Buy-to-let apartments in the Frankfurt Rhine-Main region, developed in-house, guided in English
You don’t need a German passport.You need a plan.
Most of my English-speaking buyers are employees in the Rhine-Main region: good income, little time, and rent leaving the account every month. Buying a small rental apartment here is less exotic than it sounds, if the numbers are done honestly.
Ownership is open to everyone
Germany places no restrictions on foreign buyers: you need neither citizenship nor permanent residency to own an apartment. Your name goes into the land registry (Grundbuch), one of the most secure forms of title in Europe.
The numbers reward landlords
A financed rental apartment combines leverage, rent and deductions: loan interest and building depreciation reduce your taxable rental income. And if you sell after ten years, the gain is tax-free for private owners (§ 23 EStG).
A region built on international jobs
The ECB, the airport, consulting and pharma: the same employers that brought you to Frankfurt Rhine-Main supply the tenant demand your apartment lives on. You invest where you already understand the market.
You buy finished, not a promise
Every apartment I sell I first bought and renovated myself. You take over a ready-to-let investment with a condition, rent and yield you can verify, not a developer’s rendering with a completion date.
From strategy to notary:one pair of hands.
10 example properties,5.4 to 5.7% gross yield
The average comes from 10 of my developments in Hanau, Mainz, Hofheim and Hattersheim, a documented track record, not a forecast. Each one is listed below with size, rooms and gross yield, so you can do the maths yourself.
German paperwork.English guidance.
Buying property in Germany runs on German documents, German law and a German notary. None of that changes for you, what changes is that you don’t face it alone. I won’t pretend the process is in English; I make sure you understand it as if it were.
One honest caveat up front: I’m your guide for the property and the financing, not a substitute for legal or tax advice. Where you need those, I connect you with English-speaking professionals instead of improvising.
For sale and sold:what actually pays off.
From a compact studio to a family-sized two-room apartment: each of these I bought and renovated myself, 4 are available right now, the rest are sold. Together they show what a solid buy-to-let here looks like: location, condition, tenant profile and an honestly calculated yield.
I develop deliberately few properties a year. Buyers who have settled their strategy with me hear about the next one first.
See all properties →Find a matching property“Freshly renovated” means nothinguntil you know what was done.
New surfaces are cheap, new building services are expensive. The renovation you can see is rarely the one that matters, these three positions decide whether an apartment is finished or merely repainted.
Electrics
Fuse board, wiring cross-sections, circuit count. In 1960s and ’70s buildings, the item that honestly needs full replacement.
Risers & drains
They belong to the owners’ association, if they’re old, the prettiest new bathroom won’t save you from the next special levy.
Bathroom sealing
Under the tiles is where a bathroom lasts twenty years or floods in five. You can’t see this layer on photos, you ask for the invoices.
The full story, with a scroll-through of an apartment being built from shell to finished room, and the checklist I use before every purchase.
See how I renovateFrom first call to keys:five steps, one contact.
The intro call
We talk about your goals, your situation and what you have in mind, in English, free, and without sales pressure. Together we find out whether a buy-to-let apartment is the right move for you at all.
Strategy & financing frame
We build a strategy that fits your goals, your finances and your residence situation, because not every apartment is automatically a good investment, and not every bank fits every expat file.
The right property
When one of my developed apartments fits your strategy, you see it with the calculation open: what I paid, what was renovated, what rent it earns. If nothing fits right now, I tell you that instead.
Financing & purchase
You buy directly from my portfolio, no agent contract, no buyer’s commission. I stay involved from the bank file to the notary appointment and the handover of the keys, interpreter arranged where needed.
Long-term support
My job doesn’t end at the notary. Management questions, letting, optimisation, the next property, you keep one contact person who knows your apartment because she built it.
Sounds like a plan?
Then let’s start with step one.
Stefanie Petzold:developer, not middleman.
“Stefanie openly advised me against one property. That’s when I knew she was on my side.”
I don’t forward other people’s listings. I buy apartments with substance, renovate them, often let them, and sell them from my own portfolio, with every number on the table. My roots are in capital markets sales, which is why the financing side is the core of my work, not an afterthought.
What that means for you: one person who can stand behind the condition of the apartment and the structure of the loan, and who explains both in English until you can recalculate them yourself.
More about me →The questions every expat asks first,answered without the sales filter.
Can foreigners buy property in Germany?
Yes, without restrictions. Germany does not limit property ownership by nationality or residence status, you can buy whether you hold an EU passport, a Blue Card or a national visa. Your ownership is recorded in the land registry (Grundbuch). The practical hurdle is not buying but financing: German banks lend most readily to people who live and earn here.
Can I get a German mortgage as an expat?
Usually yes, if you live in Germany and earn a German salary. Banks look at income security first: a permanent employment contract past probation is the standard case, and as a rule of thumb I work with employees earning from about €2,500 net per month. A permanent residence permit makes things easier; with a limited permit some banks ask for more equity or shorter terms. Which lender fits your file is exactly what we sort out early.
How much are the purchase costs?
In Hesse: 6% property transfer tax plus roughly 2% for notary and land registry. An estate agent would typically add 3 to 3.57%, but my apartments are sold from my own portfolio, so no buyer’s commission applies. All in, plan for roughly 8% on top of the purchase price, paid from your own funds, as German banks rarely finance these costs.
Is the buying process available in English?
The guidance is; the paperwork is not. Contracts, land registry and the notarial deed are in German, that is German law, not a service gap. If your German is not sufficient for a notarial deed, the notary will require a sworn interpreter at the appointment. I prepare you for every document beforehand in English, so the notary appointment holds no surprises.
What taxes do I pay as a landlord in Germany?
Rental income is taxed at your personal income tax rate, after deductions, which are substantial: loan interest, building depreciation (typically 2% a year for buildings from 1925 to 2022, 3% for new builds from 2023), management and maintenance costs. If you sell after holding for more than ten years, the capital gain is tax-free for private owners (§ 23 EStG). For your specific case, I connect you with an English-speaking tax adviser. I don’t give tax advice myself.
What happens if I leave Germany?
You keep the apartment if you want to. Plenty of owners let their German apartment from abroad, with a local property manager and a tax return for German rental income (you remain taxable in Germany on German rents). Or you sell: after ten years of holding, tax-free. A good buy-to-let should work for both scripts, and that is part of the strategy talk, not a footnote.
Do I pay you a commission?
No. My apartments are developed and sold from my own portfolio, you sign a normal purchase deed at the notary, no agent contract. A buyer’s commission of typically 3 to 3.57% simply never appears in your cost column. Only when I broker third-party properties as a licensed agent does the usual commission arrangement apply, that is a separate business.
What is a realistic yield in the Rhine-Main region?
Around 4 to 5% gross is currently solid here; anything from 5.5% is good. My own developments achieved 5.4 to 5.7% gross, documented on this page, not promised for the future. More important than the gross number is the net view: purchase costs and non-recoverable running costs included. That calculation is exactly what you see before you decide.
Every good investment startswith one honest conversation.
Let’s find out together whether a buy-to-let apartment fits your situation.
In a free intro call we look at your goals, your finances and your residence situation. You get a straight assessment, no sales pressure, no obligation, and no follow-up newsletter you never asked for.