Is our dream of a house falling apart?

I believe you misunderstand the sentence about the 2% repayment a bit. I think Gunjun means that one should not just let oneself be "talked into" such a repayment, but rather should repay higher in order to reduce the remaining debt and the term.

Although I do not necessarily see a term of 30 years as a problem. For us, it is also (without special repayments) almost 30 years term. But at an age of early 30s or, in my husband's case, not even 30, we would still be finished well before retirement, even without special repayments.

I think you misunderstand the sentence about the 2% amortization a bit. I believe Gunjun wants to say that one should not just let themselves be "talked into" such an amortization, but rather should amortize higher to reduce the remaining debt and the term.

Although I do not necessarily see a term of 30 years as problematic. For us, it is also (without special repayments) almost 30 years term. But at an age of early 30s or, in the case of my husband, not even 30, we would still be finished well before retirement, even without special repayments.

Ah - ok. Mea culpa. You can see again how a statement can be interpreted in two ways. Your interpretation makes more sense.

If the borrower is young enough, already lives and works in secure conditions (only then, in my opinion, should one generally engage in such a project), I am also not generally opposed to a 30-year term. In my opinion, one should at least secure the interest rate in the long term here, so as not to fall behind after the refinancing by a rate increase. With the longer term, the monthly burden can then be lowered – overall, of course, more interest is paid in the end.

You are certainly right about that. Generally, you do pay more interest, of course. But I think that the fixed interest rate and the term are always quite an individual matter. Depending on financial possibilities, life plans, and what one is willing to take on as a risk.

And it is also crucial how much one is willing to give for the dream of owning a house. We could pay more per month, certainly. But we don’t want to. We don’t want to work only for the house, but also want to be able to treat ourselves a bit. The 30-year term is the absolute safe option. But in the "worst case," we don’t want to have to (to put it bluntly) consider every day whether there is enough money for bread rolls from the bakery or whether it has to be toast from the discount store.
It is clear that the total costs are naturally higher in the end. But that doesn’t bother us much personally. And those who have the financial means don’t necessarily have to enter into an extremely long fixed interest rate period. If interest rates then rise, well, that’s just how it is, maybe annoying, but not the end of the world. However, that is only possible with the respective financial means.

You shouldn’t always see financing only in black or white. There are so many options and individualities that every financing really has to be tailored to the individual. To their wishes and, of course, possibilities.

We are both of the same opinion. For the reason you described, I wrote "I am also not generally opposed to a 30-year term."
Only one should, in my opinion, be careful that the financing is completed within the potential working life (according to that, I certainly can no longer do 30 years .)

Although there are other opinions on this as well. For example, my colleague holds the view that it is not a problem if, when leaving the workforce, e.g., 50,000 loans are still outstanding, since the installment due for this can easily be managed compared to potential rent, or one could sell the house at that age and look for something smaller.

To each their own.

off topic: I just noticed – my 350th post – I didn’t think at first that I would write this much here .

Then congratulations!

And otherwise, I completely agree with you! I believe that especially today's "young" builders (which I also count myself among) cannot yet estimate what pensions will look like in the future. A paid-off house is already "half the battle." The risk of no longer being able to pay the installments would be too high for me.