Hello,
Actually, we have been looking for an existing property since last summer. According to our mortgage broker, we have a budget of around 300,000 (all-in), which a bank is likely to approve.
The market here in Schleswig-Holstein has also become very tight, and the houses on offer are often in need of renovation, so you easily exceed the budget (especially since many city dwellers laugh at our house prices and like to secure a holiday home here).
Now the question is whether it would be possible to build a house within our budget (assuming we can get a building plot). Our requirements are not very high; it doesn’t need to be a huge house. 120 square meters (1300 square feet) would be completely sufficient.
In a neighboring village, plots are currently being developed. The price isn’t fixed yet but is expected to be below 100 euros per square meter. The plots are about 700 square meters (7500 square feet) in size. Unfortunately, we have no experience with this topic at all, and I definitely don’t want to miscalculate.
We can only contribute limited personal labor. We are not unskilled, but both fully employed with a child, dog, and horse. What are your thoughts?
Actually, we have been looking for an existing property since last summer. According to our mortgage broker, we have a budget of around 300,000 (all-in), which a bank is likely to approve.
The market here in Schleswig-Holstein has also become very tight, and the houses on offer are often in need of renovation, so you easily exceed the budget (especially since many city dwellers laugh at our house prices and like to secure a holiday home here).
Now the question is whether it would be possible to build a house within our budget (assuming we can get a building plot). Our requirements are not very high; it doesn’t need to be a huge house. 120 square meters (1300 square feet) would be completely sufficient.
In a neighboring village, plots are currently being developed. The price isn’t fixed yet but is expected to be below 100 euros per square meter. The plots are about 700 square meters (7500 square feet) in size. Unfortunately, we have no experience with this topic at all, and I definitely don’t want to miscalculate.
We can only contribute limited personal labor. We are not unskilled, but both fully employed with a child, dog, and horse. What are your thoughts?
motorradsilke schrieb:
Who is supposed to decide what is reasonable?I am willing to take on that responsibility. Even for 1 per mille of all real estate transfer taxes, on a case-by-case basis.
W
WilderSueden1 Jan 2021 15:12SumsumBiene schrieb:
I don’t have a solution either, but many things are made very easy for those who are well-off, while the majority simply have no chance.
From what I see here, many houses are paid for out of the discretionary funds of people from big cities. Some municipalities now charge a second home tax / occupancy tax, but that probably doesn’t discourage buyers very much... The point is that owning a vacation home is hardly justifiable from a financial perspective. The money spent annually on maintaining a vacation home could be used to rent a holiday apartment or house for quite some time. Then you either spend your free weekends mowing the lawn, trimming trees, etc., or you pay someone else to do it. In that case, a second home tax doesn’t make much of a difference.
SumsumBiene schrieb:
Jean-marc: that comes across as really arrogant.... Without the Aldi cashier or the forklift driver, you probably wouldn’t have even made it into a land register!
That attitude really annoys me... I can assure you that this was not meant to be condescending in any way. However, I find the current development very concerning: the gradual loosening of once strict taboos around financing, pushing the boundaries of common sense further and further just to keep demand consistently high, pumping more and more money into an already overheated real estate market and driving prices up even more. When I read comments like “paying off a house at 75 – so what?” that just can’t be serious. This kind of widespread mortgage lending is exactly what causes the reasonable and disciplined savers in the middle class to soon be unable to afford anything at all, leaving them with only the choice to either join in this madness or give up on the dream of homeownership. And that frustrates me – even though, professionally, I should actually be interested in colleagues securing as many building loans as possible on the floor below me. But from a personal and ethical standpoint, I can only reject pushing the limits further and further. Fortunately, the majority of home financing applicants and advisers still calculate traditionally, but woe betide when Pandora’s box is opened too far...
N
nordanney1 Jan 2021 16:53Jean-Marc schrieb:
When I read here "House demolition with 75 – so what?" that can’t be serious. Honestly – isn’t paying rent at 75 basically the same? And that works for tenants too (which are 53% of Germans).
I’m not talking about American circumstances. Buying, financing with variable rates, and then repaying the loan through the sale while benefiting from appreciation. I’m talking about a sensible arrangement with maybe 25-40% loan-to-value ratio. What could happen there that couldn’t also happen to you as a renter? After all, you can’t become unemployed as a retiree ;-)
T
Tscharlie1 Jan 2021 17:47... and hopefully nothing breaks when I’m retired 😱