How does everyone afford a house?

Excuse me, what?! In my opinion, legal protection insurance is one of the most important insurances you can have. Without it, we would have been in quite a bind several times. Especially when undertaking a house construction, you simply cannot do without legal protection. The same applies to dental supplementary insurance. It is already worthwhile just because of the annual dental cleaning, and I consider that not a luxury but necessary precaution.

I don’t even know if there are still sensible legal protection insurances for house construction at all. After seeing what is included (mostly just an initial consultation with a lawyer), we refrained from taking out legal protection insurance. And on the subject of dental insurance: How much does the dental cleaning cost and how much do you pay annually for the insurance?

An insurance company wants to make money from it, so all policyholders pay more into the insurance than they get out. As long as the risk is manageable, an insurance is therefore ultimately not worthwhile. In the case of liability damages, the risk is so high that there is naturally a compulsory insurance behind it. Regarding dental insurance, the risk is, in my opinion, limited. The dental cleaning certainly costs less than the premiums, and if I need a denture in 30 years, I know it might cost about €5,000. The insurance would probably not cover more than €2,000-3,000 of that. The risk is manageable in my opinion. On the other hand, if my house burns down and I have to furnish everything anew, that is less likely but by far more expensive, so it is not something that can easily be paid out of reserves.

Excuse me, what?! The same applies to the supplementary dental insurance. It’s worth it just because of the annual dental cleaning, and I don’t consider that a luxury but necessary preventive care.

If I’m not mistaken, a professional dental cleaning costs about €80, which makes a maximum of €320 per year (twice for two people), and so €160 per year are spent quite quickly.

Regarding the household insurance you might be right, but it’s so cheap, that it’s almost not worth giving up.

If you want to save money, you should really check whether another €180 per year is really that little?

When I compare prices, we get it for €230,000-240,000. We can still renovate it according to our wishes for €20,000-30,000.

You might get the house for €230,000-240,000, but renovating it according to your wishes for only €30,000 will be very difficult.

German is not my native language, please understand if my sentences are not written correctly.

If I’m not mistaken, a professional teeth cleaning costs about €80, which amounts to a maximum of €320 per year (twice for two people), and so quickly €160 p.a. disappear.

It should even be less, as several health insurances contribute to this preventive measure; either partially or one cleaning per year is covered 100% by the health insurance.

I have spent some time dealing with the topic "dental supplementary insurance" and therefore know quite well that Musketier’s assessment hits the mark.

Rhenish greetings

I think many people can currently "afford" to build a house because they do not bring any equity into the financing and nowadays many banks also finance without equity. These are things that perhaps people do not always talk about in their circle of acquaintances, which is why one wonders "how do they manage to save so much equity even though they are the same age as us?" Did I actually overlook this or was it really not included in the TE's cost breakdown – the expenses for a pension insurance? If these were not included, I would also give it some thought, because the earlier you start with it, the cheaper it still is.

Then you have to open your eyes again....You can hardly renovate properties from the 80s with 20,000 - 30,000 euros. Because if they are so cheap in the ES district, then there is probably considerable renovation backlog. You can also get such houses cheaply with us, but those are then villages of 500 inhabitants, in the "bigger" cities they cost significantly more. And after 30 years you can already replace the windows or start thinking about water pipes. Heating is also an issue, can you take out the old oil burner or are there perhaps night storage heaters? Then it starts, where do I begin to renovate??

I'm very happy to have my eyes opened But I am quite surprised that 30-year-old windows/heating have to be replaced. I always thought that would last about 40-50 years.

I don't even know if there are still sensible legal protection insurances for house building.
After we saw what is included (mostly only initial consultation with the lawyer) we refrained from taking out legal protection.
And on the topic of dental insurance. What does the dental cleaning cost and what do you pay annually for the insurance?
An insurance wants to make money from it, so all policyholders pay more into the insurance than they get out. As long as the risk is manageable, insurance is not worthwhile in the long run. In liability damage, the risk is so high that, of course, there is a mandatory insurance behind it.
In my opinion, the risk with dental insurance is limited. The dental cleaning certainly costs less than the amounts and if I need a prosthesis in 30 years, I know it might cost 5000€. The insurance would probably cover no more than 2-3k€ of that. The risk is manageable in my opinion.
If, on the other hand, the house burns down and I have to completely refurnish, that is less likely but much more expensive, so it cannot be easily paid from reserves.

It doesn't necessarily have to concern the house... but thinking back over the years, there was an employment law case, compensation for pain and suffering due to medical malpractice, various initial consultations, etc... I would be quite anxious running around without legal protection insurance.
Regarding the dental supplementary... dental cleaning costs us just under 100 euros twice a year. Times two, that's 400 euros/year. The insurance covers 340 euros of that. Then here and there a composite filling. We don't need that every year of course, but let's say we use 400 euros of the insurance that costs us 480 euros. And these 80 remaining euros are well invested for possible dental prosthetics that easily cost thousands.

I have picked out two current real estate offers here that would be within our desired radius:

1. Semi-detached house for 260,000 euros - 145 sqm living space - 524 sqm plot - built in 1977 - oil central heating from 2000 - wooden insulated glass windows

2. Multi-family house with 3 apartments for 259,000 euros - 220 sqm living space - 600 sqm plot - built in 1997 - oil central heating - insulated glass windows - solar thermal system from 2009 - roof insulation from 2008

Neither of them is really optimal (the first simply not perfect and the second too big) but the overview has actually made me hopeful that we will keep searching for a few more years and find the perfect bargain

@Schnucklinie,

In my opinion, you can just relax, build up some equity over a few years (with free use) and simultaneously observe real estate for 2-3 years, meaning look at new model homes and existing properties in the area, compare prices and generally get a feel for what costs will come your way.

Renovating/refurbishing an existing property from the 80s for 20-30K€ obviously doesn’t work, as already described. But you won’t be old in 2-3 years, instead significantly smarter.

So just look around a lot and gather experience, nothing is going anywhere.

Have fun!
Dirk Grafe