Is buying a house for a maximum of €350,000 realistic?

Would never want to do without a basement either, as it definitely should not be seen just as a "storage space."

With your budget, however, you won't make it with 400k, I'm sure of that.

Without a basement and 130-140m², you can manage with 400k. So you will have to give up the basement, for better or worse.

We are at about 450k - 150m² with basement without additional building costs. The basement costs us around 60-70k, so you can figure out how you can manage.

I may have possibly overlooked which region you are building in while reading through the thread. Therefore, I will assume that you are staying in your current federal state, which is listed in your profile.

Hessen is comparable in price to Bavaria. We are currently building a house ourselves, about 140sqm with a basement. For the house and additional building costs (including a cistern and lifting system), we come to around 383k euros including upgrades for the bathroom and electrical work. Additionally, there are costs for garden design and a carport. We are doing a few things ourselves (installing underfloor heating, floors, painting) to keep the costs as low as possible, but at the same time we do not want to forgo a bit of comfort (basement at living room height with underfloor heating in one room, large children’s rooms, nice bathrooms with walk-in showers at floor level, preparation for split air conditioning, blinds on large floor-to-ceiling south-facing windows, well-designed network). But comfort is, of course, a matter of definition here.

It will be a solid brick house to KfW55 standard. If you want more, it naturally gets more expensive; if less, it can be cheaper. We are building with a construction company and pay the trades directly without going through a middleman (like a developer).

I therefore think that with the right construction company your budget is sufficient for a small house including a basement. It really depends on the level of comfort you want. Friends of ours, according to their own statement, come to a crazy 800k euros for a house (without land) with slanted rooms and a gallery. I find it awful, they love it. But to each their own.

I may have missed which region you are building in while reading through the thread. Therefore, I assume you are staying in your current federal state, as stated in your profile.

Hessen is comparable in price to Bavaria. We are currently building a house ourselves, about 140 sqm with a basement. For the house and additional construction costs (including cistern and lifting system) we come to around 383k Euros including upgrades for bathroom and electrical work. Additional costs come for garden landscaping and a carport. We are doing a few things ourselves (installing underfloor heating, floors, painting) to keep costs low where possible, but at the same time do not want to give up a bit of comfort (basement at living height with underfloor heating in one room, large children’s rooms, nice bathrooms with walk-in showers at floor level, preparation for split air conditioning, blinds on large floor-to-ceiling south-facing windows, well-designed network). But comfort is a matter of definition here.

It will be a solid house built to KFW55 standard. If you want more, it naturally gets more expensive; if less, it can be cheaper. We are building with a construction company and pay the trades directly without going through a middleman (such as a developer).

Okay, that’s crazy... Especially with the additional construction costs, that’s really great, I can hardly believe it.

Bavaria is not just Bavaria... Just as a side note.

Sure, comfort is really crucial, as you say, Strahlemann.

When you consider things like basements, controlled residential ventilation, fireplaces, front door canopies, wooden stairs, the size of the house itself, large windows/number of windows, garages, and so on and so forth... you can actually save around 100k quickly depending on the size of the building/building area, etc.