Condominium Financing: How high can it be?

Hello!

My partner and I now want to slowly but in the foreseeable future get out of the rental situation and buy a house or a condominium. Since a large construction project with future condominiums has been started near one of our preferred living locations, we are actually beginning to think about it for the first time. However, with the countless pages/guides, we are (still) simply overwhelmed. Maybe you could give us some suggestions?

Basically, we first ask ourselves how high the financing sum should be. Framework conditions:

28 and 27 years old.
no children (99% sure it will stay that way)
both civil servants

Income 1: currently about 2000 net -> promotions are almost certain
Income 2: currently about 1500 net -> promotions rather difficult

Overall, our salaries will still increase, Income 1 significantly more than Income 2, but living expenses will not decrease either. ;) Therefore, I think it would be better to calculate based on the current salary first.

We currently pay 800 euros in rent and can live well with that.

We do not currently bring any equity. We have recently paid off both of our cars completely, so we are debt-free.

Our "dream property" is expected to cost around 400,000 euros. Condominium in Berlin, super central location (for us), 80m². An incredible amount of money, but that's Berlin.

Is such an amount affordable for us? What do you think?

1. Not necessarily relevant but I'm curious: why do you need 2 cars in downtown Berlin? The public transport there is supposed to be quite good. 2. 400 thousand for an apartment without equity? A bank would probably only do that with a pretty terrible interest rate, I would guess.

Hello, 99% no children, so not to be ruled out? Do the 99% refer to health or personal conditions? If 2, I would not buy an 80 sqm apartment but think bigger. It should be 4 rooms from 100 sqm.

Hello,

1. Not really relevant but I'm curious: why do you need 2 cars in downtown Berlin? The public transport there is supposed to be pretty good. 2. 400k for an apartment without equity? If a bank does that at all, I suspect it would only be with a pretty terrible interest rate.

Regarding 1.) Because our cars halve the commuting time to work. :) Regarding 2.) I don't know that yet.

Hello, 99% no children, so not entirely impossible? Do the 99% refer to health or personal conditions? If 2, I wouldn't buy an 80 sqm apartment but think bigger. 4 rooms from 100 sqm should be the aim.

Let's put it this way, we both want 100% no children. I wrote 99% because I can of course say what if an unwanted pregnancy occurs. But I wouldn't worry about that when buying an apartment (buying a house IN Berlin is already almost utopian..). You could pretty much be sure to sell the apartment again...

well then, good luck

I'm sorry to have to bring you back to reality, but that won't work... We also took out a 400,000€ loan for our construction, which is why I have dealt extensively with the topic...

In theory: With your situation, you will either never pay off the property or, with a reasonable fixed interest rate, end up with an amount you cannot afford. Roughly, I estimate the burden to be 1600€-2000€. Additional costs of 200€-300€ will also come on top. You won't be able to afford that, and if children come along, the whole house of cards will collapse.

In practice: With your salaries and no equity, there is practically no security for the bank. You will find it very, very, very difficult to find a bank that will finance the whole thing for you.