Personal Experience of Buying a House in Germany

Anna has been living in Germany for over 10 years and recently bought her own home in this country. How long did this whole process take and what difficulties did she have to face? Read our article.

About Life and Work in Germany

— My name is Anna, I am 32 years old. I moved to Germany from the Belarusian city of Bobruisk in 2012. I settled in the small town of Goslar. Now I work as a teacher of German, conducting courses for migrants.

To obtain citizenship* in this country, you must have a permanent job and a good command of German.

*To obtain German citizenship, you generally need to have lived in the country legally for 8 years continuously. However, in 2023, a new law was passed that reduces this period to 5 years, and in some cases to 3 years.

Also from the requirements:

• be able to support yourself and your family members without social assistance or unemployment benefits;
• confirm knowledge of the German language at level B1 (if applying after 5 years) or C1 (if applying after 3 years);
• take a test on knowledge of German culture and society
• have no criminal convictions.

Children born in Germany will receive citizenship if at least one of the foreign parents has legally resided in this country for more than 5 years.

About Prices and Comfortable Earnings

— The main advantage of living in Germany for me is safety and peace of life. But there is also a disadvantage — solving any issues, even everyday ones, takes a lot of time (usually, we are talking about several weeks or even months).

The Germans themselves are very pedantic, punctual, correct, and a little economical; they try not to throw money around. Many are keen on sports, especially football.

— Prices in Germany vary greatly depending on the category of goods and their quality. Milk can cost from 1.30 to 3 euros, bread from 0.99 euros to 4 euros, and so on. The same applies to clothing: you can buy a T-shirt for 1 euro or for 50 euros. Plus, some people in Germany do not work and live off social benefits from the state.

The country is generally very social — people who need help get it here. There are also many private organizations that support the needy and refugees.

I think that 2000 euros per month will be enough for one person to live (without renting a house). Plus, there may be additional costs for car maintenance (if any), internet, and telecommunications.

If you live with a child, the amount increases significantly: there are clubs, clothes, and lunches at school (60–80 euros per month).

About Choosing and Buying Own Home

— Property prices vary greatly, from 100,000 euros for a small house in a small town to 300,000+ euros for housing in large cities.

Rent also varies: before buying my own home, I paid 400 euros + 350 euros for utilities in a house located in the center of my small town (it had 2 floors and a small garden).

I had been looking for my own home for about 2 years — I needed it to be a small house not far from work. In the end, I found a great, well-maintained house for 105,000 euros on a classifieds website. Immediately after viewing it, the seller agreed to sell it to me (due to the huge demand, here the sellers themselves most often choose the buyer and not the other way around).

There are no renovation costs for my new home. I bought it on credit for 30 years at 3.4% per annum: this is a fixed percentage for 10 years, and then the rate will be calculated again, that is, it can either go up or down.

As for the associated costs, for a house worth 105,000 euros, I paid about 5,000 euros in purchase tax, about 900 euros to the notary, and another 1,000 euros in various fees. In total, the additional cost of the house was about 8,000 euros.

— So, how does the process of buying a house in Germany work?

First, you need to go to the bank and provide documents that you have a permanent job. They also pay attention to the following points: the number of family members, earnings, and, in general, financial solvency.

Then you need to find a notary who will also cooperate with the bank. At these stages, you will need to present a huge package of documents.

The longest wait was for a response from the notary and for me to be subsequently entered into the register of owners — Grundbuch.

The whole process took about 6 months, but in reality, it could have been three — the seller was just away for three months. We didn’t work with realtors — we negotiated directly.

In general, if you want to buy a house in Germany, the most important thing is to have a permanent job with a good income. You also need to get insurance — I did it for 4000 euros. And the main thing is to be patient because you will have to wait.