The Non-Resident Equity Gap 2026: Buyers Living Abroad Need 2.3x the Cash in Every Major German City

Key findings

The gap is mechanical, and it scales with price. Both buyers pay the same purchase costs, so the entire difference is the extra 30 percentage points of down payment: €43,500 on a €145,300 apartment in Duisburg, €172,200 on a €574,000 apartment in Munich. The Munich gap alone is larger than the complete non-resident requirement in 21 of the 25 cities, Düsseldorf (€166,100) and Bonn (€167,000) included. Hamburg (€131,700) and Frankfurt am Main (€119,300) follow Munich in the gap ranking; the seven A-cities average a gap of €115,500, the four Ruhr cities in the study €52,300.

The ratio is almost the same everywhere: between 2.28x and 2.46x, mean 2.33x. What moves it is not the price but the state. Purchase costs are a fixed floor both buyers must fund, and the larger that floor, the smaller the relative gap. In North Rhine-Westphalia, where Grunderwerbsteuer is 6.5%, the non-resident needs 2.28 times the resident's equity; in Bavaria, at 3.5%, the multiple rises to 2.46 in Munich, Nuremberg and Augsburg. Low-tax states therefore show the widest relative gap, even though every buyer there is better off in absolute terms.

Six cities keep the non-resident ticket under €100,000: Duisburg, Wuppertal, Mönchengladbach, Bochum, Leipzig and Dortmund. 14 of the 25 markets come in under €150,000. For residents the picture is far more open: 10 cities require less than €50,000 of equity, and every city except Munich stays under €100,000. Whether the bank's cap or the buyer's savings binds first is exactly what the Affordability Calculator tests, with residency status as an input.

Read across the table and the gap turns into a relocation map. A non-resident's €77,700 ticket in Duisburg is lower than a resident's ticket in Berlin (€85,700), Frankfurt am Main (€91,400), Hamburg (€98,800) or Munich (€117,700). With the €117,700 a resident needs for one Munich apartment, a non-resident can buy the reference flat in 10 of the 25 cities, from Duisburg to Dresden. Across the seven A-cities the non-resident average is €201,700 against €86,200 for residents; in the Ruhr it is €93,300 against €41,000.

Purchase costs weigh more heavily on the resident. In Duisburg, transfer tax plus notary of €12,400 make up 36% of the resident's €34,200, but only 16% of the non-resident's €77,700. In Munich the shares are 27% and 11%. For a resident in a 6.5% state, more than a third of the cash never touches the property; it goes to the state, the notary and the land registry. The Purchase Cost Calculator breaks these Kaufnebenkosten down for any price and state.

The gap follows residence, not passport. A foreign national with German tax residency and German employment, including EU Blue Card holders, is priced in the resident band at 80 to 90% loan-to-value. The 50 to 60% cap applies to buyers whose income and assets sit outside Germany, because lenders price the difficulty of assessing and enforcing abroad. The rate premium on top varies by lender and is the smaller effect; current bands by loan-to-value are on the mortgage rates page, and the financing routes for buyers abroad are set out in our guide on property financing in Germany for non-residents.

What the gap means for the loan

The flip side of a higher equity requirement is a smaller loan. In the median city, Mannheim, the €275,100 reference apartment carries a €233,800 mortgage at 85% and a €151,300 mortgage at 55%. At the same interest and repayment rate, the non-resident's monthly payment is about 35% lower for the same property, and the loan is serviced from a rent that is identical in both cases. Leverage, and with it the return on equity, is lower; the cash-flow risk is lower too. The Mortgage Calculator shows the payment for either loan size at today's rates.

The numbers here use the mid-points of the conventions banks apply in 2026. Individual outcomes range from 50% to 60% depending on the lender and the borrower's profile, and some lenders decline non-resident applications altogether. The ranking is best read as the structural cost of financing from abroad, city by city, before any negotiation. Our earlier study on cash needed in 25 cities shows the same apartments at a single 80% loan-to-value for comparison.

Methodology and sources

Reference unit: 70 m² apartment at the average apartment price per m² for each city as published by the named source, from the source-cited LDP research dataset (Gutachterausschuss transaction data, ImmoScout24 WohnBarometer, immowelt, Homeday and comparable market reports), the same figures published in each city report. Most are 2026 asking prices or portal price-map estimates; Berlin, Frankfurt am Main and Münster are notarised sale prices based on Gutachterausschuss data. Dates differ by city: Frankfurt am Main H1 2025, Munich and Cologne Q3 2025 (ImmoScout24 WohnBarometer), Münster 2025, all others 2026. All-in price = apartment price plus state Grunderwerbsteuer at the rates set by state law as of September 2026 (3.5% in Bavaria, 5.0% to 6.0% in most other states, 6.5% in North Rhine-Westphalia) plus notary and land registry approximated at 2.0%, the upper end of the usual 1.5 to 2% under the statutory GNotKG fee tables. Agent commission is excluded because it varies by transaction and is frequently zero on developer projects. Equity = purchase price minus loan plus purchase costs, at 85% loan-to-value for residents and 55% for non-residents, the mid-points of the 80 to 90% resident band and the 50 to 60% non-resident range (an LDP practice figure from its client cases, confirmed 24.08.2026, in line with published sources such as the broker Hypofriend and the expat portal Expatica). These caps are market practice, not statute, and individual banks deviate. Prices per m² are rounded to the nearest €10 for display, all other figures to the nearest €100; calculations use the unrounded prices, and the gap column is the difference of the rounded equity figures. Mean resident equity across the 25 cities: €61,100; mean non-resident equity: €142,500; mean gap: €81,400.