Is financing a new single-family house feasible?

The transformation from being as risk-averse as one can be to full risk always surprises me anew.

Yes, me too :-). Although I wasn't risk-averse. The house was simply the wrong one. I can see that now, 0.0 concerns. On the contrary, I can hardly wait for it to start.

To support the original poster here once again with a positive example, even if the situations cannot be compared 1:1.

We presented our project in the forum back then. Equity even slightly less than you. Household income about 5000 euros net nearly 2 years ago. He was a civil servant at the federal government in the promotion process to the higher service. She was relatively newly employed in the public sector E10 (so higher service). She had just returned from parental leave. Works part-time.
Loan amount about 500k.

We were completely denied the ability to manage money. (We have financed our lives 99.99% on our own. No significant monetary gifts or financial benefits from the family)

The overall tenor was: don’t do it. You will fall on your face and won’t be able to handle the installments.

Jump 2 years later:
We have been living in the house for a few months. Except for the outdoor facilities everything is finished. Over 20k is still left from the loan (for the outdoor facilities).
We were extremely disciplined with the upgrades, after handover of the house everything was done by ourselves (walls, floors, garden, fence).

We only commissioned the garage at the very end when it was clear that no nasty surprises could happen during the construction phase anymore. Before that it would have been much more practical. But this way it was safer.

During the construction phase, we were able to save over 20k additionally. That easily covered the kitchen, moving, lamps, a few pieces of furniture, etc. We kept many pieces of furniture and will possibly replace them gradually.

Today we got the payslip. We now have 6900 net. (I am now in the higher service, my wife changed to the federal government during the construction phase with a higher salary).

After completion, the equity was back to zero, but now we already have a low five-figure amount in the savings account again.

This is not meant to brag. We built relatively simply. It is just meant to show how wrong the prevailing opinion in the forum can be.

But I already found it presumptuous back then how our supposed lack of connection to money and the 23-year-old with 200k inheritance in the account was credited with great saving behavior with zero risk in the future.

See it this way:
The forum does not serve as an advocate in difficult situations. It is rather the warning voice.
Take it as motivation to show the warners. Be disciplined. Make a precise plan about what it means. Are you ready to endure hardship? To really say “no” often and painfully to offered upgrades?
Then do it :)

To support the OP again here with a positive example, even though the situations cannot be compared 1:1.

I am not the OP, but still wanted to thank you again for the experience report :) surely you also had a very positive financial development, which not everyone will achieve, but it still gives some courage.

The forum does not serve as an advocate in difficult situations. It is more like the cautionary voice.

Or you can also see it this way: There are simply few experts in the forum. And no financing experts (well, one single one is now hanging around here ). Most people here have built exactly once in their life. And their experience is precisely limited to that. They believe they have read most of their "knowledge" in the forum. But that this cannot work at all (because the acquired knowledge is also based only on a single personal experience without transfer to others – it’s practically always stirring in the same soup), most people here do not understand. We have everything here – IT people who call themselves bankers because their employer is one, people who comment on floor plans like on an assembly line and therefore consider themselves floor plan experts… One should never rely on any laypeople on the internet for a life decision like building a house but rather get advice from experts and think things through oneself. According to the forum’s opinion, I certainly should never have bought my first property either. Yet it was a cornerstone for my current financial situation.

Let's first wait and see if the OP even gets an offer from the bank. The interest rate trend is currently very unfavorable with such tight calculations. At the moment, it would be 2.7%, so with some luck a €1,700 payment. It could also get worse next week. The 10-year swap currently only points in one direction.

Well, I don't know if there are few experts here in the forum, but just calculating it for yourself shouldn't be too difficult. Everyone can calculate for themselves what will be left over from the payment at the end of the month. So, as I said, if we take the disposable income, only just under €320,000 credit comes out and some luxury like holidays etc. is not included here. The higher interest rates already cost over €100,000 in credit here.

It first has to fit with the current salary. Having €1,900 net more in 2 years is definitely not the norm.
It would be a similar situation for us when buying a house because I then have more options. But for example, I wouldn’t include that in our calculations at all.

Well, it's not really about advising perfectly on financing, etc. In this area, it's more about sharing life experiences, mentioning financial and life situations that might need to be considered. Often, it is basically about making a TE aware of what all belongs to the current ongoing monthly costs, so that TE can first become clear about it. That's why there is the somewhat meticulous checklist, which certainly already brings the first awakening for some. The purpose is to consciously manage one's income.

And, for one or the other, the often prevailing headwind here has apparently also given the right boost, and it has become a successful project. And if the warnings from the forum have only unconsciously sharpened the awareness, then that is already good.

And if someone can’t even stand a little headwind here in the forum, can’t successfully fight their own doubts because a strategy has emerged, then I don’t really trust them to handle a more difficult financing either... Life experience :cool: