What it costs to sell a property in Germany

German sellers get a better deal on transaction costs than almost anyone else in Europe, because the buyer carries the notary, the land registry and the property transfer tax (Grunderwerbsteuer). What actually leaves the seller's side is a shorter list, and one item on it dwarfs the rest. Two dates decide whether you keep the gain, and both of them are set long before you ever speak to a buyer.

Last reviewed: 3 August 2026. Seeki.eu is not a tax or legal adviser and this is orientation, not advice. Commission levels are customary, not statutory, and tax treatment depends on your own dates. Confirm your case with a German tax adviser (Steuerberater) or notary before you commit.

Who pays the estate agent in Germany since the 2020 law?

Both sides, in equal parts, whenever the property is a flat or a single-family house and the buyer is a consumer. That is the whole substance of the reform that took effect on 23 December 2020, written into the German Civil Code (Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch, BGB) as §§ 656a to 656d.

Two provisions do the work. Under § 656c BGB, an agent who takes a commission from both parties may only do so if both are committed to the same amount, and if one side is released from paying, the other is released too. Under § 656d BGB, where only one party signed the agency agreement (Maklervertrag), any agreement making the other party pay is valid only if the party who hired the agent stays liable for at least as much. § 656b BGB limits both rules to consumer buyers. So the old Berlin practice of loading the entire commission onto the buyer is gone, and so is the idea that the seller lists for nothing.

What the law does not do is set the level. That is still market custom, and it varies by federal state (Bundesland). Per baufi24's 2026 overview, eleven states sit at 7.14% of the price including VAT, split 3.57% each. Hamburg is usually 6.25%, and Bremen, Hesse and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern 5.95%. Parts of Lower Saxony run lower still, from about 4.76%.

On a €450,000 flat in North Rhine-Westphalia, the seller's half at 3.57% is €16,065. That single line is larger than every other seller cost on this page put together, and it is negotiable.

What do you save selling ohne Makler, and what do you take on?

You save your half. You do not save the notary, because in Germany a purchase contract for real property is void unless it is notarially recorded (§ 311b BGB). The notary is unavoidable and is also the reason a private German sale is safe to run: they draft the contract, check the register, hold the completion conditions and tell the buyer when to pay. The agent is the optional party here, not the notary.

What you take on is the work an agency was charging for. Pricing the flat against real comparables. Photographing it. Writing an advert that survives comparison with professional ones. Answering enquiries, running viewings, and checking that a buyer's financing is real before you take the property off the market. Gathering the paperwork: the land-register extract (Grundbuchauszug), the cadastral map (Flurkarte), and for a condominium the declaration of division (Teilungserklärung), the last few owners' meeting minutes and the service-charge statements (Wohngeldabrechnungen).

Most of that used to need a professional. The photography, the copy and the comparable data no longer do, because they fit on a phone.

Advertising is the one place Germany is expensive. A private advert on the largest German portal starts at about €129 for four weeks after one short free window (ImmobilienScout24, 2026), which is among the steepest private-seller pricing in Europe. Seeki.eu publishes for a flat €9 at the current launch price against a regular €29, with no commission, and the listing reaches buyers across the continent rather than only those searching in German. A domestic-only advert caps the buyer pool at people who read German, and in Berlin, Munich and Frankfurt that is not a rounding error. The market-by-market picture of where a private seller can advertise is in where private sellers can list property in Europe, and the Dutch version of this decision, where the largest portal refuses private sellers outright, is in selling a house in the Netherlands without an agent.

Which costs and documents are unavoidable?

Four, and only two of them are yours.

Cost	Who pays it	Typical amount
Agent commission	Split, both sides equal	3.57% each in most states, incl. VAT
Energy performance certificate (Energieausweis)	Seller (for a flat, the owners' association)	About €100 to €250 consumption-based, €300 to €800 demand-based, for the building
Deleting the bank's charge (Grundschuld)	Seller	About 0.2% of the registered charge amount
Notary and land registry for the transfer	Buyer, by custom	About 1.5% to 2% of the price where a mortgage is registered
Property transfer tax (Grunderwerbsteuer)	Buyer, by custom	3.5% to 6.5%, set per federal state

The energy certificate is not optional and it gates your advert. Under § 80 of the Buildings Energy Act (Gebäudeenergiegesetz, GEG) you must show a valid certificate to a prospective buyer unprompted, at the viewing at the latest, and hand it over once the contract is signed. Under § 87 GEG the advertisement itself has to carry the certificate's key figures where one exists: which type it is, the final energy demand or consumption value, the main heating energy source, the construction year and the energy efficiency class. Advertising without them risks a fine of up to €10,000. Listed monuments and buildings under 50 m² are exempt.

Germany is the odd one out on who pays for it. The certificate covers the whole building, never the individual flat, so in a condominium the owners' association bears the cost and an individual owner has a statutory claim against it for a copy when selling. Many German sellers therefore pay nothing, because the building already holds a valid one. Check before you order. The country-by-country detail, including validity periods and penalties, is in the energy certificate you need to sell a home in Europe.

Deleting the bank's charge is the other seller line. Once your loan is repaid the bank issues a consent to delete it (Löschungsbewilligung), a notary certifies the deletion application, and the land registry (Grundbuchamt) strikes the entry from section III of the register (Abteilung III). Notary and land registry each charge a 0.5 fee under § 34 of the court and notary costs act (GNotKG), so the pair comes to roughly 0.2% of the registered sum: on a €200,000 charge, about €435 in total. The buyer's bank will insist the property arrives unencumbered, and by custom the seller pays for that, though the purchase contract can allocate it differently.

Do you pay tax when you sell a property in Germany?

This is the question to answer before you list, not after you have an offer. Under § 23 of the Income Tax Act (Einkommensteuergesetz, EStG) a private property sale is a taxable disposal (Veräußerungsgeschäft) when no more than ten years separate acquisition from sale. Both ends are measured by the notarial contract date, not the handover or the land-register entry, which is why a sale signed a fortnight too early can cost five figures.

Two exemptions override the clock, and either is enough:

• The property was used exclusively for your own residential purposes from acquisition or completion until the sale.
• The property was used for your own residential purposes in the year of sale and in the two preceding years. Those need not be full calendar years, which is why the second route is more generous than it sounds.

There is also a tax-free floor (Freigrenze): if your total gain from private disposals in the calendar year stays under €1,000, it is free. Above the threshold, the gain is added to your income and taxed at your personal rate rather than a flat one, so the same profit costs a high earner considerably more.

Letting the flat out for the last few years before selling breaks the second exemption, and inherited property carries the previous owner's acquisition date rather than starting a fresh ten years. Both are worth an hour with a tax adviser before you fix a date, because the difference between selling in November and selling in February is sometimes the whole tax bill.

What does repaying the mortgage early cost?

If your fixed-rate loan still has years to run when the buyer pays, the bank can charge an early-repayment penalty (Vorfälligkeitsentschädigung) for the interest it loses. Selling the property gives you a legitimate interest in terminating the loan, but that right comes with the compensation attached, and the amount rises with the remaining fixed-rate term and with the gap between your rate and current market rates.

Three things reduce or remove it, per the German consumer advice centres (Verbraucherzentrale):

• The ten-year rule. Ten years after the loan was fully disbursed you can terminate with six months' notice and pay nothing, under § 489 BGB. The clock runs from disbursement, not from the contract date, and it applies however long the fixed period was.
• A substitute security. Offering an unencumbered property of equal security value, or moving the loan to the home you are buying next, can leave the bank whole without a payment.
• Defective paperwork. For contracts signed after 21 March 2016, the bank loses the claim if the agreement omits the required information on term, termination rights or how the compensation is calculated.

The ceiling, where a charge is calculated at all, is that it may not exceed double the bank's actual loss. Ask your bank for a written calculation before you accept a price, not after, because it is a real number in your net proceeds and it changes month by month.

How long does the sale take, and how should you price it?

The German completion sequence is fixed and quite fast once the notary is involved. After the notarial signing (Beurkundung), the notary enters a priority notice (Auflassungsvormerkung) to reserve the buyer's claim, which the land registry typically registers in two to four weeks. When that is in place and every consent to delete a charge and municipal pre-emption waiver has arrived, the notary issues the payment-due notice (Fälligkeitsmitteilung) and the buyer normally has around two weeks to transfer the price. From the notary appointment to the money is usually four to six weeks. The formal transfer of title in the register (Eigentumsumschreibung) follows later and does not hold up payment.

The slow part is everything before that. Finding the buyer is where a German sale takes months, and it is decided almost entirely by the asking price in the first three weeks.

Price from evidence rather than from what the neighbour claims they got. The median €/m² across German regions and cities is the benchmark, and Seeki.eu's guide price does the arithmetic from that local median adjusted for size and condition. It is a starting estimate rather than a formal appraisal, and it is built from the same comparables an agent would quote at you. The method matters more than the number, and it is set out in how to price your home to sell, using real data. Then spend an evening on the photographs, because the price you can hold depends on them more than on anything else you do: how to photograph your home to sell covers the room order and the light. If you are buying as well as selling, the Buying Property in Germany as a Foreigner (2026 Guide) covers the other side of the same transaction.

Frequently asked questions

How much commission does an estate agent charge in Germany?

Typically 7.14% of the price including VAT, split so each side pays 3.57%, which is the level in most federal states per baufi24's 2026 overview. Hamburg is usually 6.25%, and Bremen, Hesse and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern 5.95%, with parts of Lower Saxony from about 4.76%. None of it is statutory. The law fixes only the split, so the percentage itself is negotiable before you sign the agency agreement.

Who pays the estate agent when selling a home in Germany?

Both parties, in equal shares, for a flat or single-family house bought by a consumer. Since 23 December 2020, § 656c BGB requires an agent working for both sides to charge them the same amount, and § 656d BGB stops a seller who hired the agent alone from passing on more than half. Loading the full commission onto the buyer is no longer enforceable.

Do I need a notary to sell a house in Germany?

Yes. § 311b BGB makes a purchase contract for real property void unless a notary records it, so there is no private-paperwork route. You do not need an estate agent, and the two are often confused. The notary drafts the contract, checks the land register, manages the completion conditions and issues the payment notice, which is what makes a private sale safe to run.

Do I need an Energieausweis to sell a flat in Germany?

Yes, and the advert needs its figures too. § 80 of the Buildings Energy Act requires you to show a valid energy certificate unprompted by the viewing at the latest and hand it over after the contract, and § 87 requires the type, energy value, heating source, construction year and efficiency class in the advertisement. Fines reach €10,000. For a flat the certificate belongs to the building, so check whether your owners' association holds one.

When do you not pay tax on selling property in Germany?

When more than ten years separate the notarial purchase and sale contracts, or when either owner-occupation exemption applies: the property was used exclusively as your own home since you acquired it, or you lived in it in the year of sale and the two preceding years. Gains from private disposals under €1,000 in a calendar year are also free. Above that, the gain is taxed at your personal income-tax rate.

What does it cost to list a property privately in Germany?

Seeki.eu is a flat €9 to publish at the current launch price, with no commission, and everything that builds the listing is free: the AI-written description and title, photo enhancement, virtual staging, the measured floor plan and 3D view, the 360° tour and the guide price. German portals are the expensive part, from roughly €129 for a four-week private advert. The export bundle preps your listing for them so you build it once and never retype it.

Before you list

Check the acquisition date on your notarial contract first, because the ten-year test can be worth more than every other item here combined. Ask your bank in writing what the early-repayment penalty would be this quarter. Find out whether your building already has a valid energy certificate. Then price against local median data, photograph the place properly, and decide whether an agent's half of 7.14% buys you anything you cannot do in an evening.