A portion of the personal funds you plan to use is held in securities. The current custody account value appears sufficient for the property purchase. However, that does not yet clarify which sum of money will actually be available on a specific payment date. This article helps prepare for a purchase in Austria. It does not give any recommendation to buy, hold or sell any specific security and does not calculate personal taxes or transaction costs.
Link the purchase need to an actual payment date
First note how much money you want to use for which specific project. Distinguish funds already available from a custody account value from which money still has to be realised. The same asset position should not simultaneously be planned as purchase funds, a long-term reserve and as collateral for other obligations.
Also record when the funds would be needed according to the actually agreed purchase and financing plan. A payment date that is still open remains open. Especially then, a comprehensible timeframe helps before a binding declaration is prepared on the basis of today’s custody account snapshot.
Understand the market value as a variable figure
The FMA points out loss risks for shares and price fluctuations for ETFs. For investment funds, too, the risk depends on the investment policy and market developments. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance. [FMA]
For purchase planning this means, as an editorial recommendation: use an account balance with a date and label its purpose. It describes the observed value at that point in time, not a guaranteed later payout. Which peculiarities your actually held products have will be clarified based on the specific documents and appropriate advice.
Ask further to get from the custody account value to the usable amount
Discuss with the responsible institution or suitable advisers how the planned availability could actually be realised. Which steps, product-specific conditions and timelines need to be observed? Which costs and tax consequences must be considered in the specific case? The article deliberately does not name a universal settlement period for this.
A possible pledging route (Beleihungsweg) is also a separate financing decision. It is not casually inserted into the calculations as an equivalent substitute for available equity. If different routes are considered, their obligations, risks and effects must each be made comprehensible. The statement “There is enough in the custody account” does not answer these questions.
Example: An assumed price decline changes the leeway
A hypothetical household sees a custody account value of 40.000 Euro and wishes to provide 35.000 Euro from it for the purchase. In the first simple comparison the calculated gap is 5,000 Euro, before possible costs or further effects are taken into account.
For a self-chosen comparison case an account value ten per cent lower is assumed. That would be 36.000 Euro and thus only 1.000 Euro above the intended purchase amount. The ten per cent are neither a forecast nor a risk threshold. The example merely shows how strongly an apparent free remainder can depend on an expressly assumed value change. It does not prove that this exact decline is likely or sufficiently cautious.
Coordinate the investment decision and the property decision
If the purchase planning only works under a certain expected sales proceed, this dependency belongs openly in the financing discussion. Have clarified which balance the financing institution actually considers as usable funds and which proofs it requires for that. The article does not assert any general accounting quota for custody accounts.
Our recommendation: formulate a plan that separately shows known funds, availability still to be produced and remaining uncertainty. Possible alternatives should be evaluated as alternatives, not added simultaneously to the same pool of funds. This may also include rethinking the purchase scope or the timetable. Which decision suits you depends on your overall situation.
After a change, update the whole purchase plan
As soon as the custody account balance or the intended use changes, the equity overview, remaining reserves and financing assumptions should again fit together. An older screenshot must not continue to unnoticedly document the same available amount when part of the position has been used otherwise.
The useful result is not a perfect view of future prices. It is an honest link between existing assets and the money actually needed. In this way the property purchase can be prepared on comprehensible funds, while the actual investment decision remains subject to its own appropriate advice and consideration.