House construction costs in 2024, 2025, or not at all?

The paid-off portion of the property will be credited to you as equity and the remaining loan will be repaid. In this respect, it is certainly possible to inquire if the remaining situation is in order.

that actually says quite a bit, but certainly nothing bad.

I thought so too. About ~50k was also repaid within a short time. So currently there are still 15k + incidental purchase costs tied up in the property and 10k set aside for the house. Of course, from a house-building perspective you could say "it's still far too little" and "it could be much more," but I don't see that there was no will to save and that they only lived extravagantly.

I think without a fully paid-off plot we don't need to request financing

Yes and no. Basically, you financed with a variable rate and so that can be quite well incorporated into the longer-term financing. But overall the equity (plot value minus outstanding loan plus other equity to be used) is still low, so you're certainly right. Ultimately, it depends on the financing as a whole. So a) there is a bank that will do it with you and b) the monthly burden is within a range that works for you. Personally, I am often more of the opinion "better to start earlier," but that might also be because our rent is quite outrageous ;)

I think without a fully paid-off plot of land we don’t need to request financing, neither in 2023, nor 2024 or 2025, so that should be the next milestone now. And if it doesn’t work out, it simply goes back to the municipality, we have paid notary and property tax costs as a learning expense and have to see how to proceed.

What you can of course do is go to a broker, lay your cards on the table, and have them assess what is feasible. That doesn’t cost anything initially and you get an assessment from a professional for whom this is daily business. We did this via Interhyp, with whom we eventually financed. They can give you a ballpark figure.

Personally, I am often more of the opinion "better to start earlier"

I wanted to say more about it, but accidentally clicked the reply button... What I mean is: there are very often many reasons why you "shouldn't build right now." So let's say you save for another two years and come back here. Then you will have saved more equity, but maybe a desire to have children is coming closer. And suddenly, you get a lot of statements like "well, it's doable right now, but if you have children, then that's way too tight!" And who knows what the interest rates and construction costs will look like then. Then you might push it further towards "after parental leave" (but maybe child number two is on the way?). Financially, it's probably safer to build at the end of your 30s/around 40, but maybe that's not what you envisioned either, and in hindsight, you realize "now we've paid rent for x more years and actually it could have been done differently." So clearly, the current interest rate situation and your current equity are very unfavorable. So there are good reasons to "wait and save." But I wouldn't present that as a universal truth and just bury my head in the sand but rather take a closer look at it specifically for you. Aka, what would be a possible budget today, how far would you get with it, and how many compromises would you have to make.

Now, let's not exaggerate. Coming from humble beginnings, taking out a student loan, completing your studies with it, and having paid it all back by the age of just 30 – that actually says quite a lot, but certainly nothing negative.

Since everyone is criticizing me here, I wanted to clarify: if the parents have no money, you get BAFÖG. There are supposed to be students for whom that is enough. Capped BAFÖG debts and student loans of over 50,000.-- mean a long study period and/or high expenses. There are also supposed to be students who work alongside their studies or work between their Bachelor’s and Master’s. And repaying it in 5-7 years is no big deal.

There are always reasons why someone has spent so much money and saved nothing; these reasons also change with age, but the result is always the same. Therefore, I doubt the previous example of over 8,000.- income and 100% financing. Except for civil servants, no bank does that, and if at all, then only at 5% interest.

Personally, I am often more of the opinion "better to start earlier"

One should also not ignore the lead times for such a construction. Rough planning, search for the suitable construction company, approval, waiting time until scheduling... easily more than a year can pass before anything happens on the construction site.