How much house can we afford?

Hello everyone!

I (29) and my girlfriend (23) want to make a change in our living situation after 4 years in a rented apartment on the 3rd floor without a balcony. We both know that someday we want our own home in the form of a house. The problem is that we haven't really dealt with the topic properly yet. Since neither of us was too bad at math, the question arises whether we should rent again or just go all in right away.

Let's say about €600 cold rent x 5 years = €36,000 gone, the landlord is happy.

The parents-in-law say we should wait because we don't have enough equity (about €30,000 at the start of financing). Now the question I ask myself is whether it's worth sinking €36,000 and saving on the side or to start right away and put the rent into our own pocket.

My net income: about €2,200 (civil servant) Her net income: about €1,500 (permanent contract, but that doesn't mean much) Children: definitely someday

Interest rates are rising again. Is it possible to save against that? What do you think? What can we afford with the salary? The most realistic would, of course, be to base the financing on my salary alone.

Hello Chefrocker96,

if you want to base the financing solely on your salary, you should rather orient yourself on your previous standard of living and your previous spending behavior.

With a cold rent of 600 EUR, you can finance approx. 120,000 EUR + 30,000 EUR equity = 150,000 EUR.

If you want to play around with the numbers a bit more, you can find a corresponding calculation tool here:

Best regards

M. Thiemann