Gross Rental Yield: The return you earn in relation to the total cost of your investment.

Net Yield: The return on your investment after costs are taken into account.

With the gross return, it is not always immediately apparent whether the ancillary purchase costs and investments in the property have been taken into account. Here your mortgage advisor will clarify all the important questions with you.

If you buy a property, you should definitely build up reserves for the maintenance of your property. As a rule of thumb, we recommend 1 euro per square meter per month. You can use it to finance repairs, renovations and maintenance without breaking a sweat.

If you have bought a property and rent it out, you have to pay tax on the income. However, a good tax accountant can point out a few things you can do to offset taxes and save money.

It is difficult to finance a property without equity. An exception can be a cheap object, for example. In this case, depending on the amount, some banks also give loans with little or no equity, including the additional purchase costs. But in principle it is advisable to be able to pay the additional purchase costs out of your own pocket and also to plan ten percent as equity when investing in real estate.

The development of interest rates is the first risk that you should consider when investing in real estate. When interest rates rise, purchase prices fall. You should also be careful with leverage. If your bank obliges you to make additional payments and you do not comply with the additional payment obligation, you may risk a foreclosure sale.

Before you invest in real estate, you should be aware of your personal financial situation. Nothing is worse than empty apartments or houses and the associated loss of rent while you have to pay off your loan on the other side. In such a case, you then have to finance the loan privately, which can lead to an enormous financial burden.

If you do little diversification in your investments, you risk a cluster risk. You should not underestimate this, especially since real estate can incur some unpredictable costs, such as renovations, damage and maintenance. That's why you should always have a large reserve up your sleeve.

As with many things in life, it's all about the mix. Whether you want to invest in real estate and action is your decision alone. However, your investments should be as diversified as possible so that there are no cluster risks. But real estate is not bad for developing your wealth. You can also increase the return on equity by raising outside capital.