Buying property in Germany as an Indian: mortgage, taxes, and what banks actually ask for

This isn't covered anywhere else on the site: the closest existing content just mentions mortgages in passing inside payslip, insurance, and Schufa guides. If you're a few years into a Blue Card or PR and starting to think about buying instead of renting, here's what's actually confirmed, and what genuinely isn't.

Can you legally buy property as a non-EU foreigner? Yes, no exceptions

Germany places no restriction on foreign ownership of real estate, regardless of residence status. This is confirmed directly by the German parliament's own research service (Wissenschaftliche Dienste des Bundestages): "there are currently no acquisition restrictions on domestic land to the detriment of foreign natural or legal persons."

The legal basis is Art. 86 EGBGB: any older state-level restrictions on foreign buyers stopped having effect back in 1998. There is a theoretical clause allowing the federal government to impose retaliatory restrictions against a specific non-EU nationality if Germans face restrictions buying property in that country, but no such regulation is currently in force against any nationality, including India. In short: owning property here has nothing to do with your visa type. Getting a mortgage to pay for it is a completely different question, and that's where your residence status actually matters.

Getting a mortgage: your residence permit changes your options

This is the part where we have to be honest about the limits of what we could verify. German banks don't publish hard, public rules tying mortgage terms to specific residence-permit types; this is handled case-by-case in underwriting, so what follows is sourced from mortgage broker guidance (Interhyp and similar), not a bank's own published criteria, and should be treated as a general pattern rather than a fixed rule you can rely on for your specific application.

• With a Niederlassungserlaubnis (permanent residence), financing terms are generally treated the same as for German or EU citizens.
• With only a temporary residence permit (a Blue Card holder who hasn't reached PR yet, for example), fewer banks are willing to lend, and the equity you're expected to bring in generally goes up. Broker sources describe this as "only a handful of banks" being willing to take on that profile, though we could not verify this against an actual bank's own lending page, so treat it as directional, not a guaranteed obstacle.

The honest gap: we could not find a bank-published table showing exact down-payment or interest-rate differences by residence-permit type. If you're at this stage, ask multiple lenders (or a mortgage broker) directly rather than assuming your specific permit rules you in or out; the pattern above is real, but the specifics are case-by-case.

How much equity (Eigenkapital) you actually need

This one is solidly sourced, directly from Interhyp, Germany's largest mortgage broker, on their own guidance page. The floor: your own funds should at minimum cover the Kaufnebenkosten (purchase side-costs, roughly 10% of the price, see below). For meaningfully better loan conditions, Interhyp recommends at least 20% of the purchase price as equity, and states that in practice, most of their customers bring 20% to 30%. Loan rates step down favorably at loan-to-value thresholds of 80%, 70%, and 60%: the more equity you bring, the cheaper your rate.

Grunderwerbsteuer: the tax that varies by state, current 2026 rates

Real estate transfer tax is set by each Bundesland individually (a result of the 2006 federalism reform giving states this authority), and ranges from 3.5% to 6.5% of the purchase price. Current rates, cross-checked across multiple sources including direct news coverage of the two most recent state-level changes (Thüringen cut to 5.0% on 1 January 2024; Bremen raised to 5.5% effective 1 July 2025):

This tax alone is one of the biggest reasons the "10-15% purchase costs on top of the price" rule of thumb exists: in Nordrhein-Westfalen or Berlin, Grunderwerbsteuer alone eats 6% of your purchase price before you've paid a notary or an agent.

Other purchase costs

Notary fees are not optional: German law requires notarial certification for any property purchase contract. This is stated directly in §311b BGB: a contract obligating either party to transfer or acquire ownership of a property requires notarial certification. There is no way around this, and no discount version; every property sale in Germany goes through a notary. Commonly cited notary and Grundbuch (land registry) fees add up to roughly 1.5-2% and 0.5% of the purchase price respectively; we did not independently verify these against the statutory fee schedule (GNotKG), so treat them as widely-cited industry figures rather than confirmed numbers.

Agent commission (Maklerprovision) is now split, by law. Since 23 December 2020, §656c BGB requires that when a broker is used for the sale of a residential apartment or single-family home to a buyer who is a private consumer, commission must be split equally between buyer and seller if a broker is engaged by (or paid by) both sides; no party can be charged more than 50% of the total, and the buyer's share only becomes due once the seller can show they've paid theirs. This law does not apply to undeveloped land, multi-family buildings, or commercial property.

What banks and notaries will ask you for

German notaries are required under anti-money-laundering rules (the Geldwäschegesetz) to collect identification, proof of registration (Meldebescheinigung), income proof (recent payslips or a tax assessment), asset proof, and (this is the part worth knowing in advance) documented proof of where your equity capital actually came from: a gift deed, an inheritance certificate, or a loan agreement, for example. Cash purchases of German property are banned outright; payment must be traceable.

What we could not confirm, and you should ask directly: whether Indian income tax returns or Indian bank statements are accepted as standard source-of-funds documentation if part of your down payment originates in India. We found no bank, notary body, or legal source addressing this specifically; it likely depends on the individual bank and notary, and possibly needs currency-transfer documentation on top (see our sending money from India to Germany guide for the transfer side of this). If a meaningful part of your equity is coming from India, raise this with your bank and notary early, before you're mid-transaction.

Two more open questions we're flagging rather than guessing on: how many months of steady German income or employment history banks typically want to see before approving a mortgage (no codified rule exists; it's handled case-by-case, though broker sources suggest banks are generally reluctant to lend during your Probezeit, the typical 6-month probation period at a new job), and the exact interest-rate or down-payment gap between a temporary and permanent residence permit (covered above; genuinely unclear without contacting lenders directly).

Related guides on this site

• ETF investing in Germany for Indians
• Schufa score: what it is and how to build one from zero
• Sending money from India to Germany
• German payslip explained