If you are worried that your savings may not cover all of the purchasing costs when buying a property, you can explore several options to increase your borrowing ability. Here are six options to increase what you can afford:
Borrowing money from family or friends. The first and most traditional method is to borrow money from your parents or family. While interest rates are low and purchasing may be attractive, the purchase fees are very high in Germany. Therefore, you want to buy the right size house and not move soon after you have children. So, sometimes it may make sense to borrow additionally from your parents to help you buy the right size house. Using a credit loan to cover the purchase fees. If you have recently started a well-paying job, but your savings are low due to years of studying, for example, you may be eligible for a credit loan to cover the purchase fees. This will sizeably increase the risk of your application and should only be considered if you have a high disposable income with a great future outlook. Our financing experts will be happy to advise you. Negotiating the real-estate commission or buying commission-free property. The third most common way is to find a commission-free property, such as a newly built property, this will increase your maximum loan in some cases by as much as 50% or more. Investing your time as sweat equity. Fourthly, you may be able to invest your own time into the property and invoice it later. This is considered as sweat equity but must be legitimate as you will need to provide the necessary invoices to the lender down the road. Closing a savings contract or "Bausparvertrag". Fifth, the last traditional method is to wait and save - you can do so by opening a savings account or "Bausparvertrag" and systematically depositing monthly payments there, which will guarantee a future loan amount at a specific interest rate. When house prices increase rapidly, this may not work well for you. These products have high closing costs, so they may not make sense for you. Building your own house. Finally, a common approach used by many Germans is to build their own house. This has many benefits like being able to invest your own sweat equity, but most importantly, the purchase fees are paid only on the plot of land.