The outdoor facilities as equity are okay, but even there the budget could already become tight. You hardly have any potential to save then.
Your 13th monthly salaries are also used for other things, right?

I see the problem that everything is calculated to the limit: there is no savings rate for a replacement vehicle, then the following quotes:

We are also quite willing, for example, to no longer spend €300.00 monthly on clothing and drugstore items.

My husband and I each have a 13th salary, which would serve as an annual buffer,

… it’s not nice to save on “everything” just so you can pay a rate. Of course, owning a home is great, but with 110sqm and cold rent of €700 you are doing very well - you won’t be doing that well anymore, neither financially nor relaxed in the evenings over years.

The incidental costs include a buffer of €5,000.00 and additionally I had indicated a “free buffer” of €5,000.00. Is that way too little? What would be more appropriate?

There are usually already gaps in the construction service description that make it necessary to loosen several thousand easily: be it the electrical work or the desire for an additional window, sliding door, larger attic and thoughts about building only once. “Turnkey” means nothing nowadays; it does not mean there are no additional costs. Price guarantee also does not apply to necessary additional costs.

Whether the salary is too low or the equity insufficient is something to consider individually. In your case, I (still) don’t even read about the habit of being able to go to the limit handcraft-wise. Let me put it this way: there have already been craftsmen here who rely on their own skills and those of acquaintances. But they first have to keep their employer happy before going to their own construction site. A desk person can burn their own resources very quickly by doing unfamiliar work. In the worst case, long-term absence results. This means that your own physical performance should also be calculated modestly.

I see here rather further savings and then a young used property as a semi-detached or terraced house.

A desk person can burn their own resources very quickly by doing unfamiliar work. In the worst case, long-term absence. This means: even one's own physical performance should be modestly calculated.

At that point, I almost spat out my drink.

Honestly, anyone who "long-term absents" from a little gardening, paving, and mixing concrete should seriously worry about reaching their 50th birthday without a heart attack or stroke...
On the contrary. Instead of lifting iron plates for 100 EUR per month with a personal trainer in the gym, one should rather move around in the garden. If you do it properly and with the right tools and not 10 hours every day like the pros, it is not harmful to the body.

Carrying 500 sacks of dry concrete in a lifetime does nothing to the knees.
Carrying 200 sacks every day. That destroys the knees.

Good evening everyone,

first of all, many thanks to everyone for the answers and effort that some of you put into it. The offer for the house (most offers are for about 140 sqm) did not include the kitchen; we only added that here for the listing into the house costs. We are aware that we cannot finance this via the loan. We have offers from regional construction companies as well as 2-3 non-regional ones. No final decision has been made yet, otherwise I wouldn’t be seeking advice in this forum regarding feasibility. The descriptions of the construction services naturally vary. We also looked at prefab house companies but quickly realized that for comparable prices, we would rather have a traditional masonry build. Self-performance can definitely be more, but we do want to do quite a bit ourselves with the carport, other outdoor facilities, floors, and painting work. We also have a great family; if everyone takes a room, we always say it’s “quickly” done. The building period for the plot is two years, so buying and then saving will probably help, but probably not in large sums. And if the money is not properly invested in the short term, it just loses value every day. We have now heard that a rate of €2,000 would only ruin us, which we definitely don’t want. I can totally understand this for the reasons given here; some really good arguments, thanks! Sometimes if you have a dream, you tend to see through rose-colored glasses. We then spoke to my parents today and they offered to support us monthly during the “child planning phase” and the associated lower income, meaning to top up. Now my question would be: what rate would be realistic? I mostly heard: €2,000 is unrealistic. We have now thought about looking at houses closer to 125 sqm and want to calculate using the monthly rate how much house would be feasible and talk to the construction companies whether that is doable. And especially at what level the support from my parents would have to be. Would a rate of €1,750 for the loan be manageable from our perspective? Then we would have €750 instead of €400 freely available monthly. May I name banks here? It is definitely a well-known bank, and no, we spent two hours talking with them on-site, so I don’t think they misunderstood anything. We have the offer with the rate of €2,000 in writing. But we want to discuss here again whether there is room for negotiation. We also sought advice from other providers, for example. The tax returns, recent payslips, and a self-disclosure form have all been submitted to the bank. I hope I have addressed many points.

Would a rate of €1,750.00 for the loan be feasible from our perspective?

Yes, that should fit well. But what do you get for €21k p.a.? If that is a 4.8% annuity, that is only a €435k loan (if it gets more expensive, then a bit less - more rather not). Let's deduct €125k for the land and add your equity = €360k. That will really only be a small house - which doesn't have to be a problem. Actually think about the usual suspects in the low-budget range and leave out big special requests. Then it will work out. By the way, everything offered turnkey is per se without floors and wall work. Just so you know and keep in mind that this still adds on top of the catalogue prices (besides the other incidental building costs and tasks for the builder).