How the house carries the cost of care.

As at: June 2026

The answer first. When care permanently costs more than pension and savings can carry, there are three ways the house can help: selling, letting, or keeping and borrowing against it. None of them is the only right one — which of them carries is shown only by the arithmetic. We calculate all three, with an open outcome; keeping the house is an equally valid result. And contrary to a widespread fear: the welfare office does not simply “take” anyone’s house. Whoever knows the rules decides more calmly.

When a parent moves into care, two clocks are running. The first concerns the care itself: where does the parent go after the hospital? This question is often decided in days, because the clinic’s discharge planning begins on admission. The second clock concerns the assets: what happens to the house? This question has months, not days. No authority, no court and no facility demands that the property be decided in the first week.

Many families involuntarily transfer the pace of the first clock to the second — and that is exactly what quick-purchase buyers count on when they offer to buy within a few days in this situation. The ongoing personal contribution is real, and it presses. But it is a reason for an orderly calculation at a monthly pace, not a reason for an emergency sale. A rushed sale under pressure almost always yields less than the house is worth.

The personal contribution in a nursing home has risen markedly in recent years — and it differs considerably by region. According to an analysis by the association of substitute health funds (as at January 2026), it stands at 3,245 € per month in the first year of residence on the national average; at 2,903 € in Lower Saxony and 3,582 € in North Rhine-Westphalia. The amounts change every year; only the information given by the individual facility is binding. With the length of the stay, the statutory relief surcharges on the care-related share also rise — from 15 per cent in the first year to 75 per cent from the fourth year.

How the personal contribution is made up in detail, and which forms of help apply long before the house comes into view, is set out in the dedicated article The personal contribution in a nursing home.

Selling. An orderly sale at a moment of one’s own choosing often makes sense when care permanently demands more than other paths can bear. Orderly means: after examining the condition of the house and the renovation and funding routes, with careful marketing and without deadline pressure. In our experience, the difference between an orderly sale and a quick purchase lies not in weeks, but in the price.

Letting. Letting brings ongoing income against the personal contribution and keeps the house in the family. It requires that someone carries the management and maintenance — which can also be a commissioned property manager. Two points are missing from many comparative calculations: rental income may well count against a widow’s or widower’s pension — for marriages entered into from 2002 it generally does (§ 18a SGB IV; pension advice clarifies this) — and towards the welfare office, letting can suffice as realisation of the house — selling is not the only way.

Keeping and borrowing. Whoever wants to keep the house can close the gap from savings, through a loan secured on the property, or through the welfare office’s loan (see below). A transfer during one’s lifetime with a usufruct or a secured right of residence also belongs in this column; its arrangement and the tax consequences are clarified by a notary and a tax adviser. Important to know: a gift does not automatically protect against the welfare office — within ten years a reclaim can be on the table (§ 528 BGB). And an empty house keeps costing money: charges, insurance, heating, maintenance; many building insurers require notification after a longer vacancy. Keeping is a good path if the keeping is organised.

This sentence comes up in almost every first conversation — and it is used deliberately to push families into quick sales. The legal position is a different one. Five facts:

First: as long as the spouse or partner continues to live in the reasonably sized, self-occupied house, it is protected assets (Schonvermögen) — it remains untouched (§ 90 para. 2 no. 8 SGB XII).

Second: even where the house would in principle have to be used, the welfare office can grant assistance with care as a loan, secured by an entry in the land register (§ 91 SGB XII). The house then does not have to be sold; its realisation is deferred.

Third: if realisation would mean particular hardship, the hardship clause of § 90 para. 3 SGB XII applies.

Fourth: letting is a recognised form of realisation — the office can demand realisation, but not in every case a sale.

Fifth: adult children are only drawn upon for their parents’ care costs from 100,000 € gross annual income upwards (Relatives’ Relief Act, since 2020). This leaves the great majority of families out of it.

The welfare office’s procedure runs at a monthly pace: application, assessment of assets, decision. It has deadlines, but orderly ones. The examination of your individual case belongs to the welfare office itself or to a lawyer for social law — we make sure that none of these paths is overlooked.

Back to the overview: Moving into care & financing it.

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This article provides orientation and does not replace legal, tax or care advice. The law is clarified by a lawyer, taxes by the tax adviser; the welfare office decides on social-law entitlements.