House and garage - How best to place them on the properties?

If the footpath belonged to you, it would be part of the property. As far as I know, it is not, but belongs to the public space. It is a misconception that something belongs to you just because you are supposedly the only one who uses it. Or do you actually have an entry in the land register for this parcel?

The private footpath in front of our property belongs to parcels 1654 and 1656. The footpath in front of the neighbor’s house belongs to parcel 1653. If you calculate the square meter area of the individual parcels, you only get this value "including" the footpath. The marked house width is 8.5m + 3 meters minimum distance on both left and right = 14.5m. The depth from the end of the footpath is 19m. 19x14.5=275.5 sqm. With the 2 meter footpath, it is 21x14.5=304.5 sqm (parcel 1654). The same can be calculated for parcels 1656 and 1653. In the drawing, there is also no parcel number for the footpath.

Only the private roads belong proportionally to all parties. We own 2/6 of the private road (parcel 1652). This is also stated in the property purchase contract.

All right, so actually your footpath. Which you probably have to build compulsorily? Or can you also omit it and plant bushes? Strange thing that is. If you now make an access road there, your property will become even narrower, right? Do you already know the neighbor to ask them what they think about it?

What speaks against the arrangement suggested there? It looks reasonable and opens up a garden for you with a wonderful south orientation (at the bottom of the plan, or if you prefer, south-west).

If you arrange the house like that, you could divide the property in 25 years and a child could build a second house. It would at least be one possibility. Who knows what the future holds...

We also like the orientation and how the houses are placed. We will probably position the house like that as well. The bigger (relative) problem we see is with the placement of the garage. If we were to position the garage as shown in the drawing + directly attached to the house, then 1. we would have only one parking space and 2. we would have to go through the garage every time to get to the front entrance.

If we keep the garage attached to the house and add a second parking space, we would have to enlarge the area and then the parking space would be directly next to our terrace. Of course, we wouldn’t like that.

Another option would be to place the garage a little distance from the house; then we would have two parking spaces, but would still have to walk alongside the house to the front entrance. If we also put up a fence there, then every time you’d have to get out of the garage, go through the first garden gate to finally reach the front entrance.

Therefore, the prettier option for us would be to place the driveway directly on the side of the footpath; this way the paths to the front entrance would be shorter, we could fence the house from the end of the garage, and could use the entire area behind the garage as garden space. Another advantage would be that with an overly long garage the parking space inside the garage would be quickly accessible right next to the terrace.

Of course, we could place the front entrance on the side, but for that we would have to change the layout and arrangement, which would also be somewhat disadvantageous regarding the orientation of the rooms.

Well, as I said, we currently tend to design the driveway via the footpath.

Dividing the property in 25 years would, of course, definitely be an option for the future.

Alright, so it’s actually your footpath. Which you presumably have to build compulsorily? Or can you leave it out and plant bushes instead? That’s a strange thing. If you now make an access road there, your property will become even narrower, right? Do you already know the neighbor to ask what they think about it?

I believe we have to build the footpath compulsorily since it was planned that way in the development plan. I hadn’t clarified that point at all. But whether we extend it by 1 meter or not is our decision. The city confirmed this to us by phone, as did the property seller. The property seller also commissions the development work and will have the footpath (the 2 meters) paved.

According to the plan, the 2-meter footpath plus the 1.5-meter front garden would be 3.5 meters until the next garden boundary. If we made the footpath 1 meter wider, we would of course lose 1 meter in the depth of our property; we are aware of that. But according to our calculation, there would still be enough space to place the house and a terrace plus distance to the fence.

From the end of the footpath, it is 19 meters in depth. 19 meters - 1 meter more = 18 meters - 1.5 meters front garden = 16.5 meters. If we build our house about 9.5 meters deep = 7 meters - 3 - 4 meter terrace = leaving 3 - 4 meters from the END of the terrace to the fence. You don’t sit at the end of the terrace but rather in the middle, so the distance from the terrace to the fence is 4 - 6 meters, which we find completely sufficient. Additionally, we would then have the whole side of the property freely available for a pool in summer, a play area for the children (sandbox, swing, etc.).

I believe you have completely gotten stuck on the floor plan. This is a cookie-cutter house that you found there. Normally, nobody buys that! Everyone designs their house individually. And if the entrance has to be on the side, then that's no problem at all and you still have the living rooms facing south/garden, etc.

I also think the suggestion for an optional second house for the children is very good.

I think you guys have completely gotten stuck on the floor plan. That’s an off-the-shelf house you found there. Normally, no one buys that! Everyone plans their house individually. And if the entrance has to be on the side, that’s no problem at all and you still have the living spaces facing south/garden, etc.

I also think the suggestion for an optional second house for the children is very good.

That may be true. We somehow find it hard to imagine other variants. We have already looked at dozens of floor plans in catalogs and online. We kind of like a floor plan in this direction best. Of course, maybe we can adjust something here and there, but I wouldn’t know what else could be made significantly nicer/better. For example, we wanted a large living-dining area and the kitchen somewhat separated around the corner. There’s not much room left on the ground floor to change anything else. Staircase, utility room, and toilet need to be placed somehow. There isn’t much more space.

And, for example, I find such a house entrance very nice with a small porch. (Photo attached)
If I place the entrance on the side, then the garage stands 2 - 3 meters directly in front of it...then the nice view of the “pompous” entrance is lost because the garage stands directly in front.
And if we planned the garage driveway from the back and the entrance from the footpath...I’ve never seen a house where a garage is placed backwards to the entrance. I can’t really imagine such a variant either. Everyone places their garage with the driveway towards the house entrance. Either on the side or from the front but never the other way around.

Maybe we also lack the imagination how it could look finished, but as I said, the way it is in our minds, we like the entrance from the front best and the driveway also from the front.

Regarding the section, we will anyway sit down with our house planner and later with the architect. First, we should choose 2/3 sections that we like.