Immobilien: So können Gutverdiener beim Kauf von Neubauwohnungen viele Steuern sparen

Kruno Crepulja, Chief of the development company Instone, recently presented surprising figures in a Handelsblatt interview. "We see a very high demand from capital investors, at a higher level than in the peaks of the property boom," he explained. The reason for this strong interest is the modified introduction of special deductions for the purchase of rental apartment buildings to be used as capital investments, known as Sonder-AfA, in 2024.

The government wants to create new and energy-efficient housing in urgent need. To assess the scale of the tax benefits, the Handelsblatt calculated a sample case based on an Instone calculation and supplemented it with additional expert opinions. This example shows the conditions under which such an investment can be profitable for high-earners and what points to consider.

In addition to the Sonder-AfA, there are two fundamental deduction variants for residential buildings. With the linear AfA, two or three percent per year can be deducted from the purchase or manufacturing costs of a residential property depending on the completion date. Alternatively, under certain conditions, a degressive building-AfA can be deducted, five percent in the first year and five percent from the rest value in the following years.

This means that the depreciation of a property occurs in equal or falling annual amounts in these variants. The Sonder-AfA allows for significantly higher deductions at the beginning of use: "The new legislation offers the possibility to start with a degressive five percent," Crepulja said. If the highest new building standard QNG 40 is reached, another five percent can be added.

Martin Lange, tax lawyer and tax advisor at the Real Estate Brokerage Association IVD, added that the Sonder-AfA is added to the regular linear or degressive AfA. In practice, this means that over the first four years, more than 140,000 euros can be deducted taxwise, within ten years over 200,000 euros. This results in a tax saving of almost 65,000 euros in four years, that is more than 15,000 euros per year.

Over a ten-year period, it amounts to almost 100,000 euros, or around 10,000 euros per year. The Sonder-AfA accounts for almost 32,000 euros in this example over four years, that is about 8,000 euros in tax savings per year. This is not a real tax refund from the tax office, but a tax saving through higher deductions, which reduces the taxable income and thus the tax burden.

However, tax lawyer Lange explains that the Sonder-AfA only provides the opportunity to count higher costs against the rental income in the first four years. The total AfA volume remains the same; in the following years, less can be deducted. Lange also emphasizes that such calculation examples may only be an approximation: "At the end, it always depends on the depreciable building share of the object, the personal income situation, and the corresponding tax rate," he said.

"The share of land to building can also turn out to be disadvantageous for the taxpayer in practice, as modeled here. This must be individually checked for the single case." Nevertheless, the potential of such a purchase is evident: "As a high earner, I can save taxes on almost no other investment on this scale," said Crepulja. Without equity, it is difficult to finance such a property.

The fictitious investor puts up about 135,000 euros of equity and gets the rest from the bank at a rate of 3.5 percent. They calculate a rental yield of four percent, which translates to a monthly net rent of 1625 euros, or 19.11 euros per square meter. This is a realistic value for a new build in metropolitan areas with current construction costs.

The bank rate corresponds to a monthly payment of 1615 euros at an interest rate of 1.5 percent, which essentially pays for the apartment itself. This financing example is only an approximation. There are favorable financing possibilities from the KfW with low interest rates for QNG-40 buildings, which can further optimize the situation.

This standard combines a particularly low energy consumption (40 percent of a reference building) with a state-recognized sustainability assessment (quality seal "Sustainable Building"). Depending on the income situation and bank calculation, it may also be possible to obtain financing with less equity, even if the bank rate exceeds the rental income.

However, it is emphasized that a property investment should ideally have a positive cash flow, otherwise banks may quickly object to further financing, which may be relevant for further investment of this kind. The Sonder-AfA is temporarily limited until 2029. If the necessary equity is available, it could be worthwhile for high earners to invest in more than just one property to further optimize the tax burden.

The tax savings from previous investments can be used as part of the required equity for the next purchase.