The idea isn’t bad, but you have to be able to afford it! I would also like to have the feel-good factor of a holiday home in the south, that of a sports car from Stuttgart, etc. Just because it feels like "everyone" has to build a house, doesn’t mean you have to?! Have you actually checked your financial scope?
And just because you want a "small" house, the whole thing doesn’t become significantly cheaper. On the contrary, if you actually build an extension, it immediately becomes much more expensive. So the only reasonable solution to spend less money at the beginning is, as already mentioned, to do the expansion of the upper floor/attic later.
I really don’t care about what others do. That’s pretty much irrelevant to me.
I grew up in a house, lived with my girlfriend for 2.5 years in an apartment, and we find that a house is simply nicer.
But your "wishes" can’t really be compared with a house. What you list is pure luxury for me. A house is "essential" for me.
We have set up our own household budget and know what remains for us monthly net. We haven’t been to an independent financial advisor yet. We would have to clarify how much credit we could actually afford.
Currently, about €2,000 net remain (we don’t have a rental apartment, so no costs at the moment).
Of course, if my girlfriend gets pregnant, she will almost completely stop working. My salary should of course be able to cover that.
That’s why I’m asking here what you would recommend.
Is expanding the upper floor really more expensive than an extension?
It would really be worth considering building the house in the size you want it to be and only expanding upstairs in 10 years or when you have extra money.
As I said, I haven’t been to any advisor yet and we have only consulted an architect so far. For the company, a "small house" would already have cost around 400k. Of course, that’s completely exaggerated.