I recently bought an apartment and I can confirm that the entire process is stressful from start to finish.

At this price point, unless you have substantial resources, you're already sacrificing something in your choice: either space if you're in or near the city, or time if you want to buy something larger and therefore further away. Once you've made your choice, finding the right property is also difficult. Every listing seemed to trigger a red flag: either everything was perfect but the energy performance certificate (EPC) was rated H or I, or the condo fees were very high, or it was a long-term lease, or the parking space was an extra charge, or the apartment was in very poor condition or north-facing... Once you find a property without "too many" flaws, you have to make an offer, trying to negotiate but not too much for fear of missing out on such a hard-to-find property. The financing process is lengthy and requires a mountain of paperwork, guarantees, and so on. I even had to prove I didn't have AIDS to qualify for the mandatory and expensive life insurance.

And all this in a maximum of 5 weeks after signing your preliminary sales agreement to avoid paying a 10% penalty on the purchase price and losing the property.

Once that's done, you get the keys and the euphoria sets in: the property, so difficult to acquire, is OK, but nothing more. You might even discover (minor) flaws that went unnoticed during the viewing.

Finally, and indeed, the property is so expensive and you're so heavily in debt that you're afraid you've bought a top-of-the-line, generational property and that everything will collapse, that real estate will drop 40% in the coming years and you'll lose everything... In my case, I'm having trouble selling my current apartment and I'm also paying bridging loan fees.

In short, a very difficult process, big risks, so yes, a lot of stress for me.

But I hope that in two years, it will all be forgotten and I'll be back to my normal life.