[Mel Rice]

Two of my adjoining houses have become vacant this last six months and are now on the market. If anyone fancies living in Germany the houses are VERY cheap. One is a dormer bungalow for only twenty thousand euros (£18,000) The other is a large house 5/6 beds for 41000 euros (just over £32000) Both have gardens with grass and fruit trees...not huge but veg patch/chooks-able   and you could always share larger stock with me
 

[Ina]

Well - if the house came with a decent job, I might be tempted! 

[Mel Rice]

Cost of living is mot too bad., we live off a teachers pension....one of our friends runs an internet buisness from down the road (a South African/Brit)
 
The other option is to run a cafe/tea shop I think there is a lot of scope to set one up at this end of the village ( I cant be bothered to start a duisness myself but wouldnt mind supporting someone else!)

[Ina]

Argh - don't tempt me! And with all you lot around I wouldn't even have to speak too much German... 

OK now - where is it exactly you live? And why on earth is that area so cheap???

[Lesley Silvester]

Prices are remarkably low and I could afford both if I sold this one (and no mortgage) but I think I'll stay here.

[Mel Rice]

Its cheap because of a few reasons...
Germans tend to rent not buy...If they do buy it tends to be to settle down in for a loooong time/life or pass the property onto children. It was (and still is) traditional for a couple of generations to share a house, one up one down, renovating/redecorating when one lot died and the children moved into the space.
After the war huge numbers of Germans flooded into this area when other bits of the country were given to the Poles and Czechs. Their children have moved away towards the west when the wall came down leaving many, many houses empty or under used.
 
The Germans dont really trust the Poles and Czechs so the nearer the border the cheaper the house. Cheaper even than similar properties just over the border
 
Look at CUNEWALDE Saxony in Google maps (we live towards the Lobau end UP-hill end of the valley)

[Small Farmer]

Under German law tenants are exceedingly well protected, rather like tenants in the UK used to be.  House price inflation in Germany doesn't really exist.

[Donald]

Hello,


There is also no possibility of an interest deduction on mortgage payments like there is in many countries, amounting to a subsidy to the house buyer and money lenders, so the borrower - who has 40 K stashed under he mattress - will ultimately re-pay a loan with interest in its entirety. It's a system I kind of like  - straight forward, no financial subterfuge involved.


Greetings,


Don Wagstaff

[Ina]

But I still wouldn't get a mortgage without an income, and at my age...

Yes, tenant's protection is one thing I miss here. Whenever I read about folk being chucked out of their rented property (with livestock and all) at 1 month's notice, I simply can't believe it. In Germany, you always had at least 3 months'. That also meant, of course, that you had to give 3 months' notice if you wanted to leave... In the end, you tended to end up paying rent for two places for 2 or 3 months (unless you could provide a new tenant for the place you were moving out of), but you need a bit of overlap anyway, for decorating/renovating etc; and since rents are much cheaper (in my experience - depends on where you are, of course), it wasn't that much of a problem.