ᐅ Building, Buying, or Renovating? – What Makes the Most Sense When You Want a Modern Home?

Hello dear forum community,

after my partner and I have been intensively working on our homebuilding project since January, we have now reached a point where we rely on your detailed experiences.

We currently live affordably in the Eifel region and are increasing our equity in line with our plans. With a budget of 500-550k euros, we want to own a modern single-family house for the future.

Unfortunately, the search for a house/plot is proving to be (unsurprisingly) difficult. Our preferences would be a well-maintained house in a neat neighborhood with houses built from 1980 onwards (or correspondingly modernized). A rural setting with existing infrastructure is also important to us, as we value that our children can later get around by bike.

Unfortunately, the waiting lists for the corresponding new development areas are long, although we have a promising position in our hometown. As an alternative to new construction, we could imagine buying a house, but unfortunately, the properties we have considered (from the 1990s onward) are exorbitantly expensive and not modernized—or in a poor location. Occasionally, we come across houses built in the 1970s that would require extensive modernization to meet our expectations.

This raises several questions for us:

1. Assuming we buy a house from the 1970s and bring it up to the latest technical standards, the construction year does not change. What disadvantages arise from this regarding durability, etc.?
2. Who among you has experience with such a project and would be willing to share it here? Was it worth it? Would you do it again? What are, in your opinion, the pros and cons?
3. We place importance on energy efficiency and modern heating technology (preferably air-to-air or air-to-water heat pumps including a photovoltaic system). Is this feasible within a renovation and a normal cost framework?

Thank you in advance for your experiences and answers.

Have a nice Sunday!