Buying property in Germany while living abroad
Buying property in Germany while living abroad: all countries of residence, equity, documentation and how the mortgage actually works. Whether you are browsing German property for sale from the UK or the US, the financing side decides what you can bid. For anyone moving to Germany, the financing path stays the same regardless of which country you're coming from. Where the income carries it, up to 100 % of the lending value is within reach — foreign-currency salaries included. With a residence abroad, incidental purchase costs come from own funds. And you need no German: the conversation, the paperwork and every question run in English, Russian, Spanish or French — the German bank documents I explain to you.
In short
Non-resident mortgage: does my country of residence decide whether it works?
Residence decides the bank selection, not your citizenship. Most rejections come down to four checkable points — source of funds, payment routes, currency and document form — not the country itself.
Where do I start?
With the loan-to-value and documents: non-residents typically get 60–100%, depending on income type and creditworthiness (the country of residence decides which banks take the case, not the range), evidenced with statements, tax assessments and an employer confirmation — in English, without transferring money to Germany first.
Can I finance a property in Germany as a German living abroad?
Yes — as a German living abroad you can still finance a property in Germany, but the rules change. A different set of lenders applies, different documents, and a loan-to-value that depends more on income — 60–100 % of the lending value, depending on income type and creditworthiness.
Where the income carries it, the top of the range is within reach. Which bank takes your case at all depends heavily on your country of residence: residence in Switzerland, the EU or the USA is assessed differently from the UAE or Asia; some countries narrow the pool of lenders considerably.
Add to that proof of income, the currency of that income and tax status. The bottleneck is rarely credit standing, but whether an institution underwrites foreign residence in your particular country. Which ones do, for your country, we clarify in conversation, not on the page. Not legal or tax advice.
By country of residence
Banks assess non-residents differently. Proof of income, currency and country of residence decide who finances. We know the banks that actively take these cases and broker independently under §34i GewO.
Non-resident overview
The starting point: requirements, documents and loan-to-value when you buy in Germany from abroad.
Swiss residence
CHF income, proximity to the border, bank selection — the specifics for Swiss residence.
NL / Austria residence
Neighbouring countries with their own set of banks — what counts for NL and AT residence.
Living in Scandinavia
Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland — four very different starting points.
Living in Russia
Sanctions govern the capital transfer — the most demanding of the constellations.
USA · UK · Asia expats
Several locations abroad, one logic: proof of income and bank selection compared.
Frequently asked questions
Can I get financing at all with residence abroad?
Which documents do I need?
Will the bank count my foreign-currency income?
Residence decides, not citizenship
German nationals living abroad routinely assume that their passport keeps the ordinary rules in place. For a bank it does not. What matters is where you are tax-resident — whether you maintain a residence or habitual abode in Germany within the meaning of §§ 8 and 9 of the German Fiscal Code. If you have given up your German residence, you are subject to limited tax liability (§ 1 (4) EStG). In banking language: a tax non-resident. The passport changes nothing.
It is that status, not your salary, that halves the field of lenders. An engineer earning well in Zurich collects rejections that the same engineer living in Stuttgart would never have received.
The reasons they rarely state openly
- Which law applies. Under the Rome I Regulation a consumer habitually resident abroad may in certain cases invoke mandatory protective provisions of that country. The lender then cannot be certain how the contract would be construed in a dispute — and uncertainty is more expensive than default risk.
- § 505d BGB. If the bank assesses creditworthiness improperly, the borrower may reduce the interest rate to market level and terminate at any time. Foreign income makes a defensible assessment harder — so the exposure to that sanction rises.
- Foreign currency. Income in a foreign currency has to be converted into euros and is credited only with a safety discount. Some lenders do not accept foreign-currency income at all — others do; that is what decides the pool of banks, not the amount of the income.
- The practical layer. Serving documents abroad, identification under anti-money-laundering rules, evidencing the source of equity held offshore, enforcement in the worst case. All solvable — none of it solvable inside an automated application process.
Some lenders do handle this. There are few of them, they do not advertise it, and comparison portals will not find them. That access is what this advice is for.
Let’s talk about your financing
Message me on WhatsApp or book a 30-minute call. The first check is free of charge.
Who pays the broker — and how can the independence be checked?
For a German mortgage the lending bank usually pays the brokerage. Not every bank does; where none does, we agree our fee with you beforehand. If no contract is signed in the end, nothing is charged.
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.