How to find a job as Software Developer in Germany • Hacker News Board

Re: How to find a job as Software Developer in Germany

#311

Post by stevezsa8 » Fri, Apr 23, 2021, 4:28 PM UTC

switch007 wrote: post #295

jsdwarf wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

10% is the absolute minimum and doesn't buy you anything of the house, it just covers the legal and realtor fees.

That is mad. On a 500,000 EUR house, 50,000 EUR goes to realtors and lawyers?! What on earth are they doing for that kind of money? Is that including some large tax? In the UK, you wouldn’t pay more than a few thousand for a lawyer and associated conveyancing fees, and the vendor pays the realtor (usually in the range of 0.5-1.5% I believe). We do have stamp duty (tax) which can be substantial eg 15,000 on a 500,000…

I moved to Germany a few years back (was born and raised in the UK). When I saw the 4%+ just to the realtors... I was pretty shocked.

I swore to my wife that I'm not paying almost 20K to the person giving me a tour of a house.

Seems like selling houses might be a better job than software.

Re: How to find a job as Software Developer in Germany

#312

Post by corty » Fri, Apr 23, 2021, 5:33 PM UTC

archi42 wrote: post #306

corty wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it is a typo. There are areas out in the sticks where nobody wants to move (because no internet, no mobile reception, no public transport, next city is 50km away, next supermarket 20km), where 100€/m² is possible. But anything marginally close to a railway track, Autobahn or federal road or any bigger city at all is far more expensive.

I ask due to a mixture of doubt, but also curiosity: Can you point to areas with prices in the 100Euro/m² range? For a house that's suited for living, and not destruction? My grandma's house might sell for that range (~200 Euro/m²), but it has 120m², was built at or before 1900 (as a poor farmers house) and there have been no meaningful improvements since the 1970s. So, as sad as it is: Best thing one can do is scap…

Well, if the house should be worth anything, it won't be that cheap, yes. What you can find tons of is stuff like "Denkmalgeschützter Bauernhof Brandenburg" for really cheap, because the renovations will cost you big time. Same without Denkmalschutz (historical building protection), just not that cheap. A newly built house will cost far more than 100€/m² because building houses is expensive after all, and as you said, usually the ground is worth almost as much.

Re: How to find a job as Software Developer in Germany

#313

Post by burntoutfire » Fri, Apr 23, 2021, 7:25 PM UTC

qwytw wrote: post #266

BigMajestic wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And even those 60k Euro is for western Europe. In central-eastern Europe it's around half of it.

I guess it's differs quite a bit between specific countries, but where I live (which is pretty close to as far east as you can get without leaving the EU) that might had been the case a couple of years ago, but now 60k pre tax is not at all an exceptional salary reasonable for a senior developer (I'd around 80k is close to the upper bound). And the living expenses are not even close to the more expensive W. European…

I personally know multiple senior devs in Poland doing multi-year contracts at 110-130k eur per year. In Western Europe, with their skillset, they'd probably get just 20-30% more, so the gap is closing even at the top end of the market.

Re: How to find a job as Software Developer in Germany

#314

Post by esel2k » Fri, Apr 23, 2021, 8:28 PM UTC

koevet wrote: post #187

mgraupner wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A flat in a horrible region of Regensburg (a very nice and very old Roman town in Bavaria) right beneath the rail tracks costs 5000-6000€/m2 (they will have nice interior though). And Regensburg is not even a high income city for software engineers in Germany. If you do not inherit a good amount of money or earn incredible well (like >100.000€) you will forever be a "poor" man in Germany or you can sell your soul for…

> Taxes are just too high and income too low... This. I'm a freelance here in Berlin and I pay 950 Euro/month for the (public) health insurance. The insurance covers only myself, while my kids are covered by my wife's health insurance, which is another 800 Euro/month (half covered by the employer). Note that before moving to Germany I was living in Switzerland, where I had a private insurance that was WAY cheaper tha…

Swiss here as well with kids... and the appartments (currently renting for 2400/per month) we look for at the moment are 1.2 Mio CHF which is nearly equal in USD and thats for 4,5 room 110sqm. Would be interested if you did a good trade by moving to Berlin as I see loads of tech jobs overthere but afraid I would just make my situation worse to be even less able to afford something in Switzerland in the longterm. Do you have more or less money after all deductions and rents etc?

Re: How to find a job as Software Developer in Germany

#315

Post by indemnity » Sat, Apr 24, 2021, 9:06 AM UTC

flukus wrote: post #290

jcbrand wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're not paying off the principal, you're just renting from the bank without the benefit of having a landlord to fix things. Why bother?

Rents increase with inflation, a mortgage doesn't. I have a few older friends kicking themselves for not buying a property when they could afford it, rents have risen and there is a very real prospect that they will have to move out of the community they spent their lives in.

Not to mention, if you live in any Western country, real estate capital gains since 2010 have been immense, so interest-only mortgages could have made sense.

Re: How to find a job as Software Developer in Germany

#316

Post by archi42 » Sat, Apr 24, 2021, 11:04 AM UTC

corty wrote: post #312

archi42 wrote: post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I ask due to a mixture of doubt, but also curiosity: Can you point to areas with prices in the 100Euro/m² range? For a house that's suited for living, and not destruction? My grandma's house might sell for that range (~200 Euro/m²), but it has 120m², was built at or before 1900 (as a poor farmers house) and there have been no meaningful improvements since the 1970s. So, as sad as it is: Best thing one can do is scap…

Well, if the house should be worth anything, it won't be that cheap, yes. What you can find tons of is stuff like "Denkmalgeschützter Bauernhof Brandenburg" for really cheap, because the renovations will cost you big time. Same without Denkmalschutz (historical building protection), just not that cheap. A newly built house will cost far more than 100€/m² because building houses is expensive after all, and as you said…

Well, then that's quite a fallacy to compare a house in the 100 Euro range to a 2000 Euro house, isn't it?

That's like buying an utterly broken, old Porsche for scrap value and then wondering how repairs like a new engine and a new $everything are costing you a fortune.