No way to spend wealth these days"? Even if that were somewhat true, because of coronathinggy I assume, one could always buy a fuck you all property to have all the freedom you want inside your OWN place and land and with your own rules.
Bleh, there will always be ways to spend wealth. Maybe MORE so in difficult times.
I don't know if it's related to BTC, definitely not to corona as I had evolved before, but a few years ago I was thinking about buying a flat when I would have enough for a deposit, then I found out you could get a house built for not much more, especially with low interest rates here, so I was looking at plots, my initial idea being I would be good with 350m² (3767.37 sq ft). Fast forward and now I want 10 times that at least, and the less neighbours the better, while still staying not too far from my workplace and Paris. Not easy to find, but I have some properties in sight, one where the closest neighbour is about 90m/100yards away, and another entirely surrounded by fields. It's not that I have trouble with people, I'm fine with them, but I want the freedom to go around in the nude, or put some music in my garden, or make noise all night with friends, without having to worry about them. And also have enough arable land to be able to make food if necessary.
It's completely related as that's exactly what I was talking about.
Yeah, 350 square meters of land may be too little. Last year I bought (with mortgage) a second/summer property with around 1500 sq m. of land. Couldn't be more happy with the decision more so with the corona shitshow that happened after. I would say it has the right size of land as it is already enough work tending the garden, etc, more so if you want to DIY all the maintenance (as I do because I am cheap).
Buying a bigger property with arable land etc... is probably not a good idea for a few reasons:
- You need to go for non urban land, otherwise it would be fucking expensive as urban/rural land has a 10-50x difference in price per square meter.
- If it is not urban you will probably be too much isolated... while that may have some advantages as you have described it has also many disadvantages completely outwheining the former.
- More maintenance. More expenses.
- Shitty store of value usually.
Also a house too big like the one you described of your uncle... prepare for expenses amounting MORE (maybe WAY more) than the mortgage.. YEARLY.
Most of those kind house/mansions were built when labour was way cheaper and you could have several people working full time (and probably even living there in a separate/service house) on the property for you, even while you were away. Others are just for the super rich.
WTF, if money were not a concern, who wouldn't like to have this?:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiiamqyhX5wHaving neighbours not too close but not too far either is also what I find most appealing. 100-200m distance is usually more than enough for most reasonable purposes. Even 50m and big/tall walls can do wonders.
Btw, I don't know about France, but maybe it also the case that it is usually way cheaper to buy a well built property with land that needs renovating than land and built it new?
Building your own custom house may sound great... but in the end it is way more expensive as you can even find some bargains where you are not paying much more for the house+land than you would for the land alone (talking about urban land... rural yeah, you can get that for "pennies" but then it wouldn't be worth to spend a lot building a proper house there).
Anyways... yeah, that was my point... even if the world comes apart and you can't spend your money as a partyman or a fucking Willy Fog there will always be many things in which to spend/invest your monies for a more confortable lifestyle.