Interest, loans, repayment: Anyone who deals with the costs of building a house is often left with many question marks. How much do you need to finance a house?
The dream of owning their own home – that's what many people have. But can it still become a reality today? Many people ask themselves this question about the high prices of raw materials and rising interest rates. A subsequent look at the savings account is usually enough to make the dream a distant prospect. However, in order to give potential home builders an idea of what budget should be available, a TikToker has calculated what monthly salary is needed to adequately cover the costs of building a house.
Financing house construction: TikToker calculates what you need to earn monthly
For his calculation, the TikToker @hausbaukurs.de, who runs a website of the same name on the subject, assumes a house with 130 square meters and a plot of land with 500 square meters. Currently, a house would cost around 3,000 euros per square meter – which makes 130,390 euros for 000 square meters. For the property, he expects an average of 250 euros per square meter in Germany – that would be another 125,000 euros on top. That makes a total of 515,000 euros that a home builder would need for the house and land. The ancillary costs are covered by the equity in this calculation.
With such sums, one or the other's head is likely to be buzzing. But unfortunately it doesn't stop there: Since only very few people are likely to have such an amount in their account, a loan is needed to finance the dream. And the banks charge interest for this: In his calculation example, the TikToker assumes 4.4 percent interest, which is fixed for 15 years, as well as an initial repayment of 1.5 percent. This would therefore mean that house builders would have to reckon with a monthly charge, the so-called annuity, of around 2,530 euros. So this amount would have to be paid back to the bank every month to pay off the house including interest.
Not so cheap: If you want to build a house, you should have a high income. © serienlicht/Imago
But how much do you really have to earn to finance it? After all, the monthly expenses do not only consist of the repayment of a loan – electricity, fuel, food and much more have to be paid for. That is why banks and experts usually recommend that the expenditure for monthly installment payments in real estate financing should not exceed 35 percent of the net household income. This refers to the net salary that is available to the home builder alone or together with his or her partner.
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The TikToker also takes this into account in his calculation. Which in turn means that a person – or a couple – who currently wants to build a house should earn 7,230 euros net per month in order to be able to finance their dream (because: 2,530 euros is 35 percent of 7,230 euros). Price differences depending on the region are excluded from the invoice. So it may well be that the cost of a house could be even more expensive in certain metropolitan areas, but there are also areas where land can be had for less than 250 euros per square meter.
"No house for me": TikTok users say goodbye to their own home
The example calculation causes disillusionment among some TikTok users – many immediately bury their dream of owning their own home. Here is an excerpt from the comments on the video, which has already been viewed over 3.6 million times:
- "You'd better tell me where I earn 7,300 euros net."
- "Just calculated, I could afford a 30 square meter house on a 20 square meter plot."
- "Long story short ... no house for me."
- "Makes me sad ... Honest... I'll never be able to afford it."
- "Ok, a garage is enough for me."
