More and more young families can no longer afford their own house

So well as everything was already planned. Martin Fuchs and his wife knew exactly where the bedroom and the living room should be. Which stairs and which front door they wanted. What the garden should look like so that the two-year-old son could play there. They worked on the plan for their little house in Sauerland for almost four years. They wanted to take their time, everything should be perfect. The young Fuchs family, who actually have a different name but don’t want to read their name in the newspaper, had found a nice plot of land. Not too far away from parents and friends, the way to work would also be easily doable by car. Christina Fuchs, herself an architect, designed the plans entirely according to the family’s dreams. Finally they were ready to start building.

But then, in the spring of this year, everything suddenly changed. The prices for the materials rose enormously, and the local builder could no longer offer them a fixed price. The interest for the desired 30-year credit were suddenly no longer at the planned 1 percent, but at almost 3 percent. The monthly rate would have increased to 2100 euros instead of 1500 euros. And then the government stopped individual subsidy programs. “Suddenly the costs were well above our budget,” says Martin Fuchs. Instead of the planned 450,000 euros, the house would now have cost 700,000 euros. And now?