Why don't construction prices go down?

The argument that one should live like their grandfather did, while everyone around them does not, is silly...

That is true. But then comparing oneself to grandfather's times, when the sole earner non-academic could still afford a house for his family, is just as silly for exactly the same reason. Many take that line to lament the (alleged) loss of prosperity. I'll go even further now to make myself unpopular: I was almost knocked off my chair by the current cheese prices. Because it is downright embarrassingly cheap when you consider what living beings have to be kept, fed, milked, killed (calves), landscapes used, factories operated, etc. All the numbers I see scream that this actually is not possible. But the decline of Germany is reflected in the cheese... (yes, I am exaggerating what you wanted to say, I know).

Of course, most people no longer want to live in the living space like people did a few decades ago. Nevertheless, it is part of the truth why more people tended to have the opportunity to build in the past.

But I wouldn't have built 100m², then it would have remained the rental apartment with 104m².

Whereas many older houses are precisely not that small.

But tell me yourself. You finance this daily. What is the share of single-family houses with 100-110m² for 4 people in new construction?

Around 120sqm is a major focus for families. It is actually the case that the houses presented here in the forum are not standard products, but the smaller units. Terraced houses and semi-detached houses. My first house with two children was not bigger either - on slightly more than 200sqm of land there was a living room + guest WC + kitchen on the ground floor, three bedrooms + bathroom upstairs and then the attic with a studio room (which was our bedroom). The developer built a four-digit number of these in the 90s/2000s. And my clients, the developers, build similarly in new development areas. Only the individual single-family houses are larger.

That was a sincere practical tip. I did not want to undermine your argument at all.

How high is the proportion of single-family houses with 100-110m² for 4 people in new construction?

Our terraced mid-terrace house has 117 sqm, calculated proportionally with the sloping ceilings 105 sqm. When I lived here as a child with my parents, I had my room, my father his office in the attic studio, my mother a foot care cabin in the basement. Our neighbors in the row range from childless couples like us to 4-person households with 2 children. We bought it because of the location and because it is more than enough for two people. After almost two years of living here, we wouldn't need bigger either. If many people think they need that because otherwise they don't live properly... well, they also have to pay for the sqm. Surprise.

It always has to be exaggerated somehow, the vacation in the "youth hostel" is no longer enough, it has to be the trendy hotspot on Sylt, so that everyone recognizes it again. Or the Mummelsee in the Black Forest, which is so overrun on weekends that the police have to regulate the traffic even though there are dozens of other lakes that are just as beautiful.

The same goes for the car, at least an Audi A4 S line or equivalent, the A6. The Dacia or Opel have long since stopped being enough.

The diversity is lost, everyone tries to outdo everyone else. Yes, that also happened in the past at the Müllers' when they bought a new washing machine, the whole block had to know, and everyone bought one after.

But the excesses nowadays are enormous and people compare themselves more and more with others without realizing that this way they become unhappy.

One of the examples in house building that I don't forget were the faucets, they had to be the Euro Cube from Grohe. Then, of course, the shower and bathtub spout of the same model, and suddenly you’re at almost 2000 euros. For something that almost nobody pays attention to, or do you know which fittings your neighbor/friend has installed? My parents would think I’m crazy if I told them the price.

Unfortunately, in my opinion, it’s a development that is getting out of hand, always bigger, further, better; this continues with the houses.

Happy is the one who does not let this kind of future affect them.