Plot of land 371 sqm, are the expectations realistic?

You have to be a bit careful with the geology in Berlin; in the glacial valley, you can encounter problems with the groundwater, and on the Barnim plateau in the northeast, there have long been issues with "floating groundwater." The basement must be appropriately equipped and is not cheap; for us, the offer was, I believe, around 150K (versus a significantly larger and fully developed roof for a portion of the cost).

As inspiration for what is possible on small plots, you can also google the house "Kleine Welle" by Guntram Jankowski. 350m2, 5.80*13.50 and, in my opinion, a BRILLIANT floor plan.

Do you mean those two containers stacked on top of each other with a roof? Taste is subjective.

Did I write brilliant facade or brilliant floor plan? The facade was a client’s wish (permanent and cheap) and certainly polarizes – visually not my taste either. It’s about the task given to the architect – very small, narrow plot, low budget – and how he solved the task. The project is presented in the idea book "Unser Haus" and has not without reason won awards (including first prize House of the Year). You can just google - kleine welle merkur grundriss – the first image shows all three floors in one picture. A relief to my eyes, especially after all the standard junk from house building catalogs.

We have exactly one square meter more with 372 sqm. The plot width is 13.50 m, thus the house width is 7.50m x length 12.50. Two stories, but not two full floors. Basement. We had to keep 5 meters back from the street. Therefore, 3 parking spaces in the front + 9 meters garage. At the back, 24 sqm terrace plus a sufficiently large garden including hedges, play structure (swing, slide, sandbox), trampoline, firewood storage, small shed for garden tools.

We initially ruled out the plot because of the size, then came back to it because of the location, and after more than 3 years in the house it is still perfect, inside and outside. Only without a basement, that would not work at all, would not fit for us at the front and back.

I would also consider the location as an essential selection criterion, whereby everyone has to check their own location preferences that are important to them today and possibly also in the future.

For a small plot, it would be important to me what the development plan specifies, as others have already mentioned: floor-area ratio, site coverage ratio, possibly maximum ridge height, permitted full floors but also building lines and building boundaries. And I would check that both for my own plot and the neighboring ones. Not that my neighbor to the south is allowed to build significantly taller than I am and I only get sun in mid-summer later. Well, extreme example - sorry.

If a house fits on it with 7+m by 10+m, there are also a variety of beautiful, rectangular floor plans. Which I personally find much more appealing than the square city villa. I also find the mentioned floor plan "Kleine Welle" very intelligently solved, but you even have more room and don’t have to squeeze much.

As far as the garden is concerned, there are, for example, great ideas for small gardens on Pinterest, which at least in terms of appearance can easily compete with some large, unstructured gardens. Well, the giant swing and a soccer field won’t fit, but never mind, less work for that.

Two-story, but not two full stories.

Then it is not two-story.

We are building on 313 sqm, also for four people. It was torn apart here, but it is similar to yours - if you get a plot you should take it. We are happy with it.

may I ask what dimensions your house will have?

we also have "only" 389 sqm of land and are currently endlessly browsing floor plans.

we are uncertain whether, due to the size of the plot, one should build as small as possible or only as big as necessary, or rather include all their wishes and then have a smaller garden..