Buying an apartment in Germany as an expat

Every rejected application is visible to the next bank

Formal enquiries leave traces. A good process asks conditionally first, so the file you are trying to get approved stays clean.

The purchase costs are cash, and they come first

Transfer tax, notary, land registry and your half of the agent fee fall due within weeks of signing, in cash. Most lenders finance the price; far fewer finance these.

Twenty per cent equity also lowers your rate

Lenders price risk in steps. Crossing from 85 to 80 per cent financing moves you a step cheaper, which is often worth more than months of negotiating.

A usable SCHUFA record can be built within months

A flawless twenty-year record abroad does not transfer. There are legal ways to build a usable SCHUFA, and done in the right order it takes months, not years.

Estate agent fees are shared now, and negotiable

Since 2020 the seller must carry at least half on a residential purchase. Many foreign buyers still pay the full commission, because nobody told them the rule changed.

The notary is neutral, not your adviser

The notary reads the deed aloud and checks it is lawful. Have the price checked before the appointment.

Send us the listing and we go through it with you.

Property transfer tax (Grunderwerbsteuer)

State law, 3.5 to 6.5 per cent of the price. Bavaria is the cheapest at 3.5; Brandenburg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Saarland and Schleswig-Holstein sit at 6.5. Due once, in cash, a few weeks after signing. The rate for every state is in the small print.

The full map, as the calculator applies it: Bavaria 3.5 per cent. Baden-Wuerttemberg, Lower Saxony, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia 5.0. Bremen, Hamburg and Saxony 5.5. Berlin, Hesse and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern 6.0. Brandenburg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Saarland and Schleswig-Holstein 6.5. Each rate is set by state law, so it can change with a state budget, and the rate that counts is the one in force on the day you sign.

Notary and land registry (Notar und Grundbuch)

Priced from a statutory table (GNotKG, Anlage 2, Tabelle B), so it is the same at every notary in Germany. Roughly 1.0 to 1.6 per cent, depending on the price and how the loan is secured.

Estate agent (Maklercourtage)

Your half is typically 3.57 per cent including VAT, and since 2020 the seller carries at least the same share on a home purchase.

What comes on top of the bill

Renovation, kitchen, moving, and the reserve the building holds. None of it is in the purchase costs, and all of it lands in the same year.

What starts the month you move in

The monthly service charge to the owners' association covers heating, cleaning, the caretaker and the building's savings pot, and only part of it is recoverable if you ever let the flat out. On top of that come the annual property tax set by your municipality, building insurance through the association, and your own contents cover. Ask for the current service charge statement early: it is the number that decides what the flat really costs you every month, next to the instalment.

Ask us before you make an offer.

Ask the seller or the agent for these and read them before the notary appointment. A missing one is a reason to slow down.

1. Land register extract (Grundbuchauszug)

Who owns it, and what is registered against it. Not older than three months.

2. Declaration of division (Teilungserklaerung)

What is yours, what is shared, and what you may change.

3. House rules (Gemeinschaftsordnung)

Whether you may let it out, keep a pet, or run a business from it.

4. Owners' meeting minutes, last three years

The single most useful document. Planned works appear here long before they appear in a price.

5. Reserve fund statement (Instandhaltungsruecklage)

What the building has saved. A thin reserve means a special levy is coming.

6. Service charge statement (Hausgeldabrechnung)

What the flat costs you every month before the mortgage.

7. Energy certificate (Energieausweis)

Legally required at the viewing. It also tells you what the heating will cost.

8. Floor plan and living-area calculation

The advertised square metres and the legal ones can differ.

Send us the document pack and we read it with you in English.

Offer accepted

Nothing is binding yet. In Germany only the notarised contract binds either side.

Draft deed, then a statutory pause

The notary sends the draft. For a consumer purchase you have two weeks to read it before the appointment. Use them.

The appointment

The deed is read aloud in full. You may bring an interpreter.

Priority notice (Auflassungsvormerkung)

Entered in the land register within weeks. From that moment the flat cannot be sold to anyone else.

The payment request

The notary asks for the money only once every condition is met.

Handover, then the register

Keys change hands on payment. Ownership itself is entered months later, once the tax office confirms the transfer tax is paid.

Tell us where you are in the process and we tell you what comes next.

The money moves differently

An existing flat is paid in one go once the notary confirms the conditions. A new build is paid in up to seven instalments tied to building stages (Sec. 3 (2) MaBV), which spreads your cash and your risk.

What you can inspect

An existing flat you can walk through, with a surveyor if you want. A new build you buy from a plan and a description of works, and the description is the contract.

Defects

A private seller normally excludes liability for defects, and that is lawful. A developer owes you five years on the building work.

The tax base

On a new build, more of your price is building and less is land. That matters if you ever let it out, because only the building share carries depreciation. And if you sell, the ten-year rule decides whether the gain is taxed.

Send us both options and we compare them with you.

The figure at the top of this page. 11,400 EUR is the property transfer tax on 380,000 EUR at 6.5 per cent (North Rhine-Westphalia) minus the same tax at 3.5 per cent (Bavaria); the full purchase costs on that flat run 43,949 EUR against 32,549 EUR. It is a one-off amount, not a yearly saving, and it applies only if you are free to buy in another state.

The calculator. Transfer tax rates are state law (Art. 105 (2a) GG, Sec. 11 GrEStG). Notary and land registry fees follow GNotKG, Anlage 2, Tabelle B (KV 21100, 21200, 22110, 22111, 22200, 14110, 14121, 14150), with 19 per cent VAT on the notary side only. The agent share follows Sec. 656c and 656d BGB. Loan-to-value rate bands: Interhyp rate index, 10 to 16 August 2026.

Not an offer. These are orientation figures, not a lending decision and not an offer. Expat Finance Germany is a mortgage broker licensed under Sec. 34c, 34d, 34f and 34i GewO and is not tied to a single bank; register numbers are on the about page, in the imprint and in the small print.

Reviews. The written reviews on this site were submitted by clients after their consultation; we hold the originals and publish them unedited except for shortening.