ᐅ Building a Single-Family Home with a Separate Apartment – Multi-Generational Living!

Hello home builders 🙂

First of all, I want to give a big compliment to this site! I have been reading here for a while, got a lot of ideas and inspiration, and have seen many great things!!! Compliments to all the builders here 🙂

Now to our situation! My wife and I are still relatively young, but we are thinking about building something eventually (understandable, right?). However, it should not just be a single-family house, but as the headline says, a single-family house with a granny flat / secondary apartment. The reason is that I want to live with my parents or at least have them very close! The decisive factor is that my father had a severe stroke and a heart operation (disability ID card available). Since then, my mother takes care of my father, and we also help to relieve my mother a bit. Now my wife and I have decided to gradually prepare to start building or remodeling our shared dream family home within the next 3-5 years! There are quite a few things to consider! I have already informed myself about many topics, but there are still questions left, so I thought I’d ask the experts here in this forum!

First, about our current living situation:

We live in a two-family house owned by my parents, meaning my parents live in the ground floor unit and we live in the first floor unit. Total living area is 180 m² (1,940 sq ft) (sounds large, but due to the layout, everything feels small and cramped).

Room layout: living-dining room, kitchen, bathroom, guest toilet, bedroom, and study! => Identical in both apartments. Full basement, converted attic as an additional apartment (still rented by a student).

Our current house is always a challenge for my father because of the layout. That is why we are considering building something new in the near future (more likely remodeling, but you never know). We don’t want to sell the current house; instead, we want to rent it out as an investment property!

Now to my questions:

1.) Do you have tips, floor plans, or anything else suitable for our case? Just to get a few ideas of how something like this could look?

2.) Since we are still young but want to plan ahead and build up equity, what kind of investment would you recommend? High-yield savings account, home savings contract, or something else? => We already have some money saved, but want to increase it to maximize loan financing value!

3.) As we don’t know how to plan this all (everything in my wife’s and my name; should my parents also be co-owners or something else), do you have any tips on the easiest or most straightforward approach? => Also regarding grant programs or similar (disability discounts or the like; I’m really clueless here).

I hope you understand roughly what I have written and can offer tips and suggestions for our situation!! I would really appreciate your answers!!!

Kind regards

Hello,

Hermes schrieb:

1.) Do you have any tips, floor plans, or anything else that would suit our situation? Just to get some ideas on how something like this could look?

Apart from the fact that hardly anyone here will share their plans free of charge, you should specify how much living space you want for your parents and for yourself; with or without a basement, etc.

Hermes schrieb:

2.) Since we are still young but want to plan ahead and build up equity, what kind of investment would you recommend? A savings account, a building savings contract, or something else? => We already have some money set aside, but want to increase it to improve the lending value or loan calculation!
3.) Since we don’t know how to plan everything (all in my wife’s and my name; should my parents also be listed as owners, or something else), do you have any tips on how to proceed in the easiest or most straightforward way? => Also with regard to funding programs or similar (disability discounts or something like that; I honestly have no clue)

In addition to the initial information here on the forum, you should consult an independent mortgage broker you trust. These professionals not only assist with the actual construction financing but also help you save equity intelligently in preparation for future building projects.

Additional info: No construction financing can be transferred 1:1. In your case, your father’s disability adds another factor; there are building regulations to consider to ensure that relevant subsidies (e.g., for accessible living modifications) can be accessed.

Best regards, Bauexperte

Bauexperte schrieb:
Hello,

Apart from the fact that hardly anyone here will share their plans for free, you should specify how much living space you want for your parents and for yourself; whether with or without a basement, etc.

In addition to the initial information here in the forum, you should consult an independent mortgage broker you trust. These professionals can help not only with the actual construction financing but also with planning for future building projects, saving equity effectively, and building on that.

Additional info: no construction financing can be transferred 1:1. In your case, your father’s disability adds another factor; there are building regulations to consider to be able to apply for corresponding grants (accessible/adapted construction).

Regards,
Bauexperte

Hello Bauexperte,

thank you for your reply!!! I already figured that no one would just share floor plans or similar for free!!! I was simply wondering if there are good ones available somewhere on the internet or elsewhere (I’ve been searching for quite a while).

We do have our ideas of how it should roughly look! My parents want no more than 70m² (750 sq ft) of living space, with a room layout including a living/dining room, kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, and possibly a guest room! For us, it depends on how we can make our ideas work in reality! I forgot to mention, it is very important for us that my parents have direct access to our house, meaning a separate entrance door or even a small hallway just for them would be ideal. This is so we can easily check on them if needed! A basement is not a must! Our dream is to eventually complete a house that will also benefit us in old age! And basically, you only want to build or buy your dream home once!

Regarding financing, I do have someone I can ask and already have! I just thought people here in the forum might have some experience!

Best regards

Hello,
have you already searched for "multi-generational house floor plans"?

There are quite a lot of nice floor plans available.