Realistic cost estimate: Single-family house with unfavorable development location

And this nonsense with the dirt. Well, we were probably clever and had the driveway, parking spaces, and terrace gravelled right away by the civil engineer. It cost 1,500 EUR, he was there with the truck anyway and gravelled the foundation. Pretty generous even. I don’t bring dirt in. The dirt comes from the unfinished road.

You’re not in yet, right? We also gravelled up to the front door. Still, plenty of little stones get stuck in the soles of your shoes and you also carry in the fine particles. I have a doormat outside and one inside. I have to vacuum the inside one every day, otherwise you spread too much dirt in the house.

So why not, if I can do it little by little without interest?

Because it’s a simplistic calculation. You just repay much less. And now let’s assume you want to save 10k for the garden in 2 years. That’s 500€ per month. You don’t just save that on the side; that only works if the repayment is chosen to be especially low. And if you want to tell me now that you will increase the repayment later instead of wasting the money... Also, when it comes to the garden, time is money. Seed instead of turf, small trees now instead of bigger ones in x years. Whether building materials really get cheaper is anyone’s guess.

You have to find a healthy balance. You don’t just casually build a brick double garage, but you can pay for a small paved area from your current income. Our garden was basically laid out (old building), but over the past 6 years we have changed almost everything once and who knows how much money we invested. Also for "just" plants, trees, perennials, lawn, beds, trellises, and such stuff. The pathways were already laid out, as well as the carport, pavilion, garage. For us it was clear: that’s fine for now. That probably looks quite different on a new-build crater plot. Not far from us is a new build, which only got a lawn after 4 years and still has pallets at the entrance. The first years the plot was wild growth on crater landscape.

Repayment is, in my opinion, massively overestimated. The current inflation is already erasing enough. 8.5% more salary by 2024, my wife is similar. So why should I repay more than 3.5%?

Because we are discussing general statements here and no one has a crystal ball. It depends on many factors, interest on the mortgage, possible interest on other loans. Duration of the saving phase....Inflation (which also makes the good to be purchased more expensive).

If you leave out the 150k for the basement and terrain modeling, you could build something like this. 26 degree roof pitch, 1.9m knee wall.

But it's an unrealistic debate anyway. Most people are glad if they can still put up the house and install a kitchen under the current conditions. Garages, quickly finished gardens, terraces, etc. will become significantly less common in new development areas...

Because it's a naive calculation. You just repay much less.

But he simply has less to repay, that's exactly the point. I find "then you just repay less!" just as much a naive calculation. What you don’t have to borrow, you don’t have to repay. At some point, there's also the moment when you won’t feel comfortable long-term with a higher fixed rate, even if theoretically you could manage more. There's simply a difference between having a fixed rate of 300 euros more or setting aside an average of 300 euros (which might be 500 euros in a "good month" and nothing at all in a bad month because something else came up). Basically, I agree that you shouldn’t underestimate the outdoor facilities, but "we spent xy afterwards" is just so much because "it was possible/the money was there." I know some people who didn’t do much at first apart from the necessary slope stabilization. Yes, neighbors in the village sometimes gossip "that the money must have run out" (which is actually true), but well, if you consciously decide to put the money into the house first and postpone the rest, then that’s okay too, isn’t it? Here you certainly need some kind of solution for the access path, so I would plan that in, but "we spent xxxx euros on plants" is personally more in the "nice to have" category for me.