Mortgage in Germany — every route, including residence and income abroad
Every financing has its own question: follow-up, full financing, an older property, a weak energy rating or residence abroad. Here you find the right detail page for each case. Brokered independently under §34i GewO, free of charge for you. As a non-resident mortgage, this case needed the right bank from the start, not the first one approached.
In short
Which financing page is mine?
You live outside Germany: start with tax non-residency. You are paid in a currency other than the euro: some lenders do not accept foreign-currency income — others do, so start with foreign-currency income. Your fixed-rate period is ending: follow-on financing — two years early if you have moved abroad. Buying to let from abroad or unsure whether the property itself is financeable: the lending value, not the purchase price, decides.
Mortgage advice: is a rejection about my income?
In cross-border cases almost never. The reasons are legal and operational: which law governs the contract, whether the lender can serve notice and enforce the security, whether the assessment can be documented to German standards. These are structural questions — and there are lenders who have already answered them.
Who is 100 % purchase-price financing for?
A lever for investors, doctors and top credit standing who want to keep their equity working: closing costs from own funds, and the household income must carry the instalment.
Who arranges this?
Perini Finance & Property — licensed under §34i GewO, 650+ banks compared, we know the banks whose lending rules cover follow-up financing, foreign-currency income, older or listed properties, weak energy classes and residence abroad. Advice costs you nothing; we are as a rule paid by the financing bank — brokerage under §34i GewO by Olga Nikushkina.
Can I get a mortgage in Germany if my income or residence is abroad?
Yes — a German mortgage is possible even with income from abroad, residence abroad or a hard-to-value property; it simply runs through a different set of lenders than the classic resident case. Three questions decide almost every case: Is there enough equity — and where does it come from, including a mortgage-free property?
Is the income recognised — euro, foreign currency, self-employed, from abroad? And is the property bankable? The bottleneck is rarely credit standing alone, but whether any institution underwrites the specific case at all: non-residents, foreign currency, cross-border commuters, older stock with a refurbishment backlog.
Matching case to lender is the actual brokerage work — it belongs in a conversation, not on the page. §34i brokerage and, in Portugal, a locally licensed intermediary, from a single source. Not legal or tax advice.
What if the money runs out during construction?
Then you need additional financing — a further loan for costs not covered by the original facility. This is more common than people assume and no sign of poor planning: construction cost increases, contractor variations, ground conditions that only show up once digging starts. The decisive point is sequence.
Anyone who goes to the bank before the shortfall negotiates from a normal position. Anyone who waits until invoices are outstanding negotiates under pressure, and pays for it. Second: the original lender holds first rank in the land register.
Additional financing ranks behind it and is therefore more expensive; whether the existing bank or another is cheaper has to be calculated.
Choose your topic
We compare more than 650 banks and pick the one that fits your case. Advice costs you nothing; we are as a rule paid by the financing bank. Brokerage of consumer mortgage loans under §34i GewO by Olga Nikushkina.
100% purchase-price financing as leverage
For investors, doctors and top credit standing: keep your equity working instead of tying it up. Closing costs from own funds, household income must carry the instalment.
Follow-up & restructuring
Fixed period ending? We compare the follow-up rate across 650+ banks — including forward loans up to 66 months ahead.
Check bankability
Before you buy: what banks want to see in the property — a compact checklist.
Reading a listing (Exposé)
What a property listing reveals about financeability — seven points and the red flags.
Self-employed & freelancers
Variable income, no payslip? Find the bank that reads your accounts fairly — from 650+ banks.
Existing property
Older build, year of construction, energy condition — how it affects loan-to-value and rate.
Listed buildings
§7i depreciation, KfW combination and the bank structure that separates purchase and refurbishment.
Energy class G/H
Financing despite a weak energy rating — which banks still take the property.
Foreign-currency income
Paid in CHF, USD or GBP? The banks that count foreign-currency income for a German mortgage.
Which lender accepts it?
Not the size of the salary decides, but each lender's credit policy — which currencies are accepted and how the safety margin is applied.
Inheritance tax for non-residents
The €2,000 allowance was abolished in 2017. What applies today — and why the financing structure helps decide what is taxed.
Release equity to buy abroad
Use your paid-off German property as the deposit for Spain or Portugal — German loan and Spanish financing from one hand.
Buying in another euro country
Charge the mortgage-free property in one country and buy in another: as a rule up to 50 % of the bank valuation, loans from around €500,000.
Holistic advice
More than a rate: repayment, subsidies, special repayments and fixed period working together.
Price is not lending value
Why the bank values less than you pay — property value and CRR III explained.
QNG new build
KfW 297/298 up to €150,000 plus an annuity loan — the order of application matters.
Follow-up for non-residents
Existing German mortgage, residence abroad — restructuring with a different set of banks.
Buy-to-let for non-residents
Residence abroad, purchase in Germany — typical loan-to-value of 60–100%.
Documents a German bank asks for — all 40, in English
Financing rarely fails on income. It fails on the one document nobody thought of, and it surfaces once the notary appointment is already booked. This is the complete list German lenders work from, grouped in the order they ask for it. Nothing here sits behind a form.
Identification
- ID card or passport, copies of both sides
- Non-EU citizens: residence permit with expiry
- Current registration certificate
- Marriage contract or divorce decree, if applicable
Proof of income
- Last three payslips plus the prior-year December payslip
- Employment contract — mandatory for fixed-term contracts
- Latest income-tax assessment and the corresponding return
- Civil servants: certificate of tenured appointment
- Pensioners: current pension or civil-service pension notice (statutory, professional scheme, civil service, occupational, private)
- Parental or child benefit: current award notice
Assets and equity
- Proof of equity: account and portfolio statements, no more than four weeks old
- Home-savings account statement, if any
- Life-insurance surrender-value certificate, if it is being used
- Gift declaration from relatives, if the equity comes from family
- SCHUFA or credit report, if the bank asks for it
- KfW subsidy approval including repayment grant, if already issued
Existing liabilities
- Loan and leasing contracts with current balance
- Maintenance order, if applicable
- Health-insurance premium statement
Additionally for the self-employed
- Tax assessments for the last two years
- Balance sheets or income-surplus accounts for the last two years
- Current BWA with trial balance — from July, the annual accounts
- Trade registration or craft-register entry
Property documents, once a property is found
- Purchase contract — a draft is enough for the pre-check
- Current land-register extract, no more than three months old
- Cadastral map or site plan
- Living-space calculation
- Floor plans and construction drawings with dimensions
- Current property photos: exterior front, side, rear and interior
- Energy certificate — mandatory on sale since 2014
- Declaration of division, condominiums and multi-family houses only
- Building insurance policy for an existing property
- Building specification and permit, new builds only
- Ground lease agreement, leasehold properties only
- Sales brochure or listing, if available
If the property is let
- Existing tenancy agreements and the last three months of rent received
- New build: the expected rent from the local rent index
Refinancing and follow-on financing
- The complete existing loan agreement
- The last two annual statements from the existing bank
- Outstanding-balance certificate
This list is for preparation and is not an offer. Which documents a bank actually requests depends on the lender and the case — items that do not apply simply fall away. Checklist as of August 2026. No tax or legal advice.
The same list in German, with the three downloadable checklists, is on Unterlagen für die Baufinanzierung. The bilingual PDF (DE/EN) is sent by e-mail — enter your address and the link arrives straight away: Checkliste Baufinanzierung Deutschland 2026 (PDF).
Frequently asked questions
What does the advice cost me?
How many banks do you compare?
Do you finance with residence abroad?
This hub exists to route you, not to summarise
The pages below look related but answer very different questions. Choosing the wrong starting point costs weeks, because each situation has its own small circle of lenders — and approaching the wrong ones leaves traces.
- You live outside Germany. Start with tax non-residency. Your residence, not your passport, determines which law applies to the contract and which lenders will look at the file at all.
- You are paid in a currency other than the euro. Start with foreign-currency income. Some lenders do not accept foreign-currency income — others do, and where it is accepted it is counted with a safety margin rather than in full. Which applies to you sits in each lender's credit policy, and it is the reason many decline before they have even seen your figures.
- Your fixed-rate period is ending. Go to follow-on financing. If you have moved abroad since taking out the loan, your existing bank may not extend — and that is a problem to solve two years early, not two months.
- You are buying to let from abroad. The property has to carry part of the debt service, and lenders differ sharply in how much of the rent they recognise.
- You are unsure whether the property itself is financeable. German banks lend against the mortgage lending value, not the purchase price. Where the two diverge, the difference becomes equity you have to find.
Rejection is rarely about your income
Clients arrive convinced that they were declined because they do not earn enough. In cross-border cases that is almost never the reason. The reason is legal and operational: which law governs the contract, whether the lender can serve notice on you, whether it can enforce the security, whether the credit assessment can be documented to the standard German law requires.
That is good news, because those are structural questions with structural answers — and there are lenders who have already answered them. They do not advertise, and they do not appear on comparison sites. Finding them is the work.
Let’s talk about your financing
Message me on WhatsApp or book a 30-minute call. The first check is free of charge.