How do I buy a rental property in Germany without travelling there?

The short answer

A German property purchase is completed at a notary, and the buyer's personal presence at that appointment is not required. A representative attends and signs the purchase contract under a Vollmacht (power of attorney). Because the same signature will be used to file the buyer's declarations with the land registry, the land registry form rule in § 29 GBO applies: the buyer's signature on the power of attorney has to be publicly certified. Given abroad, that means notarisation by a local notary plus an apostille under the Hague Convention, or certification of the signature at a German embassy or consulate, which replaces the apostille.

Everything before the notary can be done from a distance: the viewing by video, the financing by file, the contract review on a call. Everything after it, the transfer tax, the payment, the land registry entry and the handover to the manager, happens without the buyer in any case. EU-resident clients can buy with LDP this way, and the sections below set out the process in the order it runs, with the two steps that take longest marked.

Who can buy remotely, and who gets financed

Germany places no restriction on foreign ownership of residential property. Any adult, of any nationality and resident anywhere, can hold a flat in Germany in their own name, and the land registry does not ask about residence. The constraint is not ownership but finance, and it is set by the banks, not the state.

• Residents of Germany, of any nationality including Blue Card holders, are financed at 80 to 90 percent of the purchase price as standard, up to 100 percent with a strong income profile. Purchase costs normally come from equity.
• Residents of other EU countries are financed at 50 to 60 percent of the purchase price, LDP's working figure as of June 2026 via its broker. The buyer brings the remaining 40 to 50 percent plus the purchase costs, which are transfer tax at 3.5 percent in Bavaria, 6.0 percent in Berlin or 6.5 percent in Nordrhein-Westfalen, and roughly 1.5 to 2 percent for notary and land registry.
• Buyers living outside the EU: the banks our broker partner FM Zinswerk works with do not finance this group, and LDP does not take on these purchases. They can buy in cash, but LDP's process is built around a financed purchase.
• Income in another currency is accepted by the banks but discounted, by up to 25 percent in some cases, when they calculate what you can afford. A salary in Swiss francs, pounds or dollars therefore supports a smaller loan than the same amount in euros.

The full rate table and the loan-to-value by residency are on the mortgage rates page. LDP works from a purchase price of 100,000 euros upward; banks finance most of it, so the cash needed is the equity share plus the purchase costs, not the price.

The remote process step by step

The table shows the process as LDP offers it for a buyer who will not travel. The two rows to watch are the financing approval, which takes about four weeks, and the power of attorney, which is requested at least two weeks before the notary date because a consulate appointment is the slowest single step in the chain.

Steps 3 and 6 run in parallel once the profile exists: the financing range is known before a flat is chosen, so the reservation is not made on a loan that may not arrive. Step 7 is started the moment the reservation is confirmed, not when the notary date is set, so that the consulate is never on the critical path.

The power of attorney itself

The Vollmacht is drafted by the German notary who will handle the purchase, in German with an English translation for the buyer's understanding, and it is specific: it names the flat, the maximum price, the representative and the acts covered. Those acts normally include signing the purchase contract, agreeing the Auflassung (conveyance declaration), consenting to the land charge that secures the bank's loan, submitting to immediate enforcement in the loan documents where the bank requires it, and filing every declaration needed for the land registry. A power of attorney that omits the land charge sends the buyer back to the consulate a second time, which is the most common avoidable delay.

• Certification. § 29 GBO requires declarations to the land registry to be proven by public documents, which for a signature means public certification. Abroad there are two routes. First, a local notary certifies the signature and the competent authority of that country adds an apostille under the 1961 Hague Convention, which replaces the older consular legalisation between contracting states. Second, the German embassy or consulate certifies the signature directly; a consular certification is a German public document and needs no apostille.
• The original travels. The notary needs the certified original, not a scan. It is couriered to the notary's office and stays in the file; the land registry accepts nothing less.
• Time. Consulate appointments are booked online and in some cities the next free slot is weeks away, which is why LDP asks for the document at least two weeks before the notary date and starts the request at reservation. The apostille route depends on the local authority's turnaround.
• Cost. Consular fees, local notary fees and apostille fees are set by each country and consulate and vary widely, so no figure is given here; the notary's own fee for drafting the power of attorney is a small addition to the statutory purchase fees.
• Who represents you. Often a member of the notary's staff, who signs on the instructions in the document and has no discretion; a family member in Germany or an LDP representative can also act. The contract can additionally be signed without authority and ratified afterwards, but ratification also needs a certified signature, so it saves nothing.

Documents from abroad

The bank's file for a non-resident is the same as for a resident, with one difference: every document comes from a foreign system the bank does not know, so it is read more carefully. Expect to supply the following.

• Identity: passport copy, and proof of address in the country of residence.
• Income proof: recent payslips or, for the self-employed, accounts and tax assessments for recent years, plus the employment contract where the bank asks.
• Tax assessment: the most recent assessment notice from the home tax authority, which the bank uses to confirm the income and to see other liabilities.
• Equity proof: account statements showing the down payment and purchase costs available, with a traceable origin.
• Existing liabilities: statements for any other mortgage or loan, and a self-disclosure form listing them.
• Translations where the bank asks: German banks read English documents as a rule; documents in other languages may need a certified translation, and the bank decides which.

The broker FM Zinswerk collects this file once and places it with banks that lend to your country of residence, which is not every bank; the four-week estimate from first call to approval assumes the documents arrive complete in the first week.

Tax from day one for a non-resident landlord

The moment the flat is let, its rent is German-source income under § 49 Abs. 1 Nr. 6 EStG, and the owner is subject to limited tax liability in Germany whatever the home country does. The return is filed once a year on Anlage V with the tax office of the district where the flat stands. Three rules shape the result.

• No basic allowance. Under § 50 Abs. 1 S. 2 EStG the tax-free allowance, 12,348 EUR in 2026, is not applied to a non-resident's German rental income; the surplus is taxed at the progressive rate from the first euro.
• Deductions in full. Every cost of earning the rent is deductible under § 9 EStG: loan interest, the management fee, the non-recoverable part of the Hausgeld, insurance, the adviser's fee, travel to the flat. Building depreciation under § 7 Abs. 4 EStG applies to the building share of the acquisition cost, 2 percent a year for most existing buildings. In the first years of a financed purchase the result is often a loss.
• Losses roll forward. A non-resident's loss cannot be set against a salary abroad, because Germany does not tax it. It is carried forward under § 10d EStG against the flat's own later surplus. The total tax over the holding period can differ from a resident's in either direction, because there is no basic allowance and only the German income sets the rate; the clearer difference is the timing.
• The § 1 Abs. 3 election. A resident of an EU or EEA country whose income is at least 90 percent German-taxable can elect unlimited liability and recover the allowance. For an owner with a salary at home and one flat in Germany the 90 percent test fails, so the election rarely helps the buyer this page is written for.

Whether the home country taxes the German rent again, exempts it or credits the German tax is decided by the treaty and the home rules, and belongs to a local adviser. The annual German return can be prepared by LDP's partner firm Helm & Partner case by case; the levers and a worked example are on the page on how expats reduce tax on German rental property.

Managing from abroad

A flat bought remotely has to be let remotely, and the same features that made the purchase possible apply to the tenancy: viewing videos before each letting, digital handover protocols with photographs and meter readings, a monthly overview of rent and costs that the tax adviser can use, an approval limit for repairs so the manager does not wait for a reply across time zones, and an emergency line the tenant can call. Under German law the landlord also owes the tenant an operating cost statement within twelve months (§ 556 Abs. 3 BGB), must hold the deposit in a separate account (§ 551 BGB) and, in designated cities such as Berlin, Munich, Nuremberg, Cologne, Duesseldorf, Stuttgart and Karlsruhe, must set the re-letting rent inside the Mietpreisbremse (§ 556d BGB); all of that is the manager's job.

LDP's rental management is a flat fee from 30 EUR per tenant per month depending on the city, no percentage of rent and no placement fee, and it is set up before the keys are handed over so that the first tenant is screened while the land registry entry is pending. The scope and fee are on the service page.

When the tenant stops paying while you are abroad

The objection to remote ownership is not the purchase, which the power of attorney solves, but the year in which something goes wrong with the tenancy. The arrears case is the hardest one, so it is the one to plan for.

Under § 543 Abs. 2 Nr. 3 BGB the landlord may terminate without notice once the tenant is in arrears on two consecutive payment dates with more than an insignificant part of the rent, or once the arrears over a longer period add up to two months' rent. A written termination follows, then, if the tenant does not leave, an eviction claim (Räumungsklage) at the local court. The court phase takes about three to six months in a simple case and in practice often six to twelve months; enforcement by the bailiff adds one to three more. The cost is set by the value in dispute, usually the annual net cold rent, and lands first with the landlord: roughly 1,500 to 2,500 EUR of court and lawyer fees for a small flat, recoverable from the tenant only if the tenant can pay. One rule surprises every foreign owner: under § 569 Abs. 3 Nr. 2 BGB the tenant can cancel the no-notice termination by paying the full arrears within two months of the eviction claim being served, once in any two years. The Bundesgerichtshof confirmed (VIII ZR 307/21, judgment of 5 October 2022, confirmed again on 23 July 2025, VIII ZR 287/23) that this grace payment does not undo an ordinary termination issued alongside it, which is why every termination for arrears is sent in both forms. A government bill (Mietrecht II, BT-Drs. 21/6807, not law in October 2026) would change this: the grace payment would then also cure the ordinary termination, once per tenancy.

Who does what from abroad. The manager sends the reminders and the termination in both forms (without notice under § 543 and ordinary under § 573 Abs. 2 Nr. 1) and prepares the file. The eviction claim itself is normally conducted by a lawyer: at the local court a lawyer is not mandatory (§ 79 ZPO), but from abroad it is the practical route. The owner signs a power of attorney for the lawyer, which is the second power of attorney of the investment and, unlike the purchase one, needs no notarisation. The court may require an address for service in Germany; the lawyer's office is that address. The owner's part is to advance the court fees and keep paying interest and Hausgeld for the six to twelve months the flat produces nothing, which is why the reserve of at least three months' rent sits on the German account from day one.

Why the case is rare. Screening before the tenancy, income of about three times the rent, SCHUFA extract, employer confirmation and the previous landlord's confirmation that no arrears exist; the deposit at the legal maximum of three months' cold rent under § 551 BGB, held on a separate account; and, where the owner wants it, a rent default insurance. On the flats LDP manages the screening and the arrears process are inside the flat fee.

And the other direction. A tenant who pays cannot be removed from abroad or from anywhere else without a legitimate interest under § 573 BGB, and a higher rent is not one. Notice periods under § 573c BGB run three to nine months, a converted and sold flat carries a three-year block on own-use termination under § 577a BGB (up to ten years in designated areas), and rent moves within § 558 BGB. A remote buyer is buying the tenancy as it stands, and the calculation is made on that rent.

What can go wrong, and how it is handled

• The consulate has no appointment before the notary date. This is the reason the power of attorney is requested at reservation and not at contract stage. If a slot still does not exist, the apostille route through a local notary is the fallback, and the notary date is moved rather than the document rushed; a seller who has accepted a financed buyer usually accepts a two-week delay over a failed appointment.
• Income in a currency other than the euro. Banks discount it by up to 25 percent in some cases, and some will not accept it at all. The financing range is set on the discounted figure before any flat is reserved, so the discount changes the budget, not the outcome.
• A bank that will not lend to your country of residence. Each bank keeps its own list of accepted residence countries. The broker places the file only with banks that accept yours; if none does at an acceptable rate, that is known within the four weeks and before the reservation becomes a contract.
• The flat you have never seen in person. Photos flatter. LDP's answer is the live video call before reservation: the viewer walks the flat, the stairwell and the street on camera while the buyer directs, and the reservation is made only after that call. The purchase calculation, reviewed by the founders, is the second check, because a flat that looks right and does not carry its financing is not bought.
• A power of attorney that is too narrow. If the land charge is missing, the bank cannot secure its loan and the buyer signs a second document. The notary who drafts the purchase contract drafts the power of attorney for exactly that reason.
• The land registry rejects the form. A signature certified by someone the registry does not recognise as a public authority fails § 29 GBO. Using the consulate, or a local notary plus apostille, avoids it. A few countries, among them Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France and Italy, are exempt from the apostille by treaty with Germany, so the German notary is asked in advance which form your country needs.

How LDP handles remote purchases for clients

LDP Group is a Munich-based firm, founded as LDP Immobilienberatung GmbH in October 2024 by founders who were already active in the market before, that has served more than 100 clients, most of them expats buying a first investment property in Germany. Four services run as one process, in English throughout, and the founders Nicholas Runtic and Abdelrahman Maged review every purchase calculation. For a buyer resident in another EU country the process runs as follows.

• Property sourcing and acquisition: existing buildings only, co-living conversions and full renovation projects, in Berlin, Munich, Nuremberg, Erlangen, Fuerth, Duesseldorf, Cologne, Stuttgart, Karlsruhe, Frankfurt and Hamburg; viewings on the client's behalf with photos and video, and the live video call before reservation.
• Mortgage financing coordination: with the independent broker FM Zinswerk, more than 400 bank partners, about four weeks from first call to approval, free for the client because the bank pays the broker; residents of Germany and other EU countries only. LDP's own brokerage licence under § 34i GewO is in preparation.
• Tax-optimised structuring: the tax structure is set by the tax firm Helm & Partner (Steuerberater) before the notary date, including the land and building split for depreciation and the treatment of renovation cost; LDP prepares the purchase figures and coordinates, and gives no tax advice. The annual German return is available case by case from Helm & Partner.
• Rental management and tenant placement: through LDP's own company FairMieten in Berlin and Bremen and vetted partners elsewhere, for example Miethelden Muenchen, at a flat fee from 30 EUR per tenant per month, appointed before the keys.
• The power of attorney: drafted by the notary, explained on a call, requested at least two weeks before the notary date, with a representative provided if the buyer has no one in Germany.

Sourcing, financing coordination and coordination of the tax set-up carry no separate fee to the client. The first step is a free 30-minute screening call, in which residency, budget, currency of income and horizon are checked before any flat is shown.

Limitations and what we do not know

• Consulate and apostille fees, and the waiting time for an appointment, are set by each country and each mission; we give no figures and the two-week lead time is LDP's working minimum, not a guarantee.
• The 50 to 60 percent loan-to-value for EU residents and the standard band of 80 to 90 percent for residents of Germany are LDP's working figures from its broker; individual banks go higher or lower and the figure moves with the rate cycle.
• The list of countries a given bank lends to, and the discount it applies to a given currency, are the bank's internal rules and change without notice; we do not publish them.
• Whether the home country taxes the German rent a second time, and whether the § 1 Abs. 3 EStG election is worth making, depends on the owner's country and treaty; we do not cover any country's rules.
• We are a property investment firm, not lawyers or notaries. The contents of the power of attorney are described in general terms; the notary handling the purchase decides the wording for the specific contract and bank.
• The process table describes LDP's own sequence; a purchase without a broker or manager can run in a different order.

What would change this answer

• A change to § 29 GBO or to the Hague Apostille Convention's application between Germany and the buyer's country, which would change how the power of attorney is certified.
• A change in bank lending policy toward non-resident buyers, which moves the 50 to 60 percent loan-to-value figure and the currency discount; the figure is LDP's working figure from June 2026.
• A change to § 50 Abs. 1 S. 2 EStG restoring the basic allowance for limited taxpayers, or to the 90 percent test in § 1 Abs. 3 EStG.
• A change to the transfer tax rate in any federal state, which changes the equity a remote buyer must bring.
• A change to the arrears thresholds in § 543 BGB, the grace payment in § 569 BGB or the landlord's termination grounds in § 573 BGB, or a further change to the rent brake in § 556d BGB, last extended in July 2025 to the end of 2029.

Last reviewed September 21, 2026. Reviewed by Nicholas Runtic and Abdelrahman Maged, co-founders of LDP Group, before publication and at every review date. We review this page every quarter and after every change to the broker's loan-to-value table; if you are reading it more than three months after the date above, check the mortgage rates page for the current financing range before planning the equity.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• § 29 GBO, Form der Erklärungen (public certification for the land registry, gesetze-im-internet.de)
• Hague Conference on Private International Law, Apostille Section (Convention of 5 October 1961)
• § 49 EStG, beschränkt steuerpflichtige Einkünfte, Abs. 1 Nr. 6
• § 50 EStG, Sondervorschriften für beschränkt Steuerpflichtige
• § 10d EStG, Verlustabzug
• § 9 EStG, Werbungskosten
• § 7 EStG, Absetzung für Abnutzung
• § 34i GewO, Immobiliardarlehensvermittler
• LDP mortgage rate table and loan-to-value by residency
• LDP property sourcing scope and remote purchase
• FM Zinswerk, independent mortgage broker
• Helm & Partner, tax firm
• § 543 BGB, außerordentliche fristlose Kündigung (rent arrears thresholds)
• § 569 BGB, Abs. 3 Nr. 2 grace payment after an eviction claim
• § 573 BGB, ordentliche Kündigung des Vermieters (legitimate interest)
• § 573c BGB, Kündigungsfristen (notice periods)
• § 577a BGB, Kündigungsbeschränkung bei Wohnungsumwandlung
• § 551 BGB, Begrenzung und Anlage von Mietsicherheiten (deposit)
• § 558 BGB, Mieterhöhung bis zur ortsüblichen Vergleichsmiete
• ImmoScout24, Räumungsklage: Dauer, Ablauf und Kosten (read 21.09.2026)
• KGK Rechtsanwälte, Wie lange dauert eine Räumungsklage in Deutschland (read 21.09.2026)