mits

almost forgot, as others too pointed out..Food is something you'd definitely miss here despite numerous restaurants poping all over!

If at the end of the day, after all expenses, what matters is how much money you've got after paying all checks, then Singapore is definitely better. Also career progression-wise, Singapore is better. However, if you don't mind sacrificing $$$ for work-life balance, then Germany is hands-down all the way down. A big minus is costly trips back home or bringing parents over an extended period of time as @englechen mentioned, plus getting accustomed to the ways of living in Germany  

Exactly, the bank claims if you have your data then we can make a statement but the actualy conditions are made only when the actual contract will be made i.e. after notary signature. So if i sign with notary, I'm bound to buy that property without even knowing how much my monthly mortgage or any bank's conditions be. Actually for the bank statement i was referring to, were properties from privat sellers who of course wouldn't like any Wolfgang visiting their house without intention to buy.   But then again all my intention was to look for maximum mortgage the bank is willing to give and I wasn't given a concrete answer. But a wide range which doesn't help me much. I'd certainly looked into online calculators but each says different based on similar conditions, so an independent advisor will be best way to go.

Resurrecting this thread... Maybe i'm naive as i'll be buying first time our place to live. I made an appointment with a bank and took a day off from work. I went along with my wife (who's a native German speaker). I was given a bunch of documents to fill-up before coming to the appointment. I filled-in all the documents and took them along. The intention was made clear from the beginning that we'd be interested in buying a place which is not yet decided (as we dont know our budget which we can afford) and would like to know how much loan are we eligible for. However, on the day of the appointment, the berater clearly mentioned in the beginning that without an object, they cannot help us out. The berater was along with his boss (Filial leiter) and mostly the boss was doing the talk.   I then said, fine let's take an example and i chose an object which i had in mind so that they could run the numbers and tell me. The berater punched some numbers and said well, we cannot afford to give you that much. I said fine, how much more down payment we'll need to afford it but he still didn't want to give me exact numbers. He's going to give us the numbers (or an intent to buy letter) only if we agree that he'll input our data (salary, address, ausweis, tax declaration etc. ) in his IT system.   To which i said why would he need to do that. They mentioned that if we go to other competitors (like interhyp - which is not a bank) or similar services then they cannot guarantee the interest rate which they are offering. In fact, the berater mentioned that the interest rates which we would be getting via interhyp (if we chose interhyp route and interhyp says that this bank is good), then the interest rates will be higher than what we'll be getting directly with the bank.   The boss and berater both mentioned that even though interhyp and other services mention that they do not charge fees from the client but rather the bank, the client always has to pay the money to interhyp and that interhyp and such other services are always charged a higher interest than directly from the bank.   At this point i was getting uncomfortable and it was already an hour and half into our talk. I finally asked based on our data how much can we afford. The boss looked into our salary slips, asked some basic questions about expenses et. al and even kindergeld. Then said that we can afford something which one of their partners (Planet immo) is currently showing a client at a location which is around 10 kms from the bank and at a price which i felt was above our budget. The berater than immediately called his partner and set-up an viewing on the same day half an hour later. At this point i thought they were giving us the hard ball and i reluctantly agreed to view but later declined. I also took all the forms back and came home thinking that all this should happen only when i know an object. But then isn't his a chicken and egg situation? If i view an object and like it, the potential seller will always ask for a letter "mortgage in principle" or "letter of intent to buy" before a viewing takes place. The bank doesn't want to give us such a statement unless we have a concrete object.   I must mention that the said bank is not our hausbank. Am i being taken for a ride here? I mean there are various online calculators from different sources and all give different numbers based on similar chosen conditions. The bank too has an online calculator for us to play around but i'd like to know some concrete numbers which i wasn't able to get through our first meeting. Are we doing something wrong in our approach? Seems yes or`? How did you go about it? The market in Munich surroundings is hot that the place is gone even before it's adverstised, so I'm wondering how to aproach the situation.

@BayrischDude: Bayern but Munich outskirts to be specific

Thanks @Krieg. 6-7 seater is slightly thinking long term. Kids grow fast make friends, do activities. Omas or opas visiting occassionally, the same goes for visitors. Actually in Golf i took my practised for my driving licence but didn't feel comfortable inside while driving. A slightly bigger headspace/legspace is better otherwise it looks like we are giant fellas cramped in a small car. I thought of Golf plus but didn't had a chance to test it @emkay: good thoughts, a german friend has agreed to come along with me and if we decide to buy I'd to an independent check at a garage. Buying a new car unfortunately, is out of budget @dstanners: VW caddy seems to work as well but couldn't find within the budget. About Zafira any ideas?

Reviving this topic. So far we've managed to live without car but with 2 small kids it's getting cumbersome to carry out daily chores. We are family of four with me and my wife just above 6 feet (180 cms) and are looking for our first second hand car (gebrauchtswagen) which could ferry around kids comfortably. So here's our criteria (although we could be naive as it's our first car) 1. Petrol engine (Benzin) 2. Six to Seven Seater with good boot-space. I know such ones have bare minimal boot space but still good to have extra room 3. Shouldn't have clocked-in more than 130,000 4. Don't know if it matters but the car shouldn't be registered older than 2011 (erstzualassung). Although 2010 cars are cheaper and would fit in our budget. 5. Budget: 5k - 10k. Ideally 7.5k 6. Easy on maintenance, not too expensive spare parts if repair pops-in, good on mileage. 7. I'm inclined towards Japanese cars (Toyota, Mazda, Honda). Absolute no-go would be Dacia, Renault, Nissan   A quick search in mobile.de throws up the following alternatives. a. Mazda 5 b. Opel Zafira c. Chrysler Voyager d. VW Touran 6. Seat Alahambra 7. VW Sharan   Budget-wise it seems Opel Zafira is the only one which we could afford, but reading online with my limited german seems to have regular issues. Mazda 5 mobile.de it says that the car is seldom found in workshops and is a dauerlaufer (long runner), but it's on the higher end of 9k   We'd like to know your comments regarding our choices and probably first hand experience with any of them. VWs will have good resale value but are usually 10k or upwards. Any ideas which one should be opt for?