Half-timbered house, what should be considered when purchasing the land?

We initially wanted to buy an existing house with land in Switzerland (canton of Zurich, Schwyz, or Aargau). Unfortunately disappointing. Most houses are overpriced and the real estate agents want to make a golden nose for themselves.

With a house built according to our taste and needs, it looks different. So we decided to plan a house. To avoid looking directly onto the neighbor's plate, we also want to buy appropriately large land.

Now the question is: How much land should be considered? Our house will be about 12x14m in size. And we don't want to look over the neighbor's shoulder. We also don't want a family house neighborhood with dozens of houses.

Our questions at a glance
- How much land should one buy and does it ALWAYS have to be building land or can it be mixed
- What stumbling blocks should one watch out for?
- How can I be sure that no one builds in front of my garden seating area? Behind me, they are allowed
- We tend towards an individual half-timbered house from e.g. KD-Haus. Has anyone had any experience?
- A solar system should also be installed for hot water, heating, and electricity production.
- Then we want to filter the water and have sparkling water available in the kitchen.

Thank you for your opinions and background information! Although we are two men, we have absolutely no idea about building.

Hi, finding the right land was also the hardest part of planning the house for us. We searched for 1.5 years - and we really searched! That means driving around and asking locals.

Now the question is: How much land should be included. Our house will be about 12x14m large. And we don’t want to be looking over the neighbor’s shoulder. We also don’t want a family housing quarter with dozens of houses.

Well, I wouldn’t start with less than 1000m².

Our questions in summary - How much land should one buy and does it always have to be building land or can it be mixed

Building land naturally only needs to be the part where you build. The rest can be, for example, forest - of course.

- What pitfalls should one watch out for?

So, for us it was important: Costs for development, noise level from any kind of traffic

- How can I be sure that no one will build in front of my garden seating area? Behind me they may

By buying the land or planning it so that your garden is there. If you mean an unbuildable view into greenery, you might have to look a bit longer. You only have security for what you own.

- We are leaning towards an individual half-timbered house from, for example, KD-Haus. Has anyone already gathered experience? - A solar system should also be installed for hot water, heating, and electricity production. - Then we want to filter the water and have sparkling water available in the kitchen.

That is certainly all feasible and unproblematic for almost any developer who hasn’t just finished their studies yesterday.

The size of the property does not have to matter. You can own 3,000 sqm and still have a boundary building on one side from which views are possible – or a neighbor opposite who is higher up and can look into the windows. In addition, there are always attic windows somewhere far away behind which people with binoculars and various equipment can lie in wait.

Even if you live in a remote location, you never know who is watching you from the edge of the forest. In the past, most people also thought they were alone when online banking with SSL encryption ...

In your wishes, however, it comes down to a secluded location in my opinion, unless you can also buy all the neighboring properties at the same time. A forester's house, a four-sided farmstead, or an old water mill would be examples of such properties. The latter would also be interesting for the plans for self-sufficiency.

every technology is only as secure as its user
SSL has a key length of 128. That means there are 2^128 possible combinations.... no one can crack that. not even the NSA. The difficult parts are the backdoors and the help from the banks. keyword master key.

luckily, with [Grundstücken] everything is regulated... no one builds on your land unless you are expropriated

I think a nice [Grundstücksgröße] is anything from 700 sqm. the more, the more work.
It also doesn’t have to be all building land. We only have 400sqm of building land, the rest is garden land... so can/may never be built on.

There are also always some attic windows somewhere far away behind which people can lie in wait with binoculars and various equipment.

I wasn't so aware of this before, but apparently it really is a popular pastime (mostly by men, I think). I need to rethink my window design..

@Der Da: Exactly. That's why this comparison, because one relies on certain basic prerequisites - such as the secrecy of the SSL key - which can also turn out to be mistaken in the case of the property. Of course, "Father State" can also have something built on your property, for example, the popular high-voltage pylons. But much more common are the devaluations of the property "by the back door" without expropriation: Federal highway or railway construction, airports, or even just the rerouting of a flight path can plunge a property owner into serious problems almost overnight after decades of peace. With road construction or sewer connection, entire single-family home developments in the East have been thinned out because people strangely didn’t have thousands of euros under their mattress. And this becomes really expensive with large properties. Then problems with staring, spying neighbors suddenly become unimportant.

Before buying the property, I had inquired precisely at the municipality about a road renovation. They assured me that such a thing was out of the question. A few years later it started anyway. If I hadn’t by chance been included in the redevelopment area (which excludes the application of the local residents’ contribution law), I would have lost my house. Things can happen that fast. You think of "everything" and still get screwed...

@kaho674: I also once had a neighbor who even watched me from his garden through the rear windows (bedroom, bathroom) during freezing frost. He stood in the dark hours at the fence in freezing cold for hours. His stupid dog (came after its master) regularly betrayed him by barking at every speck of dust. However, this gentleman’s behavior was job-related, a retired listening and observing agent.