I dunno what you’re doing wrong but I bought an apartment in Germany a couple years ago and that wasn’t my experience at all. I saw plenty of nice places big enough for a family of three for 250-300k. We had a little bit more than 50k in savings and were able to buy something much bigger than we need with a large garden (we spent 440k), but could easily have gotten something big enough with 50k savings. We’re in a medium/large city but just not right in the middle, more towards the outskirts. Still only 15 mins bike ride to the centre though!
I dunno what you’re doing wrong but I bought an apartment in Germany a couple years ago and that wasn’t my experience at all. I saw plenty of nice places big enough for a family of three for 250-300k. We had a little bit more than 50k in savings and were able to buy something much bigger than we need with a large garden (we spent 440k), but could easily have gotten something big enough with 50k savings. We’re in a medium/large city but just not right in the middle, more towards the outskirts. Still only 15 mins bike ride to the centre though!