German Mortgages for Non-Residents: What Banks Require in 2026

Written for people who want to buy in Germany while living somewhere else, and for people in Germany who may not stay.

Quick answer

Yes, but from a much narrower set of lenders. Where you live, not which passport you hold, is what changes the terms. Expect a smaller lender pool, more equity, and German tax on the rent from the first euro.

The line that decides everything is residence, not citizenship

Nothing in the sources we checked makes citizenship a lending criterion. Two German specialists frame the test the same way, as a question of where you live. One of them puts it flatly: the bank looks at your address, not at your passport.

The clearest proof is who that specialist writes for. Its non-resident page is aimed at German citizens living abroad, and they get the same treatment as anyone else living abroad. A German passport does not remove the non-resident haircut. So if you are a non-EU citizen living and paying tax in Germany, you are a resident borrower, and most of this page is not about you.

There is also a legal reason why your income matters more than your deposit. Under § 505b Abs. 2 Satz 3 BGB, a lender's creditworthiness assessment may not rest mainly on the property being worth more than the loan. A large deposit does not cure an income the bank cannot verify or model.

How much equity, what the public sources say, and what we see

You will read that non-residents are capped at 50 percent of the purchase price. Exactly one public source we found says that, and two named specialists publish higher figures. Here is the actual spread, with loan-to-value and equity kept in separate columns, because sources mix them constantly.

The first four rows are figures published by brokers and advisory sites, not by any named bank. The last row is our own observation from arranging this financing, taken in June 2026 and confirmed still current in August 2026.
Your situation	Published loan-to-value	Equity that implies
EU citizen, or non-EU with Niederlassungserlaubnis, living in Germany	up to about 90 percent	from 10 percent of the price, plus purchase costs in cash
Non-EU citizen on a temporary permit, living in Germany	about 70 to 80 percent	20 to 30 percent, plus purchase costs
EU Blue Card holder, living in Germany	contested: one broker publishes up to 100 percent, another 60 to 80 percent	anywhere from nothing to 40 percent, depending which you believe
Living outside Germany, as published	50 percent (one source), up to 80 percent of the notarised price (another), 60 to 90 and typically 70 to 80 (a third)	20 to 50 percent, plus purchase costs
Living outside Germany, what we see when we place this financing	50 to 60 percent	40 to 50 percent, plus purchase costs

So what should you plan with? Two answers, and they are worth keeping apart.

The public figures do not agree, and there is no rule that makes them agree. We found no German law and no supervisory rule setting a loan-to-value ceiling for residential lending. Every published number is one lender's or one broker's policy, which is exactly why they contradict each other. A fourth specialist that works only with buyers abroad publishes no percentage at all and says only that full financing is conceivable in selected cases.

Our own working figure is 50 to 60 percent loan-to-value, so 40 to 50 percent of the price in equity. That is what the rest of this site is built on and what we plan deals around. It is a practitioner observation rather than a published statistic, we took the reading in June 2026 and confirmed it was still current in August 2026. Plan with it, and treat the published spread as evidence that your individual lender may land somewhere else.

One thing is consistent across every source: purchase costs are never financed in these structures. Property transfer tax plus notary and land registry come out of your own funds on top of the deposit, and they run to roughly 5.5 to 8.5 percent of the price depending on the federal state.

The real constraint is the lender list, not the percentage

The specialist that publishes the most detail puts the number of German institutions that lend to non-residents at roughly six to ten, mostly cooperative banks and savings banks plus two or three specialised larger banks. One investor writing about the process describes contacting around a hundred savings and cooperative banks, receiving ninety rejections, ten acceptances, and three offers with terms worth taking. That last figure is one person's account rather than a published statistic, and we present it as such.

The practical consequence is that your search is for a lender, not for a rate. A broker who has already placed non-resident files is worth more than a comparison portal, because the portal's panel mostly does not lend to you.

If you are paid in a currency other than euro, there is a documented discount

One specialist states that banks typically apply a 25 percent safety discount to income converted into euro. Another, which works with international investors, says the currency of your income documents is secondary. The two disagree, and we have found no way to establish which is more representative.

What is not a matter of opinion is why lenders treat this as a separate product. Under § 503 BGB, a real estate consumer loan counts as a foreign-currency loan where it is not denominated in the currency of the member state in which you were resident when the contract was concluded. The parties may instead designate the currency in which you receive your income. Once the outstanding balance or the instalments have moved by more than 20 percent through exchange-rate movement, you gain a statutory right to convert. So a euro loan to a borrower paid in dollars or pounds is a more heavily regulated product, not merely a risk the bank dislikes.

The rule almost nobody writes in English: your rent is taxed from the first euro

This is the item most likely to change your calculation, and it is the one English-language sources get wrong most often.

If you have neither a residence nor a habitual abode in Germany, § 1 Abs. 4 EStG makes you subject to limited tax liability on German-source income. § 49 Abs. 1 Nr. 6 EStG puts rental income from German property squarely in that category. So the rent is taxable in Germany whether or not you ever set foot in the country.

The part that surprises people is the tax-free allowance. It is not simply unavailable. § 50 Abs. 1 Satz 2 EStG says the tariff is applied on the basis that your taxable income is increased by the basic allowance. In 2026 that allowance is 12,348 euro. The effect is that the first euro of rental profit is taxed as though you had already used the allowance up. The statute carves an exception back out, but only for employment income under § 49 Abs. 1 Nr. 4. Rent is not covered by it.

Put plainly: a German-resident landlord with 6,000 euro of annual rental profit and no other German income pays nothing, because the profit sits below the allowance. A non-resident landlord with the identical 6,000 euro is taxed on it from the first euro.

There is an escape route and it usually fails. § 1 Abs. 3 EStG lets you apply to be treated as fully liable to German tax, which restores the allowance, but only if at least 90 percent of your income for the year is subject to German tax, or your non-German income does not exceed 12,348 euro, evidenced by a certificate from your foreign tax authority. Someone living abroad on a foreign salary with one German flat fails both limbs. Worth knowing: § 1 Abs. 3 carries no nationality restriction, so it is open to non-EU nationals. The neighbouring § 1a EStG, which allows spousal splitting, is the one limited to EU and EEA nationals.

And no, it is not settled by withholding. § 50 Abs. 2 Satz 1 EStG limits that settling effect to wage tax, investment-income withholding and withholding under § 50a. Rent is none of those, so a non-resident landlord files an ordinary German income tax return.

You do not have to fly in for the notary

German law requires the purchase contract to be recorded by a notary under § 311b Abs. 1 BGB, but it does not require you to be in the room. Representation by power of attorney is permitted and is used routinely.

Form. Granting the power of attorney is form-free in substance under § 167 Abs. 2 BGB, but the land registry will not act on it unless it meets § 29 GBO: the original document with a notarially certified signature.
From abroad. A foreign notarial certification needs an apostille under the 1961 Hague Convention, or full legalisation where the convention does not apply. Allow around two weeks. A certification issued by a German consulate is treated as equivalent to a domestic one and removes the apostille step entirely.
If time runs out. Someone can sign without authority. The contract is provisionally invalid under § 177 BGB and is cured by your subsequent ratification before a notary, which takes effect retroactively under § 184 BGB. Execution simply waits for the ratification to arrive.
German bank account. Sources disagree. One specialist says your equity does not need to sit in Germany when you apply; another lists a German settlement account as a requirement. It is a lender preference, not a legal condition.

What we could not verify, and where we think the market is quietly repeating itself

Three gaps are worth stating openly, because they are the places where confident-sounding advice tends to be invented.

No bank publishes this. Every loan-to-value figure above comes from a broker or an advisory site, not from a named bank's own product page. We found none that publishes non-resident criteria.
No supervisory cap exists that we could locate. We did not find a BaFin or Bundesbank rule limiting loan-to-value for residential lending, to residents or non-residents. Absence of a rule is harder to prove than its presence, so treat this as our finding rather than a certainty.
Permit length and loan term. One broker states that fixed-interest periods for Blue Card holders are often limited to five or ten years. No bank publishes such a policy, and one large broker's dedicated page on temporary permits says nothing about it at all. Anyone stating it as a general rule is over-claiming.
Our own figure rests on our own book. The 50 to 60 percent above is what we see when we arrange this financing, taken in June 2026 and confirmed still current in August 2026. It is a practitioner observation, not a survey, and we re-test it quarterly. If your lender lands elsewhere, that is not a contradiction, it is the spread the published sources also show.

One correction while we are here, because it circulates widely and it is checkable. Sources still quote German mortgage rates of 1.5 to 2 percent. That is a pre-2022 figure. We have deliberately not published a current rate on this page, because a rate stated once and left standing is worse than no rate at all.

What would change this answer

Our next re-reading of the placement figure, due end of September 2026. It drives the number we plan deals with and it is a market observation, not a rule.
A named German bank publishing its own non-resident lending criteria, which would replace most of the ranges above with a fact.
Any amendment to § 50 Abs. 1 EStG, or a change in the basic allowance, which is set annually.
A shift in the base rate level large enough to move the equity requirements lenders are willing to accept.

Last reviewed August 24, 2026. Reviewed by Nicholas Runtic and Abdelrahman Maged, co-founders of LDP Group, before publication and at every review date. We review this page every quarter and whenever one of the triggers above occurs. If you are reading it more than three months after the date above, check the statutory references yourself before acting.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a German passport or EU citizenship to get a mortgage in Germany?

No. No source we checked makes citizenship a lending criterion. Where you live is the variable that moves the terms. German citizens living abroad receive the same non-resident treatment as anyone else living abroad.

How much deposit do I need if I live outside Germany?

Public figures contradict each other, running anywhere from 20 to 50 percent of the purchase price, because each one describes a single lender's policy and no law sets a ceiling. Our own working figure from arranging this financing is 40 to 50 percent equity, which is a 50 to 60 percent loan-to-value, read in June 2026 and confirmed in August 2026. On top of that you need the purchase costs in cash, roughly 5.5 to 8.5 percent depending on the federal state.

I live in Germany on a Blue Card. Am I a non-resident?

No. If you live in Germany and are taxed there, you are a resident borrower and the tax section of this page does not apply to you. Terms for Blue Card holders are genuinely contested between brokers, so get two offers rather than trusting one published figure.

Do I pay German tax on the rent if I live abroad?

Yes, and from the first euro. Section 49 makes German rental income taxable in Germany regardless of where you live, and section 50 paragraph 1 sentence 2 applies the tariff as though the 12,348 euro basic allowance had already been used. You also file a German tax return, because the settling effect of withholding tax does not cover rent.

Can someone else sign at the notary for me?

Yes. A power of attorney with a notarially certified signature works, and if it was certified abroad it needs an apostille unless a German consulate issued it. If the power of attorney does not arrive in time, a representative can sign without authority and you ratify afterwards before a notary, with retroactive effect.

Can I get a German mortgage if I do not live in Germany?