Floor plans of a single-family house with a granny flat, 280 m2 on a pleasantly small 320 m2 plot

What kind of poor soul would rent such a buried basement apartment? And in which region do you live that having a tenant in the basement is financially worthwhile given the effort?

Hi Katja, thanks for your suggestions which I partly refute with this. In part you are right, in part I see it differently.

What kind of poor soul would rent such a sunken basement apartment? And in which region do you live that having a tenant in the basement is financially worth the effort?

When I advertise this basement apartment, I will have at least 100 serious interested parties on the first try. I have searched myself for years and know the market situation very well. Do you even know the prices/situation in southern Baden or Munich city? Of course, life is better elsewhere, but here a new square meter costs at least €8,000 / €15 rent. Those who have expectations should simply look for something else. But it won’t be any better there either. 200 interested parties per apartment are not uncommon here, and this is not a Ritz number two. Especially in popular locations, demand is very high. However, we are not in poor Saarland or the East where tenants still get a discount when renting or can negotiate a lot when buying. Supply and demand regulate the demand and also the price here, not the comfort!

Some things have already been said. As always, the question arises about the nonsense of the granny flat. Sharing this tiny plot with someone else is in my opinion (sorry for that) just ridiculous. A standard basement would certainly have been useful for bicycles and such. Where is the tenant supposed to park – only one car each? Does he throw the trash into your bin?
The rest here:

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Sorry, but I don’t know a single apartment here where you get more than one parking space. So it’s totally nonsense to expect more.
One apartment = 1 parking space, period, nowhere is it different. Many apartments here don’t even have a parking space, so it’s a huge privilege not to have to search on the street for a free spot.
Since we poor builders neither own a car nor a TV among the four of us, we can even offer an additional parking space for the basement apartment for a corresponding rent (60€ upwards).
Trash can be separated or together, there is enough space. Together would be much cheaper and also better for the environment.

Hi Katja, thanks for your suggestions which I partly refute with this. In part you are right, in part I see it differently.

I mainly read "yes, that's just how it is." I have to ask this: are you building for yourselves or for others? At the moment it looks like a multi-family house for 3 parties, where parking spaces are missing – but not like ownership. In any case, I would not sacrifice my tiny plot for strangers – scarce living space or not. But I suspect that the calculation does not work without rental income and that the plot is deliberately to be maximally concreted in order to leave no sqm unused. Regarding the remarks: - Planting is nice. But then it will be even darker down there. Where was north again? - On the parking issue: this is usually anchored in the development plan and not something we invented to annoy you. So please check whether and how many parking spaces per residential unit are required. - Unused area of the tenant – yes of course they will fill it with something. But your thread is about asking for a sensible floor plan. If it’s all the tenant’s business or a matter of taxes, you don’t need to build walls at all and just put up supports so the house doesn’t collapse. - WC adjacent to the living area: yes, it is first about sound but also, as already mentioned, about odor nuisance or the general feeling of life when eating or cooking next to the toilet. I assume you now also have a guest WC. Just imagine the sofa or dining table standing directly next to it, if your imagination goes that far. That is unpleasant for everyone involved – especially for guests. Basically you should consider whether to set the separations between ground floor and upper floor now. Too many doors are annoying and can be easily retrofitted later with drywall (also the walls). What still does not make sense to me is the edge development on the left side of the plan – if there even is one? Who or what is "Schu" and why are you allowed to build up to the boundary? In conclusion, I would say: the living rooms are still quite acceptable. The granny flat was neglected as usual and somehow hastily thrown together. Let the tenant struggle with it. Garden and terraces are unattractive due to double use in the smallest space – especially if it is supposed to be your own “dream house.” Number of parking spaces and disposal unclear, especially with the 3-party option. How the separation of billing for heating, electricity, and water will be solved has not yet been stated.

You are correct here, it is a house with 3 residential units, whereby we will use the ground floor + upper floor ourselves.
We do not require/want a basement, which is why it will be rented out because that is financially worthwhile and does not affect us upstairs at all. If it were about money, it would be much cheaper to build without a basement, but we did not want that.
Regarding the parking space. Legally, according to the state building regulations, it is a single-family house with a granny flat, i.e. 2 residential units and 2 necessary parking spaces. Practically, 3 residential units are possible. If you do it officially, you naturally need an additional parking space later.
We will not position the door on the upper floor as shown; you are 100% right here. We will only implement that if it becomes necessary at some point.
The plot allows boundary development, meaning that whoever builds on the right at some point can do exactly that. On the right, there is a shed and a garage which will be demolished at some point. We are aware that if the neighbor builds, there won’t be 6 meters to our house, but that’s just how it is here.

The trash is clearly marked on the site plan. Still, the tenant in the granny flat can also put it in front of the technical entrance.
As for the garden, the rear parking space will be discarded so that there is a good separation between the garden and the basement exit/parking space. As I said, we actually don’t need any parking space, so we plan one for the granny flat and the second will be planned with grass pavers in the garden with a sliding gate. That way there is more garden here. The parking space will be 99% unused during the year, at most for rare visitors.
We are aware that the granny flat is a stepmother. I hope that there might still be constructive criticism here, i.e. a suggestion for improvement. The technical room, entrance, etc. is set. The floor plan could be reduced, but since there is a terrace up there, we have deliberately planned it larger, even though unfortunately little or hardly any sunlight comes in.
We were thinking of a window at the bottom left corner in the basement so that at least some daylight comes in from the south. Of course, this would require a light well and come at the expense of the garden. I also think the notes about the toilet are great; we had not thought of that at all and the architect did not say anything about it either. Now we have to see what else can be improved. Hopefully there will be a few examples of improvements here instead of referring to a detached, larger plot and house.

Of course, it is meant to be a dream house and we are already quite satisfied with the current state, but the 310 m2 of available space, technical room, extension requirements, etc. are something I simply cannot change. Of course, you can do much more with a detached house on 1000 m2. The granny flat has its own entrance, power connection, and its own water meters as well as a separate central ventilation system. The ground floor + upper floor share their own water/electricity/ventilation system, although later on separate water meters can be installed on the upper floor in the intended fittings. A separate electrical meter box is also possible on the upper floor. Since the upper floor then does not have its own ventilation system, mostly only one child will probably move in there because otherwise there would likely be problems with shared use. Or one agrees on a standby mode or leaves the control to a dedicated residential unit. Landscaping will be done by the architect; clearly, we will not plan any huge trees there.