ᐅ Is building a basement still justified today?

If I had plenty of money, I would also build one – with a light well and a playroom in the basement... in the second house.
So, everything has to fit into a 6 m (20 feet) long row of cabinets in the rabbit/sports room, under the stairs, in the utility room, and in the kitchen – which is working very well at the moment!

A basement is also cheaper than living space. The costs for a basement are usually stated to be around 50,000 euros, and the area is likely larger than 100m² (1,076 sq ft). This means the cost per square meter for the basement is under 500 euros. Of course, this only makes sense if you actually need that size. If I only need 20m² (215 sq ft) of storage space or similar, the cost per square meter is not really useful for me...

We are five people living in 172 sqm (1850 sq ft). The heating system is located in the attic, which also stores the usual clutter, as does the garage (the car is parked outside). The rest of the items are stored in the utility room, the home office, and three children’s bedrooms. So far, I haven’t missed having a basement.

If I had an empty garage, I wouldn’t miss having a basement either...

I’m glad I built a basement two years ago. It houses a workshop, the building services (like heating and electrical systems), an additional playroom (which will later be used as a party or recreation room; at the moment it contains, among other things, a large ball pit), as well as plenty of storage space and a laundry room. I also have a garage with an extension and a garden shed. However, they are so full of car-related items (like tires), garden tools such as a lawn mower, wheelbarrow, tools, bicycles, children’s vehicles, and so on, that the basement is very useful for us. In my home office, there are just work-related items; apart from a utility cabinet for vacuum cleaners and such, there’s no room for additional storage.

I only need to look around our area! 50% of the houses without basements end up filling the garage with stuff.

For me, it was clear from the beginning that a basement is a must and will partly be used as living space. That’s also why I immediately looked for a plot of land on a slope.
In addition, the plots in a good location around here are simply too small.