How much house can we afford?

General information about you:

[*]Who are you? We are a family from Dortmund and would like to return to Münsterland, my home region
[*]How old are you? 36 and 34
[*]Are there children? yes, 0 and 2 years old
[*]Are more children planned? No
[*]What do you do for a living? I have been working in the IT sector for 10 years and she works in property management
[*]Are you employed? Yes, I full-time and permanent, my wife part-time and permanent
[*]How many hours do you work? 40h and 25h per week
[*]Due to 4 days remote work possible, currently only 1 car is planned.

Income and asset situation:

[*]What income do you have? 3500€/month net + bonus ~300€ monthly| me 1500€ net | 500 € child benefit
[*]How much equity do you have? 100,000€

Housing costs:

[*]current rent including utilities without gas = 1200€
[*]electricity 130€
[*]gas 140€

Mobility costs:

[*]company car with 1% taxation and unlimited kilometers

Insurance costs:

[*]liability insurance
[*]disability insurance (BU)
[*]private liability insurance (RLV)
[*]pension insurance
[*]supplementary health insurance
[*]600€ per month

Living expenses:

[*]2200€ including daycare fees of 350€

Current costs approx. 4300€

What would roughly be feasible and planable here.

Currently there are still free building plots for 200€/sqm with 450-500 sqm size in a small town, which would appeal to us.

We would like to put in about 75,000 as equity.

New furniture and larger purchases except for the kitchen are currently not planned, as we rent a fully furnished 120sqm apartment which also includes a garden for exclusive use.

Furthermore, we would be satisfied with a 130-140sqm house including guest room/office plus garage.

Is this wish realistic?

I would casually ask a financial broker or your main bank what is possible. 100000€ for the land, equity for the incidental purchase costs, and a loan of about 400000-450000 for the house. Equity then also for additional construction costs and miscellaneous expenses. Is a job change planned?

Thank you very much for the initial assessment. Currently, a job change is not planned, as my employer maintains another office relatively nearby (Münster), to which I could transfer, so my commute would not be significant. For my wife, this would be more conceivable, but with the small children, it is not considered in the next 2 years, as 100% home office opportunity offers an unbeatable flexibility advantage.

Roughly, you end up here with total costs of 550-600k excluding the garage ([Grundstück 100k, Haus 400k, Baunebenkosten, Küche, Außenanlagen]). That makes 500k in external capital and a payment somewhere in the range of 2300-2500€. With subsidized loans or a long term, you can reduce this a bit, but it remains a tight matter.

So 5,500€ sustainable net + bonus. From that, I deduct 3,000€ as the bank for living expenses all in, leaving 2,500€ for an annuity. For that, you get about 600k€ loan (for simplicity 3.5% interest / 1.5% repayment - that is approx. 34 years term, roughly until retirement). Simply put: Yes, you can finance a nice little house. If you take 500k€ loan (example ), the rate drops to 2,100€. Or if you simply build a normal standard, the house will also be cheaper in construction costs (400k€ for 130 sqm is already really well equipped - especially since construction prices are already slightly falling again and there is enough capacity in the market). At 130 sqm there are nice houses off the shelf.

With your income, the housing subsidy from the NRW.Bank (1% and repayment grant) is an option. Additionally, KFW 300 (0.34%) and Nachhaltig.Wohnen (currently under 1%) from the NRW.Bank. For families with middle incomes living in NRW, an absolutely fantastic financing opportunity, the only question is how long it will last!