In view of increased interest rates on loans and expensive materials, homebuyers and builders have to bring significantly more money with them.

In 2021, owner-occupiers contributed an average of a good 111,000 euros of their own funds to build or buy a property, but the amount rose by a good quarter to almost 140,000 euros last year, as new figures from the mortgage broker Hüttig & Rompf show.

In the final quarter of 2022, the company's brokered real estate was almost EUR 149,000.

According to Hüttig & Rompf, the equity share in the total costs of builders and buyers, which averaged 562,000 euros, rose from 20 percent in 2021 to almost 25 percent last year.

In the last quarter of 2022 it was already 28 percent.

"This is necessary in order to get the financing from the banks, which have significantly increased their requirements in recent months, promised on reasonable terms." elevated.

The building interest for ten-year financing has more than tripled within a year from around one percent to around 3.5 percent most recently.

At the same time, real estate prices are only slowly falling from a high level, while construction prices continue to rise rapidly.

Many people can no longer afford the dream of owning their own property or prefer to hold back.

New business with mortgage lending has plummeted since last summer.

Debtors repay more slowly

According to Hüttig & Rompf, the increased costs are reflected in the credit burden.

In 2021, the monthly total rate for owner-occupiers averaged EUR 1,447 for brokered loans, and in 2022 it rose sharply to EUR 1,717.

Debtors were forced to repay more slowly: the repayment rate for newly concluded building loans for owner-occupiers was 2.8 percent in 2021, it fell to 2.4 percent in 2022 and to 2.2 percent in the final quarter.

Although this reduces the monthly burden, debtors often pay off their loans years longer.

The mortgage broker Dr.

According to Klein, the average redemption in November had already fallen to its lowest level since 2012.

This can be explosive for debtors: Experts advise having paid off real estate loans well before retirement.

As a rule of thumb, a maximum of one third of household income should be allocated to a loan.