Fixed interest period and loan term for 10, 15, or 20 years?

: You’re not a banker, are you? Please don’t be mad at me, but your “recommendations” here might be perfect for you, but for other home builders they could possibly end badly. How you want to come up with a savings of, quote, “tens of thousands of euros” within 5 years with the assumed EUR 50.00 per month is absolutely beyond me. EUR 50.00 x 12 months x 5 years still equals EUR 3,000.00 for me – which is still miles away from tens of thousands (starting at twenty thousand) . You ignore the risk of massive interest rate changes, except for a brief side note without explanation – more than risky... Why one cannot significantly make special repayments in the first years with a long-term interest rate and thus reduce the interest burden is also not really clear to me... The idea of recalculating after 5 years is quite charming, but after 5 years you simply no longer have a new house and have to accept corresponding discounts.

You’re right (I quit the banking apprenticeship after one year; it was too boring for a non-competent trainee). The savings of 3k euros is certainly far from 20,000, but that was somewhat misleadingly expressed by me. I meant the savings until full repayment, which you can achieve if you have a lower interest rate in the first 5 years. This continues on through the compound interest effect. I had it calculated once with a financial calculator; it was specifically about a special repayment of 5k euros in the first years that ultimately saves 20k euros. I don’t remember the exact numbers anymore, but you can calculate it yourself for your own loan. I ignore the risk of interest rate increases because I consider it negligible. As I said, everyone has to assess that for themselves, but I think the interest rate curve for the last 30 years speaks volumes. Of course, you can also make special repayments with a long-term interest rate, but then you lose the opportunity to benefit promptly from a lower loan-to-value limit. The difference between 100% and 80% financing is quite significant. Personally, I didn’t have a new house at the start of the financing either, but a 35-year-old one; however, there certainly won’t be any discounts because I bought in an urban area and at a bargain price. At this price, there aren’t even empty plots here anymore; houses nowadays (2 years later) start at about double what I paid. Of course, everything here is subjective and the framework conditions can be quite different in the next case, but you simply cannot recommend 15 years and longer fixed interest periods without clearly naming the associated disadvantages. That in the end everyone has to decide for themselves is clear anyway. But you should calculate beforehand so you get a feeling for what even a seemingly small interest difference can make.