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What can you borrow when you are self-employed?

Standard calculators ask for a salary. German banks assess freelancers and business owners on declared profit across several years, after tax and after the health premium you carry alone. This does the same.

✓ Free, no sign-up✓ Official 2026 figures✓ Nothing is stored

Banks work from the profit in your tax assessments, not your turnover. Enter the most recent years you can document.

Self-employed people carry the whole health premium themselves, which is why it belongs in the calculation. Include care insurance in the figure.

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Purchase price within reach

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Profit the bank works fromweighted towards the most recent year
Estimated income tax
Health insurance and existing loans
Net available each month
Max. monthly payment35 % — the stricter test applied to variable income
Loan this supports
Purchase costs
Equity share
Years of accounts
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Which lenders will actually engage with a self-employed file differs more than the rate does. That is the part worth a conversation.

Want an offer based on these numbers? Leave your details and we will call you back with something concrete — usually the same working day.
How this is calculated
  • The profit figure: banks average your declared profit across the years available and weight the most recent one more heavily. We use 50 / 30 / 20 across three years, 60 / 40 across two, and the single year alone if that is all there is — a common approach, though each bank has its own.
  • Tax: estimated with the official 2026 income tax tariff (§ 32a EStG) on the averaged profit. Your actual liability depends on your full return.
  • Health insurance is entered by you because it varies enormously between public and private cover, and self-employed people pay the whole premium. It is a fixed cost that reduces what is available for a mortgage.
  • The 35 % test: employees are usually assessed at up to 40 % of net income. For variable income most lenders apply a stricter figure, so this calculator uses 35 %. A bank may go higher for a long, stable track record.
  • Equity: the purchase costs come off your own funds first, as no lender finances them. What remains reduces the loan. Self-employed applicants are typically expected to bring around 20 % of the price on top of the costs.
  • Not modelled: business liabilities, a company car, retained profits in a GmbH, trade tax, and the possibility that a lender declines self-employed applicants as a matter of policy — which several do regardless of the figures.

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