In addition to financial considerations, it is important to be aware of the latency of a real estate investment. For young, well-educated professionals who are at home anywhere in the world, a local commitment to their own house/apartment is a stumbling block in terms of the mobility expected in many professions today.
Real estate financing for a property for owner-occupation is dependent on framework factors such as tenant savings, homeowner subsidies, legal security for the bank when accessing earned income, and the like.
A job-related move abroad, especially a move to a non-Community country such as the USA, changes the framework conditions under which the purchase/construction of the property for own occupancy took place. The basic fungibility of real estate becomes a relative one in case of real estate for own occupation. Mainly, intermediate renting to third parties during periods of work-related absence is easier said than done.
In metropolitan areas such as Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne or Munich, the current situation on the rental housing market will in all likelihood make it possible to find accommodation for an owner-occupied apartment, but what about the “little house in the country” that you want to build for yourself and your family? Would that be rentable overnight? Not only do you need sufficiently solvent tenants, they also have to have a need for the space and be willing to commute to the city every day. But if both conditions, sufficient financial means and a foreseeable localizable center of life, are met, the motto should be “Out of the rent – into the property!
