Report: Building a house as retirement provision? No way!

I think you can see very impressively what happens when you build in a rural area without a metropolis nearby. It's quite bitter when the house can only be sold for 25k€ in 30-40 years.

That again shows what location, location, location means.

Bad Laasphe is not that remote, the town itself has everything necessary and both Siegen (100,000 inhabitants) and Marburg (80,000 inhabitants) are still within daily commuting distance. In the neighboring Bad Berleburg there is also a large employer. What is not mentioned in the film is that Bad Laasphe is heavily trafficked; due to the lack of a highway connection, 11,000 vehicles pass through on weekdays. That would personally deter me.

Many of the aging houses would still be marketable today if the old people had invested some of their savings in time, instead of letting it dwindle at 0.05% interest in the savings account. You can see from the new development area that there are still quite a few young people who want to stay there. We also gave such houses a chance during our viewings because they often still have a basement and stand on larger plots. But when going through them, it quickly became clear that it wouldn’t work. Windows, heating, insulation, bathrooms - mostly just junk or close to it. When I add up all the backlog maintenance, I might as well build new - with underfloor heating, smart home, and all the other gadgets that are luxury today and will be standard in the future. That's how you prepare for retirement.

many of the houses shown are much older than 30 or 40 years.

What is a house in Ingolstadt still worth when the largest employer is shrinking? The land value will decrease, the attractiveness as well?

Vacancy is not only a problem in villages.

In our village, the community has done a lot to become attractive
- zoning plans lifted
- Par 34 is applied very generously
- promotion of renovation or demolition with subsequent new construction
- no waiting lists for daycare places
- no waiting list for kindergarten
- after-school care, OGS, holiday program
- school
- from Pekip to drums to karate
- active club life
- everything you need is there
- no burglaries or violent crimes, you don’t have to lock up here

More and more people are coming from the surrounding cities. Especially the two new building areas are attracting.
Many from my school days are coming back

Are you from Bavaria and a process manager, Ingolstadt or Munich?

With Munich it’s clear, that will still be valuable when the rest of Germany has gone down the drain.

With Ingolstadt I see it much more skeptically. Very expensive location and only "one" big employer who is currently stumbling badly. If Hopps goes, the factories there are consolation prizes at the fair!

But we in BW have it similar, the change over the next years will show where the journey goes. No property is also not an option with the very fragile Euro construct.

As if Bavaria only consisted of Ingolstadt or Munich :-p

Ever heard of Nuremberg/ Erlangen / Herzogenaurach?

Here it’s teeming with big players and tens of thousands of employees who are just being thrown money. Accordingly, the houses here cost a small fortune, even the shacks.

If there is work within a reasonable distance and otherwise the climate in the town is right, the community will also have a future. That's exactly how it is. In the Rhön, in SH, in MVP.

If there is work within a reasonable distance and otherwise the climate in the town is right, the community will also have a future. That's exactly how it is. In the Rhön, in SH, in MVP.

You say that now. In 30-40 years, rural areas will be even more left behind than they are today. Not that I think that's good, quite the opposite. You can see where things are heading, and it is not back to the village. In the mid/late 90s, there was a phase when people moved 50 km around the Ruhr area because of the cheap plots of land. But that phase has long since passed, and many older people moved back to the Ruhr area after 10-15 years. I suspect that MVP, apart from the coastal region and the lake district, is extremely unattractive. Otherwise, I cannot explain the prices of €20/sqm for developed plots. At least, where I drove through towards the coast.

I don't see it so negatively, at least for our region. Apart from that, we are not building to leave a fortune behind. We want to live here. There are no rental apartments. The house is for us and should provide us with a home for the next 40 years. When I see what my sister pays in rent in the metropolitan area, it is cheaper to build a house here that will be empty after 40 years.