German mortgages and minimum downpayments

Just to support rick_de...there is not really a boat to miss here since the prices aren' t raising (and could be falling in some parts)...you can really rent and wait...as long as you are saving...If you do get round to do you financial models you will find out all things being equal that the more deposit you put down the less interest you pay to the rich banks!!!

I am bored...sitting at Stansted earlier because of the security checks and nothing to do but surf TT...

The locals here do seem obsessed with building their own houses though. Pretty much all the germans I know, who are in a non-rented family house type situation are living in houses that either they or their parents got built for them. The ones I talked to about it said of course its much nicer to start a family in your own home rather than a second hand one. Hardly anyone back home builds, only if they are rich or they have to. I would have thought with the lower population growth here building would be even less likely.

True, that struck me when I first moved here. Instead of "housing ladders" and "first time buyers" the talk here is of "Eigenbau" "Bausparvertrag" and "Grundstück". But I have to say Id much rather live in a german Eigenbau than in one of the terraced or semi-detached rabbit hutches that you find in the UK. The quality of the building here is much better than pretty well anything you find in Britain.

On Johnny English's house building thread, it was said that it takes 6 months to build a house in Germany. This is amazing coming from Australia where it takes 6 weeks max to build a house, sometimes only 2 weeks! I'm 100% sure this comes down to quality though, in Germany they seem quite high quality, and in Australia these 2 week ones are truly pieces of shit..

Thats because of the time they spend swigging beer and attaching a christmas tree to the rafters. Richtfest I think the natives call it.. Rather neat actually.

Hi all

I know this is an old thread, however, I wondered if anyone had any up to date info about getting a 100% mortgage and if it is indeed possible in the current climate.

Many thanks,

G

No idea if that's even possible, but if it's a serious question I can send you details of the guy from Interhyp who arranged our mortgage and you can ask him, although I'm not sure he speaks English. You'll pay a much higher rate of interest than you would if you could find a deposit from somewhere though.

Ginty1968: yes, it is still possible, albeit, as HellesAngel points out correctly. Just an example: I just quoted a client for two similar purchases of property in Germany, so his own financial situation is the same for both cases: for a 70% mortgage the interest rate will be fixed for 10 years at 5,86% whereas the other 100% mortgage will be charged at 6,47%.
Of course it will depend in the end on the type of property and your personal status (employed/self-employed; resident or foreign investor) and financial background if you can get 100 or even 110 % mortgage or not. if you are a foreign investor and not a resident, chances are close to zero for property values of less then 3 - 5 million EUR and yield from rental income of less then 8 %... in such a case you should rather expect a LTV between 54-70 % tops.

If you want to get advice from an independent mortgage broker, check out what HellesAngel recommend or come to someone like me ( I am an independent financial advisor and specialized on mortgage brokering for foreign investors) - I work with the same database like InterHyp but have also close links to some Austrian banks and other banks not listed by Interhyp (yet) if the investment should take place in Bavaria or Saxony, for instance.

Cheerio

It is possible to get it up to the 100% of the value of the property itself but you will still need cash for all the other things (Notar, taxes, real state agent, Grundbuch charges, etc).

As HellesAngel pointed, the rate will be higher. I got my mortgage from Interhyp as well and I requested a person who speaks English (I can speak good enough German but I wanted to do it in a language I felt more confident).

Thanks to all for the advice. We managed to get one with 5.4% fixed for 10 years. We just need to negotiate the asking price now and get it down!