What would this house cost you every month, and for how long?
Example
A German mortgage is quoted as two rates and no term. This works out the payment they produce, how long it runs, what is left when the fixed rate ends, and how much of your income it would take - then draws the debt falling so you can see when the shape changes.As of · Reader-selected contract assumptions
What this answers
What the two quoted rates actually commit you to
A German mortgage is sold as a Sollzins and an anfängliche Tilgung, and neither is a term. Together they fix a payment; the term falls out of them, and a quarter point on the repayment rate moves it by years.
The number to watch
What is left when the fixed rate ends
Ten years of payments on a slow repayment rate can still leave three quarters of the loan outstanding, to be refinanced at a rate nobody can know today. That residual, not the monthly payment, is where the risk in this product lives.
What it does not answer
Whether the house is worth the price
This prices a loan, not a property. Location, condition, the energy certificate and what comparable homes actually sold for decide whether the price is sensible, and none of them are arithmetic.