House construction possible yes/no?

.... My goal is to achieve the dream of owning a home with a net income of €2,500. And when I consider that, in my circle of friends and acquaintances, I already belong to the "somewhat better" earners with that amount, I wonder how the "average earner" or "ordinary worker" can even afford a house....Isn't there absolutely anyone here who is in a similar financial situation and might have something to say about it? :P

I can understand you very well and think the same way. I want to build a house together with my girlfriend. And I think that we should actually manage that, because together we have about €3,600 net income. Unfortunately, we only have about €30,000 in equity. So not quite that much. But I think that with that we can probably build a house including ancillary costs and land for about €300,000. And even then we are already wondering whether that will work or whether we are taking a risk.

Hello DaGoodness,

well, it all adds up. Let's assume a plot of land somewhere in the countryside for 80 euros per sqm.

Plot (600 sqm): 48,000 euros
Notary + property transfer tax: 4,000 euros (roughly)
Total plot: 52,000 euros

So you still have around 200,000 euros left for the house. Now let's take a smaller house with a total area of 150 sqm (for example without a basement) and calculate with a price per square meter of 1,200 euros (which is VERY cheap!), then we end up at 180,000 euros for the house. But that's far from everything. The full calculation would easily look like this:

Plot (600 sqm): 48,000 euros
Notary + property transfer tax: 4,000 euros (roughly)
Ready-to-move-in house (150 sqm): 180,000 euros
Earthworks: 15,000 euros
Architect: 2,000 euros
Construction power/water: 2,500 euros
Finished garage without electric drive with swing gate: 7,000 euros
Outdoor facilities: 10,000 euros (not much paved or done here!)
Connection work (Telekom, electricity, water): 2,500 euros
Permit procedure: 1,000 euros
Total: 272,000 euros

And to be honest: there is no buffer included yet, and some items were calculated rather at the lower limit! For the 180,000 euros at 1,200 euros/sqm you will hardly have a ready-to-move-in house, but a shell house. So you can easily budget another 10,000 euros for materials and 10,000 euros as a buffer! Also a tough year with many weekends, evenings and helpers on the construction site. We have not yet included new furniture, no fitted kitchen, no small stuff (curtains, lamps...) and for the floor coverings (parquet/tiles/laminate...), the number of sockets and light switches as well as the sanitary equipment, the price is also more on the cheapest side. Special requests such as a special type of wood, a glass railing, blinds or anthracite-colored window frames we forget or count another 10,000 euros again.

Conclusion: Even in the countryside with cheap land prices you very quickly end up at 350,000 euros for a SMALL house without many extras, where you will do a lot yourself. The 250,000 euros you mentioned I consider not feasible, as nice as it would be for me...

So why do so many people build? Quite simple!

1. They have some parents who give them a lot of money. I also know acquaintances who just got 150,000 euros for it! This is not an isolated case. And even our general contractor said that many parents and grandparents prefer to give their money to the child for the house rather than invest it in the current situation (crisis & interest rates).

2. They take the low interest rates as a basis and do not expect that in 10 or 15 years, renegotiations will happen with presumably higher rates!

3. They received a plot as a gift!

4. They do a lot themselves. Here too I have some acquaintances who have had a permanent construction site for 2 years, whose relationships and nerves are at their limits, and moving in is still a good year away. You can do it, but you have to be the kind of person for a 3-year construction site!

I don’t want to discourage you. But take an architect and give him the order to plan a house for your budget including all additional costs (see above, although I don’t claim this list is complete... for example I forgot the structural engineer and the surveyor!!!).

PS: I made a mistake. In the list, it must not say "bezugsfertiges Haus: 180,000 Euro" but rather "Ausbauhaus: 180,000 Euro"!

Small example from reality, unfortunately experienced firsthand this week...

This week backfilling was done, unfortunately the soil at my place is very poor, so with backfilling it will definitely settle completely. Hmm, at first you think "not so bad, then in 5 years I'll just throw a trailer full of earth on top again." Well, it's not that simple, because when it settles, the drainage pipes settle too and form nice waves. As a result, they will clog sooner or later, so you have to dig up half the house again, which is botched and expensive. So what do you do? You have backfill material delivered. That was a smooth 17 trucks, something over 400 tons of material. You can’t see any of it anymore now since it’s underground. Well, a whopping 8000€ on top, that hurts, but it has to be. Don’t want to discourage anyone, but don’t underestimate, there’s always something extra and 8000€ you don’t see at first is already something. Calculating 3000€ for special requests? Hehe, that’s already gone if someone wants more than the standard for electricity – namely one socket per room – or a few network cables. What is shown to you as standard in all the sales talks is like when buying a car. The base model is then empty, no air conditioning, no central locking, no parking sensors, not even foldable seats or metallic paint, be aware of that...

Let's take a smaller house with a total area of 150sqm (for example, without a basement)

Since when is a house of 150sqm SMALL???????
Most houses in new housing developments have a living area of around +/-110sqm (without basement).
Even with this area, many can be happy ;)

First of all, thanks for the answers and the cost breakdown from you Orion. I also don’t find 150sqm exactly small, that would rather be the ideal size for me. I would actually plan for about 130-140sqm and in the ground floor I’m counting on a living room with dining area and open kitchen, guest WC, utility room and a small office or guest room, and on the upper floor 3 bedrooms and a bathroom. I can quite understand Orion’s calculation as well, although personally I would have already included the earthworks and a garage for about €8,000 in the €180,000 total price for the house. Since I’m not really a handyman, I can’t do that much myself either :P. What I would definitely do are the ceilings, walls and floors inside (so tiles on the ground floor, laminate upstairs (bathroom tiles)... paint or wallpaper all walls and hang and paint drywall ceilings upstairs). That’s not really a lot of saving potential, but at least something. I consider the points furniture and kitchen exaggerated in contrast. I don’t count the sanitary installations as furniture and therefore the point furniture is irrelevant for me. A complete furnishing of living room, dining room, bedroom, children’s room and office already exists and this should be taken along. Only a new kitchen would be planned, although I consider €15,000 a bit exaggerated for that. That would be, including the usual discounts, a list price of over €20,000. Our current kitchen cost €4,000 including all appliances (list price €7,000). My mother recently had a new kitchen installed for €7,000 (list price €12,000). I would also plan at most €8,000 for a new kitchen. Well, on Thursday there is an independent information event at the adult education center about the possibilities of house financing, as well as the indication of possible subsidies and other tips and tricks one should consider. I think I’ll just listen to that and then see what’s next :) PS: Just a quick question in between: Why can’t I make paragraphs in my texts? When I press "Enter" as usual, it always stays in the current line :P