How long have you been saving equity for your house?

At 19, I made the decision to want a house, saved diligently, lived at home for a long time, rented for only 2 years. Worked like crazy, day and night with a full-time job plus 2 side jobs, and then at 25 bought with 180,000 equity for a then insanely high price of 530,000. Since we also scaled back a lot with the house, everything was paid off by the mid-30s. After that, the working hours were immediately reduced from over 80 hours to a somewhat normal level. Now that the pressure is off, I do more things that I enjoy instead of the better-paying stressful jobs.

After that, the working hours were immediately reduced from over 80 hours to a somewhat normal level.

Quite a lot of torment to be done by the mid-30s. But respect!

We bought a condominium in 2017 with 45,000 EUR of my own equity. Until 2016, no significant income (dual studies he + full-time studies she). My wife continued studying until 2020 and is now doing an expensive practical training following her academic education in her future profession (which has cost 15,000 EUR so far). Nevertheless, we managed to pay for a wedding (30,000 EUR), repay at least 25,000 EUR to date, and now save at least 30,000 EUR in cash for the house construction.

Both academics, nothing was gifted by anyone and everything was earned ourselves.

But to be honest. If you cannot save at least 30,000 EUR per year, saving/waiting with regard to construction costs and real estate price development simply does not make sense. In addition, the monthly annuity increases every year if you want to be finished by retirement.

Therefore, we are building now - thanks to a high household income - also with 65,000 EUR (calculated) of free real estate equity and 30,000 EUR cash. Of course, a little bit of sweat equity is still necessary.

In 2017, we bought a condominium with 45,000 EUR of equity from me. Until 2016, there was no significant income (dual studies for me + full-time studies for her). My wife continued studying until 2020 and is now undergoing an - following her academic education - expensive practical training in her future profession (which has cost 15,000 EUR so far). Nevertheless, we managed to pay for a wedding (30,000 EUR), repay at least 25,000 EUR to date, and now save at least 30,000 EUR in cash for the house construction.

Both academics, received nothing as a gift from anyone, and earned everything ourselves.

But honestly. If you cannot save at least 30,000 EUR per year, saving/waiting in view of construction costs and real estate price developments simply makes no sense. Additionally, with each passing year, the monthly annuity increases if you want to be finished by retirement.

Therefore, we are building now - thanks to a high household income - with 65,000 EUR (calculated) free real estate assets and 30,000 EUR cash. Of course, a bit of additional "muscle mortgage" is still necessary.

May I ask what salary you are calculating with and for what amount you are building?

Saving was difficult for a long time. We both studied, each with little parental support (around €250/month for my wife, €184/month for me) and the rest through housing allowance and student loans. My wife finished in 2016 and went into her teacher training, where she earned €1100 net, which was already a huge leap. I studied until 2018 and worked full-time as a working student at the school alongside, then in summer 2018 went into teacher training with €1300 per month. My wife started earning full-time from February 2018, I have been earning full-time since August 2020. In between, there was a wedding and currently parental leave. We are now 30/31 and from July we will have two full salaries for the first time (€6600 net). House construction started with equity of just under €17k. I regret that I didn’t deal more with investment products during my studies to better invest the few euros earned through side jobs. With full salary and despite financing 2 cars, student loan, and house, we can save about €1500 per month. Nevertheless, we have already decided to build because we no longer want to rent, as modern, sufficiently large apartments here also cost around €1200 cold rent. We grabbed a plot of land (fully serviced €85/sqm) and the house will be around €380k including everything. It was the right time, the currently newly developed building areas are between €150/sqm (unattractive location) and €300/sqm (unattractive location in a small town). Location: Rügen, MV

May I ask what salary you are expecting and for what amount you are building?

Currently mid four-figure plus rental income from a condominium still personally used of 1.0'; from the end of 2023 then +1.2' and the training costs of about 1.0' per month will also no longer apply.

Construction amount 830'; debt capital 700'; annuity about 2.0'