Rent or buy Germany

Would buying actually leave you better off than renting?

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Which household comes out ahead?

Most comparisons treat the renter as somebody who only pays rent. They still have the deposit and the purchase costs, and for years they pay less every month. This runs both households side by side and says which year, if any, the buyer gets ahead.As of 6 September 2026 · Reader-selected contract and tax assumptions

The house, and the flat you would keep renting

Both households start with the same money. One spends it on a deposit and the purchase costs; the other invests it.

Purchase price€What the seller is asking. Example: the purchase costs on top are €54,315 in this state. Equity€The buyer spends this; the renter invests it. Example: this single assumption is what most rent-versus-buy calculators leave out. Monthly rent today€For a comparable home, cold. The rent that makes the two households level is shown once the comparison has a winner. Interest rate%The Sollzins on the mortgage. Example: it is fixed for the Zinsbindung and unknown after it. Initial repayment rate%Faster repayment costs more each month and less in total. Example: it moves the monthly figure the renter is compared against. Compare overYears. Example: the shorter the stay, the worse buying looks, because the purchase costs never come back.

Financing beyond the fixed rate

Fixed-rate periodyearsThe initial mortgage rate is used only for this contractual period. Refinancing rate after the fixed period%Required for a winner when the comparison lasts beyond the fixed-rate period. The page starts from a stress test above today's rate; it is a scenario, not a forecast.

Purchase costs and the state

Federal stateSets the transfer tax and the usual agent share. Example: those costs are spent on day one and no bank lends against them. Selling costs%Charged on the house at the end. Example: set it to zero if you never intend to sell, and the buyer's side improves.

How rent, upkeep and prices move

Rent rises by%Per year. Example: a rent rising two percent a year has doubled in thirty-five years, which is most of a mortgage term. Maintenance and service charges%Of the price, per year – the costs a tenant does not carry. Example: one to one and a half percent is the usual guidance, and a flat has the Hausgeld on top. Maintenance cost growth%Per year. Keeping repairs nominally flat for decades would overstate the owner result. The house gains%Per year. Example: the assumption that moves the answer most, and the one nobody can know.

What the renter's money earns, and its tax

The invested money gains%Per year, before tax. Example: comparing a house at two percent with a portfolio at six is a bet on both, not a fact about either. Base tax rate on investment income%The default is capital-gains tax plus solidarity surcharge, before any fund exemption and allowance. Fund partial exemption%Thirty percent is the German equity-fund default. The allowance is applied after this exemption. Tax-free allowance at investment sales€

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Which household comes out ahead?A fair comparison needs equal outside cash and a financing assumption for every month in the horizon.

Owning, each month€2,337mortgage plus maintenance, before anything the house asks for unexpectedly

Renting, each month€3,000today, rising every year

The gap invested-€663a month at the start – this is what the renter puts away

Investment tax paid€5,334after the fund exemption and shared allowance ledger

Over 30 years the owner pays €900,038 to the bank and to the roof, and the renter pays €1,460,451 in rent. Neither figure is the answer on its own – what matters is what each household owns at the end.

This prices money and nothing else. Ownership can reduce tenancy risk but creates concentration, repair and forced-sale risk. A tenant's notice period is normally three months in Germany, subject to the contract and law; neither choice is captured fully by arithmetic.

The investment is an accumulating equity fund in one German account: gains are taxed when sold, after the partial exemption and the yearly allowance, and the Vorabpauschale is paid each January. Nothing is sold and rebought in December to use the allowance.

Look at the mortgage on its own

What this answers

What the renter does with the deposit

Most comparisons quietly assume it disappears. It does not: the renter keeps it, invests it, and for years pays less every month as well. Whether buying wins depends almost entirely on what that money does, and on how long you stay.

The costs that never come back

Buying starts a long way behind

Transfer tax, the agent, the notary and the land registry are spent on day one and recovered by nobody. On an ordinary purchase they are more than a year of rent, which is why a short stay almost never favours buying.

What it does not answer

What houses and markets will actually do

Two growth rates decide this and neither is knowable. Change them by a point each and the crossing point moves by a decade – which is the honest finding, and the reason this gives a crossing year rather than a verdict.