how do you want to finance the house? I mean, German banks have difficulties financing a property abroad, as this apparently is.
You can’t register a mortgage there
Financing real estate in Belgium is actually not a problem here in the immediate border region. You have the option to have the financing run through a German or Belgian bank.
However, there are differences compared to financing in Germany.
A German bank usually charges about 0.25% more interest as a risk surcharge. Also, the maximum loan term would be shorter here.
Belgian banks, being more strongly regulated by the state, have some special features in financing which ultimately all serve consumer protection. For example, by law a Belgian bank is not allowed to finance additional purchase costs. The background is that every borrower must provide at least the approximately 16% in incidental costs from private funds.
It is also stipulated by law that the loan must be fully
repaid within the term. So there is no “option” like in Germany to have a residual debt at the end of the term due to a low repayment rate and then refinance it further. This naturally leads to possibly higher monthly rates but also protects against taking on too large loans.
Besides the question of whether it is too expensive, I would mainly ask myself how much still needs to be invested in the remaining trades.
Then you can calculate the total sum and decide if it’s worth it for you.
Yes, of course you are right there. In the end, the overall package has to add up. After the first talks with the real estate agent, there is still some uncertainty. Since we have little experience, we casually asked the real estate agent or his architect what the complete interior finishing would cost. After all, “everything” still needs to be done. Their statement was 60-70K€ (without own labor). In that case, the “overall package” would be right in the end, but we doubt that this amount is enough to properly finish a 190sqm house. No idea if it is even possible using the “cheapest” materials.
The topic of interior finishing might deserve its own thread. Here, of course, there are basically no limits to the top. But after a brief consultation with a construction contractor, we expect rather 100-120k€.
Thanks already for your input and the forum where I have already gotten a lot of information. Today we will inspect the property with the aforementioned construction contractor. Hopefully, he will comment on the quality and costs of the shell construction as well as the interior finishing.