Buying an apartment without a large down payment

that's the nice thing about erding. it's the last stop on the s2 before bandit country and is a 15minute drive to the airport. however, a new dhh of c150qm wohnflaeche and 300qm ground will set you back at least 400k if not considerably more in erding. forego the pleasures of the s-bahn and a very nice little town, then you can slice that price. but as allershausen says, you need to transport yourself about really and if you think the roads in munich in the winter are bad, well... just make sure you have a well-stocked cupboard and beer-fridge, since some lesser country roads can take them a few days to clear.

EDIT: yet again yeti, mwahahaaha (feck, that's true!) thank fully i live, literally, within crawling distance of the irish pub in erding with a wine bar in between, so do still get the odd saturday night out.

One other thing about the sticks is that you need to speak German, this will however happen much quicker than living in the city, simply because you are forced to learn, no bad thing in my opinion.

aye, and not just german but bavarian too.

400k sounds good for C150qm. I've forgot exact prices per sqm but we are looking at 400 to 450 for 95/100 in Solln and more in Perlach.

ah, but you're really very close to or actually in munich there. erding is 46mins with the s-bahn to marienplatz.

so, i've just grabbed the local rag and here's a sample of what you could have -

dorfen/schwindkirchen - 160qm living, 700qm ground - 199k euros!!! must be arse end of nowhere but dorfen is connected by regional train to munich.

near rechtmehring (wherever that is!) - 185qm living, over 1000qm ground - 348k euros

and for those in search of your own bit of paradise...

near hohenlinden with mountain views - 300qm living, 56,000qm ground (!) with stabling for 10 horses - a shade over 1M euros (well, we can all dream )

Mate if I was in your situation I would keep my eyes scanned here:

http://www.justiz-augsburg.de/ag/

Click on Versteigerungstermine for the upcoming auctions. I have been once, and bid on a house. Unlike a UK property auction...you get very few people so stand a chance of snatching a proper bargain.

I have forgotten the exact rules, but I think if it hits 75% of valuation they MUST sell, and if it hits 50% the bank has the option to sell or refuse. The prices on the website are the official valuation, so in theory you could get for 50-75-100% of the price shown, but clearly on the day they usually go for much less than the "retail" value.

As you can see it covers stuff in your area like Dießen am Amersee etc. Obviously problem is you need to be in a poistion to go ahead. I think you need 10% deposit (in cash!) on the day to be allowed to bid.

I missed out on the place I was bidding on, but there was only one other bidder!

Just spotted they have got a 1 bed apartment in my village. 44sq meters. Guide price €39,700. Bargain!!!

JE,

Great tip thanks for that - I for one will defo keep it in mind...

Perhaps not exacvtly on topic but...

We are looking to buy @ the moment and I was wondering how much can you bargain on prices ?

We have seen a 2 Room flat for 170k and a 3 Room flat for 199k

And I was thinking well if we can get 10-15% off the 3 bed flat then why not buy that.

Anyone have any expierence on how much you can knock down prices if @ all?

@Stanford. Yeah but that link is only for the Augsburg and kinda south area. I assume there is the equivalent for Munich.

Looking Through the Munich Amtsgericht site, they point people to This Site
Have a look, maybe you'll find something of intrest.

Houses here have doubled since the late 80's. They were expensive then and they are expensive today. Now, lets not even talk about the land prices. That is where the real value is and where the prices have really grown.

Still cheap as chips compared to London! I heard the house inflation rate here has been 1% per year in Munich for the last 10 years so one of us is talking bollox.

According to this graph from for some rag called "The Economist" it looks like it is not me talking bollox:

http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=1057057



Also you will see that they only list Frankfurt in the city list but if you read the article it says:

This article may also be of interest:

http://www.dbresearch.com/PROD/DBR_INTERNE...00000188134.pdf

They say prices are the same as 1991, but the report is from some dodgy sounding bunch called "Deutsche Bank" so Eurovol is probably correct.

I think you are both right, my next door neighbour bought his house when it was new in, I think 1986, and paid about 60% of what I paid 5 years later. When I moved from Munich to Garching in 1988, I could have bought a house there, for about the same price as I paid 3 years later in Allershausen, but the prices in Garching had risen by about 25% by then, which put them out of my price range.Since then the prices have hardly risen at all. Of course this could happen again, but it's all a bit academic really, it's only important if you sell it and do something else with the money, you've got to live somewhere!

Therefore crucial to many ex-pats who have plans to return home in later years.

Also ironically crucial for those that intend to stay to their final days, as they do not want to be renting in their 70's, and therefore need to make an important timing decision on when they purchase.

And also crucial for those investing in the market on a buy to let basis. No point if no capital return.

And crucial for those that think they might "downsize" later as the property will be part of their retirement fund.

Ummmm. So I think house price inflation (or lack thereof) is actually pretty important, especially as it is usually the most expensive thing you will ever buy in your life.

But as you rightly say, once you have stepped onto the ladder, you can effectively forget the whole issue (for better or for worse) and just live in the place!!!

The downsized property will also not have gone up either so its not so critical. The rest I agree with especially if you plan on staying here

Nope you missed my point on that one. Some people may choose to purchase (or even purchase a larger then necessary property) NOW in the sure and certain knowledge that they do not want or need 5 bedrooms later in life. The property will therefore form part of their retirement fund, as they will 100% plan to downsize.

If there is zero or negative house price inflation that may fuck up their plan.

Basically if your next move is a "downsize" then property price inflation is a wonderful thing. If your next move is an "upsize" then property price inflation is bad news.

Yes, That small leap from the LL to the STA license plate is a painful one...I swear our SAT Nav changes her accent when we cross the top of the Ammersee

I reckon there is quite some truth in the statement "Houses
generally do NOT gain in value - it is the currency that goes down".

Unless you strike lucky and own property close to something
abnoxious & that subsequently gets removed the chances of
"winning" are remote.

What gets me in the system in Germany where the "Makler" takes such
a cut - in the North the cut is even higher than down South
Over 5% is common up here! That must be about 5 times
what the agents take in the UK

We've seen a place we like and had a second appointment yesterday to see if our furniture would fit in. It's looking good and we decided that we'll make an offer on it. The problem is it disappeared from the internet yesterday evening and has been re-advertised today with 20K put on top of the price.

It's a private ad but is starting to look a bid dodgy. We're going to carry on as if we haven't seen the new ad but anyone got any advice on how we should proceed? We were going to try and knock the original asking price down but that looks a bit doubtfull now. The couple selling seemed to be genuine and I don't think they are playing around, they've just split up too and want a fairly quick sale.

Any comments would be appreciated.