From house to flat

Two transactions that belong together

Anyone who wants to downsize both sells and buys. Most people approach this as two separate processes, with two estate agents and two timetables. That is the most common mistake. Then either the house has been sold and there is no flat, or the flat has been bought and the house is still unsold.

With us, both are in one pair of hands. Dieter Ruf values your house, knows your timetable and looks for the flat to match. Handover and moving in are coordinated before any contract is signed.

What matters in the new flat

Step-free, not just “suitable for older people”. A lift down to the underground car park, a shower without a step, doors wide enough for a rollator. These are not questions for later. A flat that has this today is one you will not have to leave again in ten years.

Daily life on foot. A baker, a pharmacy, a GP and a tram stop within walking distance are worth more than an extra room. If you give up the car one day, you should not have to move.

The community in the building. With a condominium flat you buy a share in a building and in its decisions. How well funded the renovation fund is and how the owners deal with one another is shown by the annual accounts and the minutes. The condominium flat

The sums behind it

Taxes on the sale. Anyone who sells the house they live in and buys owner-occupied property again may, in certain circumstances, be able to defer the property gains tax (Grundstückgewinnsteuer). That depends on deadlines and on the price of the new flat. Taxes on the sale

The mortgage in later life. Ask your bank how it calculates affordability (Tragbarkeit) after retirement, and do so before you sell. The answer determines how large a mortgage you will get on the new flat.

And after that? Some people plan the step after next at the same time: a serviced flat or a retirement housing development. We advise you on that too. We know what matters as one gets older, and we search with that aim in mind.