2023-07-20 13:28:54
Sometimes only hope helps. For example, that Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner can get his proposal for a real estate transfer tax through. He wants to give the countries the opportunity to reduce the tax to zero and introduce tax exemptions. Then builders and real estate buyers who can no longer pay for their dream house due to high interest rates and construction costs can speculate on relief. For a house of 500,000 euros, taxes of up to 32,500 euros could be eliminated. That is not little, but often too little to be able to realize a canceled real estate purchase again.
Dirk Scherff
Editor in the “Value” section of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper.
Potential buyers could also hope for lower prices. Land prices and purchase prices for existing buildings have already fallen in many cities because high building loan interest is dampening demand. Not dramatic yet, but still. However, it is unclear whether prices will continue to fall or whether they will soon start to rise again. If you don’t want to hope but act, you have to turn other screws. So you have to reduce the monthly credit burden, for example by choosing a cheaper bank or by making a lower repayment and thus a longer term. And through the use of all state funding programs from KfW and the regions. But if all this is not enough, then you have to cut back on the house itself in order to significantly reduce the price. Here are a few tips on how best to do this.
Favorable location
The greatest opportunity for savings is flexibility in where you live. In Munich a square meter costs 10,000 euros, in Cologne only half that and in the countryside sometimes not even 1000 euros. Of course, very few have such options. But even those who are tied to a specific region can choose. It doesn’t always have to be the big city, but the cheaper surrounding areas are also possible. And there, too, the prices vary depending on the municipality. For example in the metropolitan area of Frankfurt. A house with 100 to 150 square meters, built after 2010, with an average lot size, normal condition and good facilities currently costs around 6400 euros per square meter in Frankfurt, according to Empirica Regio. The company collects real estate price data for all of Germany. The same property costs 5,000 euros per square meter in the neighboring Hochtaunus district and only 4,000 euros per square meter in the Wetterau and Main-Kinzig districts. With 150 square meters, you can save between 150,000 and 360,000 euros.
However, when moving to the surrounding area, there are commuting costs if the office is in the big city. You have to offset these expenses. The Deutschlandticket costs 588 euros per year. After 30 years, 17,640 euros have piled up, plus ticket price increases. However, these travel costs are more than offset by the lower purchase prices. Initially, it is even cheaper to purchase a piece of land with heritable building rights. Some municipalities offer this. Then the large purchase sum at the beginning is omitted, but annual interest has to be paid. This relieves the burden at the beginning, but over the course of several decades the heritable building right is of course more expensive.
The location can often save money when building a house. : Image: dpa
Smaller lot
One of the biggest levers for reducing costs is the area of the property. Every square meter less saves a lot of money, in the Frankfurt area, for example, according to data from Empirica Regio, depending on the location, an average of 200 to 600 euros for the same house size. Limiting yourself is not that difficult. Whether the garden is 300 or 250 square meters is not very noticeable depending on the floor plan, but then you save up to 30,000 euros and a bit more when laying out the garden. And in everyday life it makes less work.
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