We now have three offers that I consider quite good:
The loan amount is 316,000€ each
Ing-Diba 15 years fixed interest rate 2% repayment effective interest rate 2.12%
- Without KfW
- Rate 1085€
Sparkasse Köln/Bonn 5 years fixed interest rate 2% repayment effective interest rate 2.07% Mixed interest rate 2.0%
- with KfW 50,000€
- Rate 1053€
Sparkasse Köln/Bonn 5 years fixed interest rate 3% repayment effective interest rate 1.99% Mixed interest rate 1.94%
- with KfW 40,000€
- Rate 1038€ (with 2% repayment)
With the last offer, the construction financier said we would have to manage the high rate (3%) repayment for about 6 months and then could reduce it to 2%. The Sparkasse gives an interest rate depending on the repayment. So you could cheat here (get the good interest rate and still only pay 2% repayment).
I am more in favor of the Ing-Diba offer because then you don’t have to deal with the follow-up financing of the KfW loan after 10 years. My wife prefers the second Sparkasse offer because she wants to take the cheapest offer (and argues that it’s only 50€ over 12 years and thus about 9,000€). I think that can’t end well if you "cheat" a bank. They always somehow have the upper hand.
In addition, our construction financier says that Ing-Diba is already a very lenient bank (compared, for example, to a DSL Bank), but is more thorough when it comes to the invoices for materials (outdoor facilities, carpet, laminate, parquet, etc.) that you need for the self-performed work than a Sparkasse Köln Bonn. With Ing-Diba, it very much depends on the caseworker you get. One approves a laminate cutting tool (or other tools needed for the installation), another does not. The same for carpet, for example, where laminate and parquet are approved but not carpet.