Where a branch bank stops at a residence abroad, a salary in foreign currency or self-employment outside Germany, I look for the lender whose credit policy covers the case. Of more than 650 banks compared, 6 to 10 institutions with international experience actually take these cases.
Advice free of charge · commission is paid by the bank
CHF · USD · GBP · AED · OMR · TRY · SGD · HKD · AUD · NZD · CAD · SEK · NOK · DKK · PLN · HUF · CNY · JPY · KRW
Income is converted into euro and taken with a discount of 20–25 %; for Swiss cross-border commuters living in Germany it is 10–15 %. Salary, pension and contractually fixed bonuses count.
We place every currency on this list. The one exception is the rouble. Which bank takes the case is decided by the country of residence — the loan-to-value of 60–100 % is not.
And you need no German for it — the conversation, the paperwork and every question run in English, Russian, Spanish or French.
Most applications don’t fail on income. They fail on rules that aren’t obvious until you’re mid-process.
Perini Finance & Property — licensed under §34i GewO, 650+ banks compared. We know the few banks whose lending rules cover foreign residence, foreign-currency income and doctors' income. A 'no' has three reasons: creditworthiness, equity – or the bank's lending rules. The third is our field.
Living outside Germany, or earning in a non-euro currency (USD, GBP, CHF), narrows the field sharply. Some lenders do not accept foreign-currency income — others do, and each applies its own safety margin to it. The right banks exist — they are just specific.
For non-EU nationals living in Germany, banks weigh the type and remaining term of your residence permit (Blue Card, settlement permit) and the equity ratio. Knowing which lender accepts which constellation saves weeks of dead ends.
Advice, documents and the application run remotely in German or English — only the notarial purchase contract needs a physical appointment, which a representative under power of attorney can also handle. See the full process.
Purchase costs in Germany — property transfer tax, notary, land registry and, where applicable, agent fees — add roughly 8–15 % on top of the price. German banks almost never finance these costs. You need them as equity, on top of your down payment.
A 'no' has three reasons: creditworthiness, equity – or the bank's lending rules. Nobody moves the first two. The third is our field. A starting point outside the standard is not an exclusion. A financing that does not work economically is something we cannot solve either.
Not the right fit if… the monthly instalment does not fit a conservative household budget, or the closing costs (8–15 % depending on the federal state) are not available from own funds.
General information, not tax or legal advice.
You live and work in Germany — on an EU Blue Card, a settlement permit or a fixed-term permit. Own home or buy-to-let. KfW subsidies apply to you too.
Expats living in Germany →You are a German citizen living in Switzerland, Austria, the USA, the UK, the UAE or Asia, and want to buy property in Germany — as an investment or for a later return. I know the banks.
Germans living abroad →You live in Germany but work in Switzerland, Austria, Luxembourg or the Netherlands — often paid in a foreign currency. I know the banks that accept this constellation.
Cross-border workers →How a German mortgage rate is built, what raises it for expats and non-residents, and which fixed-rate period makes sense for your case.
Mortgage rates in Germany →The full process for non-German buyers: what you need, what it costs, which taxes apply and where the financing needs the right lender.
Buying a house in Germany →Olga Nikushkina is a registered mortgage credit advisor under §34i GewO (German register no. D-W-132-ZUCB-95). The advice, the comparison across 650+ banks and the financing request are completely free for you — the commission is paid by the bank, not by you. Service in German, English, Russian and Spanish.
Four compact PDFs for financing property in Germany: a listing pre-check, the standard document checklist, the non-resident/expat special checklist and the KfW funding compass. From day-to-day brokerage practice. Straight to your inbox. Full version of the listing pre-check with the 4 most common gaps: Check the listing before you finance it.
Already concrete? The two fillable templates are available via a quick form: self-disclosure form (DE/EN) and net-worth statement (DE/EN). The non-resident checklist as a full walk-through: all checklists — overview.
Open the file directly — no form: Germany property financing checklist (PDF, 8 pages) · Property listing (Exposé) check (PDF, 1 page) · KfW funding overview 2026 (PDF, 4 pages) · Non-resident mortgage checklist (PDF, 8 pages)
Market commentary, regulation and practice reports on mortgage financing — newest articles first.
Not the rate, not the 35% rule: loan-to-value, purchase costs and the age limit decide how much you can borrow in Spain.
Less mortgage in Spain — the real reason →Two time-limited changes: commercial-to-residential from 1 July and better Jung-kauft-Alt terms from 3 August.
Renovation funding 2026: Gewerbe zu Wohnen & Jung kauft Alt →The ECB raised rates — yet capital-market yields fell. What that means for your financing.
Mortgage rates July 2026: the ECB hikes, the capital market falls →Tell me about your situation and I’ll tell you honestly whether, and at what level, financing is realistic — before you start house-hunting.
Phone +49 2151 3293344 · siegfried@perini-financeandproperty.com
Short answers to the situations that make German banks hesitate. General questions on fees, process and follow-up financing are answered on the FAQ page.
Direct entry into every area — each page links to the related topics in that section.
Looking for the full detail? The complete website — products, KfW programmes, country pages, calculator and checklists — is available in German. Go to the German site →
For a German mortgage the lending bank pays the brokerage. Nothing is charged to you, and nothing is charged if no contract is signed in the end. Bank-independent here means something measurable: access to more than 650 lenders through the platform connections Prohyp, Baufinex, Forum, ABACUS and Hyposmart — from the large banks through regional institutions to lenders that run no branch network at all. Per case, typically 6 to 10 of them are left that genuinely take this constellation on a regular basis. The licence under § 34i(1) and § 34c of the German Trade Regulation Act carries adviser-register number D-W-132-ZUCB-95, entered on 26 September 2016 with IHK Mittlerer Niederrhein, with professional indemnity cover at Allianz — free to verify at vermittlerregister.info. We also decline cases that will not carry, and earn nothing on them. The fee page has the detail.