Hello everyone,
Since I started exploring the topic of house construction two months ago, I have now registered on this forum.
A brief introduction about me and my wife: We are both employed (civil engineer and real estate assistant) with a net income of 4xxx.
Equity capital: 50,000 euros.
One would actually assume that with this equity and net income, buying a property should be easy. However, since I do not want to repay a loan over 30-35 years but rather a maximum of 25 years, and I don’t want to fully stretch the limit, the monthly installment and therefore the total amount quickly become restricted. A total of 250,000 net plus additional construction costs equivalent to the equity capital would be the limit here. In Berlin and its surrounding area? Practically unthinkable.
I am a civil engineer (although specializing in concrete repair and thus not an expert in single-family houses, etc.) and can therefore assess construction prices, combined with my wife’s interest in the real estate sector, allowing us to understand the high general prices for land.
With 250,000 net plus additional construction costs, there is generally not much you can do nationwide for new builds — this is my initial assessment.
There has already been a lot of discussion here in other threads about construction costs, potential capital, and what is needed. When I see bargain houses on TV, I also facepalm. My assumption is that such homes don’t bring much joy. Heating systems, plumbing, electrical installations, thermal insulation — these are often overestimated.
Currently, I am researching prefabricated houses with self-finishing options. However, I do have some concerns, even though I assume that nowadays the materials at least meet certain standards.
So, what are the options?
Being bound for 30 years and pushing the loan to the limit?
House auctions?
Hoping for a bargain plot including an affordable prefab house as a self-build (lots of work and potentially many worries)
Since I plan to start building within the next 24-36 months, my initial findings are sobering.
At least the construction company I work for could provide the foundation slab plus groundwork like drainage, etc., at a low cost. I also know structural engineers and others involved. Maybe the project can be realized with a “small” budget thanks to these circumstances.
Has anyone managed to do this before?
Since I started exploring the topic of house construction two months ago, I have now registered on this forum.
A brief introduction about me and my wife: We are both employed (civil engineer and real estate assistant) with a net income of 4xxx.
Equity capital: 50,000 euros.
One would actually assume that with this equity and net income, buying a property should be easy. However, since I do not want to repay a loan over 30-35 years but rather a maximum of 25 years, and I don’t want to fully stretch the limit, the monthly installment and therefore the total amount quickly become restricted. A total of 250,000 net plus additional construction costs equivalent to the equity capital would be the limit here. In Berlin and its surrounding area? Practically unthinkable.
I am a civil engineer (although specializing in concrete repair and thus not an expert in single-family houses, etc.) and can therefore assess construction prices, combined with my wife’s interest in the real estate sector, allowing us to understand the high general prices for land.
With 250,000 net plus additional construction costs, there is generally not much you can do nationwide for new builds — this is my initial assessment.
There has already been a lot of discussion here in other threads about construction costs, potential capital, and what is needed. When I see bargain houses on TV, I also facepalm. My assumption is that such homes don’t bring much joy. Heating systems, plumbing, electrical installations, thermal insulation — these are often overestimated.
Currently, I am researching prefabricated houses with self-finishing options. However, I do have some concerns, even though I assume that nowadays the materials at least meet certain standards.
So, what are the options?
Being bound for 30 years and pushing the loan to the limit?
House auctions?
Hoping for a bargain plot including an affordable prefab house as a self-build (lots of work and potentially many worries)
Since I plan to start building within the next 24-36 months, my initial findings are sobering.
At least the construction company I work for could provide the foundation slab plus groundwork like drainage, etc., at a low cost. I also know structural engineers and others involved. Maybe the project can be realized with a “small” budget thanks to these circumstances.
Has anyone managed to do this before?
S
Stivikivi24 Jun 2019 03:31ypg schrieb:
Why compromises? To you, the house is a gain. Your freedom, as you say.
A new build is still just a house. A very expensive one. The dream of many. Many of whom only live in their houses, but don’t really live.By compromises, I meant the fact that sometimes, instead of a commute of just 5 kilometers (3 miles), you might have to extend it to 30 kilometers (19 miles) if the property you want is located there. Or sometimes, instead of a detached house with a large garden, you have to settle for less garden space and possibly a semi-detached house. Unfortunately, as an average person, you rarely get exactly what you want.
Tassimat schrieb:
Supposed compromises are always about relaxing your own overly high expectations.
Well, the original poster probably stopped writing because he was only looking for confirmation of his fantasies. I think it’s good that many thread starters here are brought back down to reality. @Stivikivi What happened to your original plans for a house with construction costs over €600,000 (end of 2017)? Did the forum bash the idea too much, or did it maybe turn out the forum was partly right?My budget back then was, as I already said, between €450,000 and €600,000. I would have only considered the higher end if everything really fit, which it didn’t.
Fortunately, I ended up spending less than €400,000 but obviously had to accept some compromises.
Instead of a new build, it became an existing property.
I got what I wanted in terms of a detached house and gladly declined a rear house.
Fast internet (currently VDSL, and cable is available in the street)
Commute of about 30 kilometers (19 miles) without taking the A3 highway, as I wanted
A 630 sqm (6780 sq ft) plot, but I had to accept a smaller living area of only 110 sqm (1180 sq ft). However, the zoning plan allows a second floor, so that dream of more space is not dead yet.
It simply failed because I couldn't find a suitable plot—neither in terms of location nor price per sqm. In the end, that worked to my advantage, as I never would have started looking for existing buildings otherwise. And even with an existing property, I’m still free to design as I please (currently in the renovation phase up to the shell), so in a way, I’m still in the new build phase. I’ve thought about asking for advice here again on that, but I don’t know if this housebuilding forum focuses only on new builds or also on existing buildings and renovations.
Ultimately, you never really know with strangers what is fantasy and what is not. As an example, the original poster says he and his wife earn around €4,000 monthly. That alone would be enough for a comfortable mortgage payment with a short loan term. However, the risk of financing together is that if something goes wrong, you could end up without a house. That was too stressful for me personally, so I chose to finance alone and only what I could realistically afford. The result was a €1,600 (about $1,800) monthly payment with an interest rate of around 1.62% fixed for 10 years with Ing-Diba. I’m free to make extra repayments, and if I finish in 10 years, the bank will only collect €26,000 in interest. That’s actually fine with me.
The tone in forums is generally quite harsh; you have to be able to handle that. But I appreciate any honest opinion—what’s the use of people just agreeing with me if it won’t work in the end? I’d rather hear the truth, even if the outcome is sobering.
Stivikivi schrieb:
By compromises, I meant that sometimes instead of limiting your commute to just 5 kilometers (3 miles), you might have to accept up to 30 kilometers (19 miles) if the desired property is located there. Or sometimes, instead of a detached house with a large garden, you might have to be satisfied with a smaller garden and possibly a semi-detached house. Unfortunately, most people rarely get exactly what they want. I don’t like the term “making compromises” (literally “taking cuts”), just as I dislike how people always need to blame someone. Life offers many options for most people. It’s more about finding compromises. When you choose options or make compromises, they are usually made honestly. When building or buying a house, you weigh the pros and cons, and often what seems like a compromise also has its advantages, even if it’s just the price.
Honestly, I would have been interested in the wooden house from Holznagel as well; a photo of both the interior and exterior would have been great.
You can’t just claim that it’s a garden shed just because it’s under 100 square meters (1,076 square feet) and only cost 55,000.
I think compromises are made in the sense that the expectations ingrained in us by society and the media from a young age can’t always be met.
1,200 square meters (12,917 square feet) of land, like many have, that isn’t farmed but used only as space to “unwind” — try explaining that to 90% of the world’s population today who hardly own anything.
You really can’t call that a compromise.
You acted according to your own situation, which I think is right.
You can’t just claim that it’s a garden shed just because it’s under 100 square meters (1,076 square feet) and only cost 55,000.
I think compromises are made in the sense that the expectations ingrained in us by society and the media from a young age can’t always be met.
1,200 square meters (12,917 square feet) of land, like many have, that isn’t farmed but used only as space to “unwind” — try explaining that to 90% of the world’s population today who hardly own anything.
You really can’t call that a compromise.
You acted according to your own situation, which I think is right.
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