Is a house for a total volume of 400k still possible at all?

We come from Ratingen and have been looking for a building plot in this area this year (and have now found something in Mönchengladbach). If you were offered it out of the blue like that, you don't know how crazy the market is. There are actually NO building plots on the market. If something does come up, it is sold at 50%-80% above the standard land value. Usually, there are also old contaminants on it that you have to tear down first.

Though I do wonder where there is still a 270 Euro BRW here... Would you like to say roughly where the plot is located?

Either way, I assume that the plot could be sold on the open market for well over 100k. (Of course, it depends on the slope, etc. Quite common in the Bergisches Land...) So you have already made a good "profit" at the time of purchase. Prices here will not go down quickly. Düsseldorf has so far been almost unaffected by the Corona crisis. People are doing great. The prices for houses across Germany have risen by over 6% during the crisis. Surely even more in this area. I don't have a crystal ball, but I assume that all commuter belts around popular cities will continue to gain significant value with the increasing share of home office.

As for the house price: Read through the threads on basement discussions. There you will at least get some new ideas. We would also have liked to have a basement. A few square meters more living space above ground and a garden shed are much cheaper than a basement. In my opinion, that's not a zero-sum calculation.

We are now building 148 sqm for about 285,000 Euros (plus 65k additional construction costs + land costs + outdoor facilities). So it’s doable. But you have to be very disciplined with the fittings. Sometimes it hurts. But that’s normal. Even the generations after us didn’t have the dream house from day one. It was improved and upgraded gradually. Here in the forum, however, you get a distorted picture of the house-building society. Here, only above-average investments are made from the beginning. So: just calculate the fittings simply. For elaborate things, only have the preparation done during the construction phase (e.g., photovoltaics). Then it works. Perhaps 20k more would make it a bit more comfortable.

In conclusion: think carefully about whether you want to reject the offer. If you don’t accept it, in my opinion, you will never build a house. Looking for a plot on your own in 2-3 years will drive you to despair..