Is the financing volume for our construction project realistic?

Are there any thumb rules? I think I once heard about a hundred times the net salary?

I know that rule too, but we are 10 years younger and thus have 10 more years to pay off. That has to be taken into account. But if the bank gives you 900k and you can sleep well with that and really want to pay until retirement age, then it's okay.

Don’t you think 515,000 euros just for the house (without kitchen) is unrealistic? With 200 m², that would be 2,575 euros per m², and I thought that wouldn't be underestimated. If you say that, for example, nothing below 3,000 euros per m² works, of course I have to start cutting, pool, garage, etc.

I do think that’s realistic if you don’t want luxury. If it starts outside with a pool and horse stable, then inside it might also get tight with 2,500 €/m².

Your outdoor area calculation is of course explained by the pool. Hedge and lawn still seem expensive to me. We have done both recently. Hedge for us was 100 plants at 10€ each, so 1,000€. But probably the planned 8,000€ can also be avoided. Lawn seed was 50€ for us. How do you get to 7,000€?

I would rather do without the pool than work full-time with 3 small children and that with over 9,000 net. But of course, that is your decision.

The 7,000 euros were an estimate from gardening companies including labor time also for soil preparation. Removing the surface, leveling, compacting. Whether this is necessary in detail I cannot say yet, the garden has so far been somewhat low in priority. The property is not yet in a state where I could go there with companies to inspect it. So far, they can only give rough estimates.

Three children spaced one year apart... Well, I think it's ambitious to assume that the woman could then quickly go back to working full-time. One of the children is sick all the time, infections run in circles, as soon as the last one is healthy, the first one starts again... In your position, you don't really work nine to five either and then jump in to help your wife with childcare. Instead, there are business trips, events in the evening and on weekends... If mom then manages the three little ones on the side like that, respect! In any case, I would initially only calculate with 50% part-time.

May I ask a dumb question... With that surplus and the mentioned equity, you can't have been saving like that for very long, right? Or did you have other large expenses?

Anyway... In that salary range and if you otherwise don't live extravagantly... Then the mentioned amount is doable. Even if half of the income goes into the house, the rest left for living is still so much... Most people can only dream of that.

Of course you can afford a house under these conditions. However, there are points that make me doubt.

According to your calculation, you currently have a surplus of 3000.-, until a year ago this must have been even higher, when there were no children yet. That means you should have easily saved the equity of 120k€ within 3-4 years. What happened in the years before? Earned less or spent more? Stocks/ funds?

I am of the opinion that your equity does not correspond to what one would expect at your age in connection with the income.

Otherwise, your project is quite feasible under the above conditions, but you will have to live with possibly nicely calculated numbers.

BTW. A 2500 €/m² house is standard with a few extras, but does not match what you plan in the outdoor area. If you expect similar luxury inside, you should think it over again.

That is correct, we had higher or different expenses, for example a first car that had to be paid for ourselves with costs for depreciation, insurance, and fuel, a motorcycle, and the household contents. The salary was also somewhat lower until not too long ago.

The pool is certainly a luxury, there can be no two opinions about that, and it is surely also the first candidate to be cut if the total costs become too expensive. Otherwise, one can probably make the terrace or the garage smaller, but I am actually not fixed on that yet. I do not consider sowing the lawn and the garden fence to be luxurious. I have been busy the past few weeks continuously refining the cost breakdown and simply realize that, on the one hand, a multitude of even small individual items add up to large total sums, and on the other hand, the large plot of land also has an impact, even if the price per square meter is not even that high. For example, 200 meters of garden fence with installation simply seem to be expensive.

In the end, I want to create a nice home for my family without plunging it into a completely crazy adventure. The fact that we will also pay about 400,000 - 500,000 euros in rent over the next 20 years motivates us to take the step now, but of course one can discuss which levers can still be turned back a notch.

How secure is your income, your job, and your wife?

Even managing directors can be dismissed, and such positions are rather rare. What did my old laid-off boss once say, "the air is very thin at the top."

With such an investment amount, I would also expect much more equity to reduce the loan. Supporting 3 children in full-time for years plus construction has to be managed first. We are already mentally exhausted with 2 (8 & 5) in the current situation.

Pool with 55k, horses, and then 15k kitchen in a million-euro house. I lack the perspective there. What about furniture?

At least I consider a pool as a nice to have and a cost factor also in maintenance. Our whirlpool for 6k already consumes about 900 € per year in electricity and all the chlorine stuff.