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How to purchase your property in Germany
Purchasing a property in Germany can be complex and exhausting. However, having some basic knowledge about the overall process will help you to stay informed and manage the whole project with ease.
Find out how much you can borrow
First, find out how much you can borrow and afford. The LoanLink24 borrowing power calculator will show you the maximum loan amount that a bank can lend you. German banks calculate your borrowing power based on your residency status, employment situation, down payment amount, monthly net income and the property location.
Open a German bank account
If you don’t have a German bank account yet, we can support you with opening one remotely with our partner Deutsche Bank. There are also other options like N26 if you have a German or European address.
Get pre-approved
The LoanLink24 pre-approval certificate helps assure your seller that you can afford to purchase a property up to a defined purchase price. It will also help you stand out from other potential buyers on house viewings. It only takes 10 minutes to get pre-approved with LoanLink24.
Identify a house or apartment
Once you know how much you can afford, you can start viewing properties, negotiate the purchase price, place a reservation on the property and let us collect the property documents for you. We’ve also partnered up with multiple property listing pages and real estate agents. Let us know what you’re looking for and we can provide you with listings. We can also run a property valuation report if you’d like to confirm the property price.
Get mortgage advice on different financing offers
Our advanced technology compares financing options from more than 400 German banks and will run an affordability check instantly and suggest three personalized options. Our certified mortgage experts will explain each offer thoroughly and answer all of your questions. You will learn about interest rates, monthly instalments, government funding programs and special features like unscheduled payments.
Apply for your mortgage
Once you have selected a mortgage offer, the bank will require personal, financial and property documents for your mortgage application: This includes e.g. a copy of your ID, the last 3 salary slips or the property exposé. After you have submitted all documents to LoanLink24, we will create the mortgage application. Next, you need to sign the application in order to allow the bank to run the Schufa credit check and allow us to communicate with the lender on your behalf.
Mortgage approval
The mortgage approval is a binding document which certifies that your lender will support you with the funding. It usually takes 2-15 days for the lender to perform the final credit assessment and issue the mortgage approval and mortgage contract. We will inform you immediately once the mortgage has been approved.
Notary appointment
Once the financing is secured, and you and the seller have finalized the purchasing details, you both will need to meet with a notary and sign the purchasing contract. It’s important that you have received the mortgage approval before signing the contract! You should also bring the land charge order document (Grundschuldbestellungsunterlagen) to this appointment as the notary will initiate the title registration.
Sign the mortgage contract
It is important to sign the contract before the offer expires. (It takes 1-4 weeks, depending on the bank.)
Signing financial contracts in Germany
By law, there is a 14-day withdrawal period on all financing contract in Germany at no costs. This period is used to finalize the property purchase, which becomes legally binding when signing the purchase contract at the mandatory notary.
Payment order
We will provide you with a list of additional information required by the bank before they pay out the loan:
Copy of the notarized sales contract
Unnotarized excerpt from the title register which signifies the registration of the appropriate mortgage ranking
SEPA direct debit mandate which allows the bank to withdraw the monthly mortgage repayment from your account
Payment of loan
Once the bank has received all required payment order documents, it will pay out the loan to the account which you defined in the payment order. If the property is still under construction, the payments will be delivered based on the construction progress.
Ongoing costs of owning a home
Ongoing costs include your utility consumption, need to renovation, mortgage payment, home insurance, property management service and government taxes.
These hidden costs of home ownership can add up quickly and can be complex to understand. It’s important to make the need for an adequate amount of money to cover these monthly and yearly costs.