Does anyone know what the German property market is like to invest in now Ive read the articles but we are one year on from those, I hear of many people buying over there but it seems that the tax is overly prohibitive, and while growth is low the prices are so low that it is quite tempting, I would appreciate a bit of feedback from anyone interested in investing in Germany

Brendan, I have been looking at buying in Berlin and Leipzig recently and yes the transaction costs are high at 10-11%. I have concluded its a minimum 10 year hold and that also coincides with the tax exemption period. Yields on apartments in Berlin seem to be 5-6% but Leipzig and Dresden higher at 6-7%. As you say the prices are very low and when I was over I bumped into quite a few Irish investors buying blocks.

Brendan, I have just bought my 1st 3 BTLs and they are in Berlin. I have added PS Avenium with a unit in Prague, which is in a similar type of location, central, close to where major employers are locating etc. Germany is a very very different market from the types of CEE markets that PS operates in , and it is probably a longer term game. I find it a much more pleasant, less aggressive system especially for tenants, than is operative especially in the UK. Prices do look deeply undervalued wrt to the UK, and also other western european and other CEE countries. I cannot see PS really offering much there because there seems to be little off-plan new development, even in the former GDR, which has become deeply depopulated. Private equity funds have invested enormous amounts of capital in both commercial and residential property. In the latter case a viable exit route is to structure favourable purchase terms for tenants while the funds benefit from the scale of bulk purchase. Purchase costs are high, and getting bank finance is very time-consuming, LTVs are nominally 70-80% for overseas buyers but 55-70% is much more typical becasue banks tend to value properties at a discount to the open market. for overseas buyers they are more willing to fund securely tenanted property. Rental values are governed by the local Fair Rent Committee (Mietspeigal) and the maximum inflation allowed without significant improvement is 20%/3 years and this is by no means certain. All in all I think the risks are very very low but the rewards will be a long time in coming. The Czech Rep also I think is low risk but offers possibly more rapid upside as the banks have expanded the available credit much more significantly than in Germany