Uglobal Immigration Magazine Volume 2, Issue 1 | Page 23

UGLOBAL.COM 21 INCREASING REAL ESTATE PRICES Nowhere else in the European Union are real estate prices rising more sharply than in Germany. According to experts, this development is attributable to the monetary policy of the European Central Bank (ECB) and the move to the big cities. For example, the ECB's zero interest rate policy makes financing cheaper. However, the low interest rates continue to make investment opportunities less attractive. The result is that much more is invested in real estate. Even from abroad, a lot of money flows into German real estate. Large cities such as Berlin, Munich and Hamburg are particularly attractive for investors. Even though people warn about a price bubble on the housing markets of German metropolitan areas, rising prices for condominiums don’t seem to change anytime soon. After all, people will continue to move into prospering metropolitan regions. The dynamic price development on the real estate market will most likely continue, according to a recent survey of 600 real estate experts in Germany. They expect prices to rise by 3 to 5 percent by the end of the year. 1 DOES GERMANY HAVE A GOLDEN VISA PROGRAM? Golden Visas grant citizenship or resident permits in exchange for money from third-country nationals. Such programs already exist in 14 EU member-states. Transparency International and Global Witness, when presenting their repor t in Brussels, called for more transparency and caution when issuing such visas. Valid and binding rules throughout the EU are needed. At least 6,000 passports and almost 100,000 resident permits have been issued in the EU in the last 10 years. The European Commission has called on the member-states to exercise more restraint in trading passports. In Germany, there is basically no possibility to obtain a resident permit or even a German passport by investing in state funds or by buying real estate. However, there is a possibility to obtain a resident permit in Germany for wealthy applicants. This right results from special permission according to § 7 AufenthG. The court case law in recent years has regularly argued in favor of granting a resident permit for wealthy foreigners who wish to settle to Germany. THE APPLICANT'S ASSETS The most important factor here is the client's assets. The exception, according to § 7 AufentG, can only be applied to very wealthy clients. In addition, the client has no legal claim. This is a discretionary provision in which each individual case is examined separately by the authorities. It is generally agreed that a wealthy foreigner who comes to Germany to live from his or her assets is one of the cases of the act's applicability in which the granting a residence title 1