How long have you been saving equity for your house?

I’m not exactly sure if the comment about the good conditions was meant ironically. In any case, we are satisfied with the conditions so far; there can always be better or worse.

I also wondered if that was ironic? If I understood correctly, the property is probably still roughly within Munich’s catchment area and therefore quite valuable. So there can hardly be much better conditions...

Yes, so the banks were also satisfied with that.

What I actually wanted to express: Yes, we are two academics (32/27). But still, it would not have been possible for us to build a house on our own in the foreseeable future. We know that we are lucky and are truly grateful for it. We also know that there are families who can never fulfill this wish.

I just happen to know "both sides." The house will have a granny flat for my mother, who will be going into basic old-age security in 2-3 years. When the rental apartment is then terminated, she would otherwise have no chance to have a garden, for example, although that is her favorite hobby. In all her "bad luck," she is also "lucky" that all three of her daughters have become academics who can then give something back to her. The family on my father's side does not have such problems.

Why are the 80k net constantly quoted here when private health insurance contributions are still deducted from that? If I’m not mistaken, that leaves about 67,200€ net, so 5600€ net per month. According to Statista, the average income is about 4K gross -> For dual earners, that leads to about 5k net. The two teachers are therefore not much above average....

Why are 80k net constantly quoted here when private health insurance contributions are still deducted from that? If I'm not mistaken, that leaves 67,200€ net, i.e. 5,600€ net per month. According to Statista, the average income is about 4k gross -> For dual earners, this leads to about 5k net. So the two teachers are not far above average....

Yes, that is not net. For example, my wife has so far not found any private health insurance that would accept her due to a pre-existing condition. She is therefore currently insured under public health insurance despite being a civil servant. In any case, with A12, this certainly does not lead towards the upper class. In her case, there are also 9 years of training behind it, so you really don’t have to be envious of the salary. My cousin of the same age earns 2k net more as a graduate physicist without personnel responsibility (Munich).

Depending on who is around you, a different picture of good earnings always emerges as a basis for comparison.

One more thing on the topic:

We have not actively saved for the house construction. Through our condominium [ETW], we have virtually saved passively and also benefited from the value increases of the past years. Additionally, we had a large surplus every month and invested parts of it. This allowed us to now go into the house construction with a high equity share.

Regarding the house construction, I would simply start nowadays regardless. The price increases on the market exceed the interest rates for borrowed capital by a large margin. With an assumed price increase of 3% per year, after 5 years, thanks to compound interest, there are 16% additional costs. For a house construction costing over 500k, it costs 80,000€ to wait 5 years to save.

If I am able to save 20k per year, we are talking about 100k equity that can be saved during this time. So, one is actually only 20k in the plus...

If I simply take the 100k additionally as a loan, I may have to pay about 15k more in interest depending on the initial repayment.

Quite simplified, but from a financial point of view, saving currently is not really worthwhile... assuming creditworthiness.

We have a household gross income without child benefit of 64,000 p. a. and we already feel well off. This is probably mainly due to the fact that just a few years ago we had to top up with housing allowance and ALG 2. I earned 700 € net from my part-time job and my husband earned 1000 for full-time and worked through weekends in the summer. Really crazy...