In Germany, there are a few different types of residence status, which include working Visa’s, temporary residence permits, blue-card holders and permanent residents. In German they are:

Visum
Aufenthaltserlaubnis
Niederlassungserlaubnis
Erlaubnis zum Daueraufenthalt-EU

Generally speaking there are no clear guidelines for the lending requirements. Typically, Blue-card holders and temporary residents can easily borrow up to 90.00 % of the property value with some exceptions while permanent residents can often borrow up to 100.00 % of the property value. A general rule of thumb is that the maximum income-to-loan ratio is about 108x.

Example

You are a Blue-card holder with a net income of 6,000 € per month and savings of 50,000 €. You want to understand what you can borrow and the maximum property price you can afford. Our affordability calculator will look at your net income, total savings and residence status.

Buying a new build in Berlin

Given you are buying a new-build property in Berlin without real estate commission, the total fees will amount to the 2.00 % notary fee and the 6.00 % property transfer tax, 8.00 % together. Given a property of 600,000 €, you would have total purchase fees of 48,000 €, which would fall under the 108 × income-to-loan ratio, however it would imply a loan-to-value of 598,000 € / 600,000 € or 99.00 %.

Hence, blue-card holders with high net incomes can sometimes borrow above 90.00 % but we typically advise to only borrow up to 95.00 %. If you are a tax foreigner, you can only borrow up to 70.00 % of the property value in any case.

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