New construction or house purchase and renovation in Bavaria

This is how I know it: For grandma's gift, the usual 10-year rule applies. That means if grandma dies 10 years after the gift, the property belongs to you. Otherwise, for each year earlier, you pay 10% to the heirs. So, for example, after 8 years, 80% is yours and 20% is considered an inheritance share.

You have €550K equity and €4300 net monthly income? + Father-in-law can sell his apartment if necessary? And you basically already have a plot of land. So if you can't make it happen, then I don't know either. We financed €550K last year with €5500 net. Even if you still need €100K at the end, you can easily finance that. You already have collateral through the plot of land. In my opinion, the only problem is that you haven't clarified many things for yourselves yet. Talk to Dad to see if he really wants to sell the apartment and get it appraised. Make sure you get the land deal settled. Do this early enough and clearly separate it from the house construction, otherwise you might have to pay property transfer tax on both. Afterwards, I would sit down and calculate the financial means precisely. With the apartment sale and possibly a small loan, you should easily reach €700-800K. That makes the whole project quite feasible.

Thank you for your answers. Unfortunately, my husband is very strict against a loan, I need to discuss this with him again. To be honest, in our families (except for one uncle) no one has built. Everyone has bought and renovated houses or apartments. Accordingly, we were only told horror stories about the costs spiraling out of control, the architect exploiting you, with a new build you can only build a shoebox, and so on and so forth. Where these stories without experience come from, I don't really know either. ;-) My parents always want to recommend us "bargain houses" (so very old castles for 100-200k euros) "and you could renovate so much yourself...". Once the house was on a super steep, purely north-facing slope... well.


The lady is an architect (FH), I don’t know if I’m allowed to mention names? I liked the website and the references, how the chemistry turns out in a direct conversation is of course open. I can of course also name the open construction companies on my list, even if they are most likely not known nationwide.

I have only had the permanent position since March, before that it was rather a frugal life on a student salary.

At the latest since the last "Heizungsgesetz" it should be clear to everyone that "alte Burgen" have significant disadvantages and costs compared to new buildings. Added to this is the individual freedom in design. Sorry, but best regards to the relatives: their opinion is as old as the aforementioned castles and is best demolished right away or at least "sanitized".

Thank you for your answers. Unfortunately, my husband is very strict against a loan, I have to discuss that again with him. To be honest, in our families (except for one uncle) no one has built. Everyone has bought and renovated houses or apartments. Accordingly, we were only told horror stories, about the costs getting out of hand, the architect exploiting you, with a new build you can only build a shoebox, and so on and so forth. Where these stories without experience come from, I don’t really know. ;-) My parents always want to recommend us "bargain houses" (i.e., ancient castles for 100-200K euros) "and you could renovate so much yourself...". Once, the house was on a super steep, pure north slope… well.

I think there are hardly any house constructions that stay within budget. Renovations are also very rare in this regard. And in house building, in my impression, the builders themselves are often partly to blame, whether through insufficient preparations (poor soil, underestimated slope location, low construction standards of the general contractor, etc.), lack of discipline in choosing fittings, or spontaneous upgrades (for example, the terrace roof in our case). Whether, in the end, a faceless shoebox or a beautiful house emerges depends above all on the builder. Of course, new builds are initially more expensive, but everything is new and you have current standards. Bringing an old house up to a somewhat comparable standard usually leaves only a gutted shell, and then there isn't much room for own work as with superficial renovations.

The situation seems quite familiar to me. I had, or rather have, two adjacent plots of land; on one stands a house built in 1953, and the other was freely buildable. There was quite a bit of capital, but of course not enough for a large house. Then came all the advice from people who neither know current construction technology nor can use Excel. Sorry, that's how it was.

In hindsight, I have to say: Unfortunately, I did not use the help of an architect back then – if I were to do it again, I would do exactly as 11ant recommended. But not everything can always be enforced within the building community (i.e., spouses), and I was very lucky to have two competent advisors who were accepted by both me and my wife. They first removed all the pub talk from us and explained how to build and what the difference between old and new buildings is.

Result: We exploited the buildable area down to the last centimeter, did not afford golden faucets but designed a house five years ago that is only now becoming mainstream. When I go into the house on the neighboring plot, even though I grew up there, I just want to tear it down because I simply do not have enough money to maintain it.

I honestly never understood the life comfort of a new build until I had a well-calculated and built new house. One where such small things as the air exchange rate simply add up correctly. The heating system does not have 87.2 pieced-together components but is a no-frills air-water heat pump with underfloor heating. We considered a fireplace but quickly dismissed it because of the one-time and running costs, environmental impact, regulatory uncertainties, and a quick calculation of heat input.

Renovate a house? Why are the bargains probably so cheap? Sure, depending on the year of construction there may be objects worth renovating, but they are usually not the bargains. If you tear out everything that needs renovating, nothing is left except a dreadful floor plan.

I would say you first need to agree with your husband regarding the loan. A newly built house lives for many decades; if you take out a loan for anything, then it should be for that. You two should agree on that.
Then the plot must be secured, in such a way that you can do whatever you want with it. Without any kinship clauses in the land register, just simply: your plot.
Then follow 11ant’s plan. Aim to move in two years from now – if it happens sooner, great.

And just reading the description “our two children are 2 1/2 and 5 years old. I work full-time, while my husband is a stay-at-home dad and househusband” then in my opinion even just the thought of completely renovating a very old house is simply absurd.

As a building team, you have to do your thing. For years (of course only when we were not around) people whispered that it was so pointless that we were building new at all, that we were building so big, and so on. Then came Corona and no one complained about the size anymore. Then energy became expensive and no one laughed at energy-efficient construction anymore. Then they visited in winter and no one laughed at the central ventilation system anymore. Then they visited in summer and no one laughed at the cooling anymore.
So especially when such remarks come up, you have to think: Who am I actually building for here? Who will live in it afterward? The pub brothers or me? That’s why my house is exactly as I want it.