Downsize, live more freely.

The fourth-floor flat with no lift. The house in Pankow with a garden nobody wants to tend any more. The heating bills, the stairs, the tradespeople. Or simply the wish to be closer to the children and to use the wealth instead of living in it.

Most of our clients over 65 do not come because they have to, but because they want to plan in peace – before a fall or a diagnosis forces the decision. That is the best moment. Anyone who sells voluntarily and without time pressure has every option and achieves the better price.

This guide sets out the routes, what they cost and where the traps lie. And it answers one worry in advance: selling the home you have lived in is organisationally less of a burden than many fear – if someone else does the work.

Sell and downsize

The classic route. The proceeds are freely available, there are no more management tasks, and the new home fits life now – on one level, with a lift, close to the neighbourhood. In Prenzlauer Berg demand from young families for large period flats is high; the very flats older owners want to leave are the most sought-after.

Let and rent for yourself

Anyone who wants to keep the flat and still move can let it. The rent funds the new home, the property stays in the family. Bear in mind: letting is work – tenant changes, repairs, service-charge accounts, owners’ resolutions. And Berlin’s rent brake limits what you may charge. For many it only pays if a child takes on the management.

Sell with a right of residence or usufruct

You sell, but stay living there – for life or for a fixed term. The buyer pays correspondingly less; the discount depends on your age and the duration. The model is mainly interesting if a buyer from your circle wants to secure the flat long-term. On the open market the buyer pool is small and the discount is large.

Transfer to the children

A lifetime gift uses the allowances (€400,000 per child, renewed every ten years) and can be combined with a usufruct for the parents: you continue to live there or collect the rent, the children are the owners. Buy-back rights in the contract matter – for example if a child dies before you, becomes insolvent or divorces. And: anyone who later needs care funded by social services must expect gifts from the last ten years to be clawed back.

Partial sale and life annuity – be careful

Providers of “partial sale” buy 20 to 50% of your property and charge a monthly occupancy fee, plus a completion fee on the later full sale and often a minimum-proceeds guarantee in their favour. Consumer bodies and the financial supervisor have warned for years: in almost every case an ordinary sale or a loan against the property is cheaper. We advise against it and will gladly run the numbers for you.

Anyone who has owned their home for more than ten years, or lived in it in the year of sale and the two years before, sells tax-free. For most owners in retirement both are true. The sale proceeds are not income tax and do not affect the state pension.

On a gift to children the allowances above apply; a reserved usufruct reduces the taxable value of the gift considerably, because the parents’ right of residence is deducted. At Berlin flat values that can be the difference between zero and several tens of thousands of euros of gift tax.

Anyone who buys a new flat after the sale pays 6% property-transfer tax in Berlin plus notary and land registry. Factor that into the buy-or-rent comparison – in retirement renting is more often the better sum than people think.

The question everyone asks. Both have pitfalls: sell first and you are under pressure to find something new quickly. Buy or rent first and you pay twice for a while.

In practice we solve it with the handover date. The purchase contract is signed, but handover to the buyer is agreed only three, four or six months later. You have certainty about the proceeds before you commit again, and time to move. Many buyers accept this readily – they often have a notice period of their own.

If the new home is to be a flat you own, the sequence old purchase contract → new purchase contract helps, with the purchase price due after the sale proceeds arrive. Your notary knows the structure; banks also finance such bridging phases.

And if it is from the house into a retirement apartment or assisted living: those contracts often have waiting lists and short acceptance windows. Start with the valuation as soon as you put your name down, so you can act when the offer comes.

A sale after 30 or 40 years in the same home is more work than an ordinary sale – not legally, but practically. We are set up for that.

• Paperwork. A 1985 declaration of division, floor plans, planning permission for the roof terrace – much of it is somewhere, some of it is missing. We go through what you have with you, and obtain the rest from the managing agent, building authority and land registry.
• Viewings with consideration. No open houses, no strangers without notice. We agree fixed windows when you are out, or – if you prefer – you stay.
• Involving the family. Children often accompany the sale. We speak with you and your relatives, keep everyone on the same page and follow who takes which decision. We also arrange a power of attorney for a child with the notary.
• Clearance and moving. We know firms that work discreetly and reliably – from house clearance to a removal company that packs and unpacks.
• The notary appointment. If getting to the notary is hard, the notary comes to you. That is usual and costs little extra.

You stay in control: we propose, you decide. And we do not push. Anyone who realises after the valuation that they would rather stay, stays – with no costs arising.

The typical flat older owners leave – 100 to 140 m² period, three to four rooms, balcony, in Prenzlauer Berg or Pankow – is exactly what young families with two incomes are looking for. It is often not sold through portals, but directly from our files to people who have been waiting months for such an offer.

That also means: you do not have to modernise the flat. Families want to do it themselves. A well-kept, honest condition with old boards and stucco achieves more in this neighbourhood than last week’s laminate. What counts is light, layout, floor and the state of the building – and a realistic price.

The same goes for detached houses in Pankow, Weißensee and Niederschönhausen: a need for renovation deters buyers less than owners fear, if the price reflects it. We will tell you honestly what your house brings today – and what it does not. Examples from recent years are in our references.