Is house construction financing possible at all?

Whether you are allowed to let your property become overgrown is questionable. I read the development plans for the new building areas here differently. You are usually allowed to paint facades however you want, yes. But otherwise, you are mostly far from being allowed to do whatever you want on your property. You have building boundaries, building numbers, green space regulations, conditions in the development plan, etc.

You obviously did not understand the core and meaning of my post. I specify: for your own home you are allowed to do almost everything that is not explicitly prohibited by public law regulations. When renting, you need the explicit consent of the owner for most projects and must comply with the other legal requirements.

The statistics of "who is better off at retirement age" are, however, inadequate for me. You already need two explicitly identical comparison groups to meaningfully present the result. Often, tenants are already financially worse off. Moreover, as already mentioned, the possible savings rate of the tenant often falls victim to consumption. These are already two variables that can simply make the difference. I personally also say that homeownership is not a profitable investment. At least not compared to other investment opportunities. But I also take that approach. People simply act irrationally.

If you don't save for your own home, what else is left? You could retire earlier with a lot of capital, which you then spend monthly. Otherwise, I really only see consumption left, which is also okay.

A property is also an investment beyond just money.
Feeling of life, responsibility, next generation, quality of life.

A property is also an investment beyond just money.
Lifestyle, responsibility, next generation, quality of life.

And independence. As a tenant of a house, the landlord can tell you when to mow the lawn, which pets you are allowed to keep, and who can sublet from you.
As the owner of a property, you can put a zebra in the overgrown garden and rent out your guest room to U2.

I also don’t like the eternal argument “the house belongs to the bank until the last installment anyway.” No, it doesn’t. You are at the top of the land register. You have a binding contract with the bank, and as long as you adhere to the agreements of this contract, the bank doesn’t actually own anything.

A property is an investment beyond just money.
Lifestyle, responsibility, next generation, quality of life.

A property mostly does one thing: Immobilizes. In the end, a property is always a ball and chain and binds you on various levels.

On one hand, you become significantly less mobile: Yippee – found a dream job with 10K more salary per year. Oh, but it’s 200 km away without home office. Ugh – just packing up and moving is difficult.

On the other hand, a property ties up a chunk of money every month anew. Whether at the beginning during financing or later during maintenance. Sure, you can let a property decay up to a certain point and just do nothing. I wouldn’t like that...

Another aspect is that a property constantly takes time. Whether filling out the new property tax declaration, gardening, small repairs and renovation work, scheduling appointments with craftsmen. And honestly: something always breaks and you have to take care of it. When renting, it was just a call or email and the landlord took care of it.

What do you mean by responsibility? A house is even more responsibility that comes on top. Sometimes the responsibility I have toward my child is enough for me...

Next generation – what? I simply cannot imagine that my child as an adult would want to take over our apartment when we (the latest possible time) are dead. At the current life expectancy of my wife and me, she would be about 55 years old at that time. The only thing she would still be interested in regarding the place is the sale proceeds. I assume she will have something of her own by then anyway. She will get a certain amount of start capital from us for her 18th birthday.

Next generation – again what? Who says that in our networked and globalized world children will even stay remotely near their place of origin? My wife lives 400 km away from her parents and her sister lived in England for the last five years and only returned to Germany a few weeks ago at least. Interest from the two to ever move back into the parents’ house equals 0.0. So why have a house for the next generation?

I find the very idea of living in the same property until death totally absurd. First you live there with spouse and kids, and later then as a couple or alone in ridiculous oversized living space whose ongoing maintenance costs are clearly higher than with an apartment, whose external grounds care does not overwhelm you because it is outsourced and therefore does not rot. But hey: a house is after all a lifestyle and quality of life...