Is a basement in a single-family house useful or rather too expensive?

When I look at Immoscout, I recognize the following trend (or as far as I know it has always been this way): in the south (I look at Munich and the surrounding area) large buildings are still being built. 160 sqm and larger, always with a basement. In the north (I look at East NRW) smaller buildings are being constructed, around 120/130 sqm and mostly without a basement. We built without a basement because I’m fed up with carrying laundry up and down two floors – now it’s only one staircase; unfortunately, we didn’t put the washing machine in the upstairs, but that’s an improvement at least. There is a storage room by the garage where all tools etc. go – and everything else currently in the basement is just trash and junk. We only have a partial basement here anyway. I’m not going to build a super expensive basement and then possibly have problems with groundwater or something because someone messed around...

I am firmly convinced that the marginal utility of more land decreases significantly with the size of the property and after a certain time even becomes negative. In other words: beyond a certain area, the value decreases for me again because I cannot do anything additionally meaningful with it, but have more costs and more effort.

Yeah, from 1500 m² it’s probably like that, but everything under 1000 m² had to be paid for dearly :O

In Munich and the surrounding area, few can afford a detached single-family house. Those who can, also place value on size and a basement. Most have to settle for a townhouse or a semi-detached house. Even for that, you pay 700k and more within the city area.

In Munich and the surrounding area, few can afford a detached single-family house. Those who can, also place value on the size and a basement. Most have to make do with a terraced house or a semi-detached house. Even for that, you already pay 700k and more in the urban area.

700k in Munich for a semi-detached house? Even in the Rhineland, you already pay 600k for a terraced house. I would assume Munich is even more expensive.

Sorry, no, the 700k was the price a classmate had to pay for a mid-terrace house from the 80s. You can't get a semi-detached house for that. Certainly not something new.

In the Munich suburbs, 20 minutes by S-Bahn to Stachus, so actually almost city, semi-detached houses were available for 800 thousand each, 160 sqm with a basement. The plot was accordingly rather tiny. I didn’t remember the fittings, so it was probably a normal standard where basically every builder would still like to add extras.