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

You boys are giving us a headache. We—my wife and I—will live in our house with the living standard we are used to: that is 1990s. There will be neither KNX, nor smart nonsense, nor door cameras, nor LED faucets, nor anything like that, also no Netflix and such unnecessary stuff. No network cables and so on. I will die, she will live there for some time longer. She will be able to keep it in order, the money will be there. She will die then too. Our son will inherit. Whether he then wants to live there himself, sell it, rent it out, use it as a holiday home, whether he wants to install the technical nonsense or not... then we do not care. Also what the house will be worth then, we will not sell it. Probably not even in the case of needing care, because that can be solved differently. Karsten

I see it exactly the same way now. Really 100%. It's all a matter of one's own age and attitude towards life.

To the question "Building a house as retirement provision," I actually do not want to respond directly. For me, the report mainly shows two things: 1. The difference between the market value of a house and the market price! In a buyer's market (like there in the countryside), the market price is - to the horror of the portrayed homeowners - significantly below the market value. In metropolitan areas (seller's market), it is exactly the opposite. 2. Failed new construction and settlement policy by cities In my opinion, far too little is done here, also by the state level. In principle, there should be much more incentives to preserve the town centers. Instead, new development areas are announced, and one wonders why the rest of the town is bleeding out. There are some municipalities here that have understood this, but far too few.

You young ones are driving us crazy.

Yes, that is absolutely true. But precisely because the older generation has given little to no thought to many things (e.g. accessibility, what happens in case of separation/illness, resale value, etc.), we young people are today much more cautious, deliberate, meticulous, and sometimes tense when it comes to owning a home. The experiences and mistakes of our predecessors must be good for something.
Owning a home can become a source of joy, but just as quickly also a financial, physical, and psychological constant burden. This risk can never be eliminated, but at least reduced through wise actions.

1. The difference between the market value of a house and the market price! In a buyer’s market (such as there in the countryside), the market price is then—much to the dismay of the house owners shown—significantly below the market value. In metropolitan areas (seller’s market), it is exactly the opposite.

Market value = Verkehrswert, see §194 Building Code

One more observation. Who supports home ownership promotion via [Riester] or [Baukindergeld]? Who supports low real estate transfer tax etc.? The Blacks and the Yellows. Who prefers to see people living in city-near rental apartments with bicycle stands and [U Bahnjahreskarte]? The Reds and the Greens. Who is against new development areas and instead favors ponds and all that? Well, who else. Who, on the other hand, is happy about people owning property? Who else! To which milieu do the journalists at [WDR] from Cologne belong? Who turns up their nose at the [Schützenköniginnen] of Bad Laspe? And so on.. Karsten