Buying a home in Germany: from reservation to keys

In Germany a home is bought through a notary who acts for neither side, and the contract signed in front of that notary binds both parties from the moment it is signed. The costs on top of the price are set largely by law and by the federal state, and lenders generally expect them to come from savings, not the loan.

1. Step by step: a guide for each stage

Buying a home runs in six stages. Each has its own guide or tool, in the order you'll need them.

1. See what you can afford

   The price your income reaches, the purchase costs for your state, and the monthly payment.

2. Find and check a property

   Reading a listing, what to look at in a viewing, which papers to ask for (the energy certificate among them), and what it's worth.

3. Agree on the purchase

   Offers, reservations and the notary's draft: what binds you, when, and what to check first.

4. Get the loan on the right terms

   The terms that decide what a mortgage costs, and your offers side by side.

5. Notary, payment and keys

   The appointment, the interpreter rule, and the timeline from signing to the land register.

6. Pay down the loan

   Repay or invest, the ways to repay, and a plan for your own loan.

2. How a purchase runs

Buyer and seller do not each instruct a lawyer as a matter of course. A single Notar (notary) drafts the Kaufvertrag (purchase contract), reads it out and carries out the transfer. The notary represents neither party but serves both impartially (§ 14 BNotO), explaining the contract without negotiating it for you. The buyer usually proposes the notary and pays most of the fees (§ 448(2) BGB).

The steps, from search to keys:

• Search, viewings and agreement on the price.
• Financing lined up with a lender.
• The draft contract, prepared by the notary and sent to both sides.
• The notary appointment (Beurkundungstermin): the contract is read out and signed, normally including the Auflassung (the agreement that ownership passes, § 925 BGB).
• The priority notice entered in the land register.
• Payment, once the notary confirms the price is due.
• Keys, then ownership. Possession usually passes on payment; ownership passes only when the land register records you as owner (§ 873 BGB).

3. Before the notary: reservation and financing

A Reservierungsvereinbarung (reservation agreement) is a promise to hold the property for a while. It does not commit anyone to the sale, because a contract obliging a party to sell or buy land must be notarised (§ 311b BGB). The Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Court of Justice) has also ruled that estate agents cannot validly impose reservation fees through their standard terms (20 April 2023, I ZR 113/22).

Sellers and agents often want a Finanzierungsbestätigung (financing confirmation) before booking the notary. Most are provisional, issued before the lender's full credit check and valuation, and bind nobody. The binding step is the loan contract.

The order matters. Unless the purchase contract says otherwise, the price is owed whether or not your loan comes through (§ 433(2) BGB), while a signed consumer loan can be withdrawn within 14 days (§ 495 BGB). Buyers therefore aim to hold a binding loan offer before the appointment and sign both contracts close together. What lenders check is covered in our guide to getting a mortgage without German citizenship.

4. After signing: priority notice, payment, land register

The Grundbuch (land register), kept by the local court (§ 1 GBO), shows the owner in Section I, rights and restrictions such as rights of way in Section II, and land charges securing loans in Section III (§ 4 GBV).

Straight after signing, the notary applies for an Auflassungsvormerkung (priority notice of conveyance) in your favour. Once it is registered, any later sale or charge by the seller is ineffective as far as it would defeat or impair your claim (§ 883 BGB), and the claim survives the seller's insolvency (§ 106 InsO).

The notary then gathers the conditions for payment: typically the registered notice, any approvals, the documents for deleting the seller's loans, and confirmation that the municipality will not use its Vorkaufsrecht (right of first refusal, § 28 BauGB). A Fälligkeitsmitteilung (notice that the price is due) follows, and payment is made within the period in the contract, commonly 10 to 14 days.

The transfer tax is due one month after the tax office's assessment notice (§ 15 GrEStG). Registration as owner needs the price paid and an Unbedenklichkeitsbescheinigung (clearance certificate) confirming the tax is settled (§ 22 GrEStG), and can follow payment by weeks or months.

5. The costs on top of the price

Three items make up most of the Kaufnebenkosten (purchase costs):

• Grunderwerbsteuer (property transfer tax). Each federal state sets its own rate (Art. 105(2a) Basic Law). In 2026 rates run from 3.5 per cent of the price in Bavaria to 6.5 per cent in Brandenburg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Saarland and Schleswig-Holstein. The rate of the state where the property lies, on the day the contract is signed, applies; both parties are liable for the tax by law (§ 13 GrEStG), and the contract usually puts it on the buyer. The part of the price paid for movable items such as a fitted kitchen is not taxed, if the contract states it separately at a realistic value.
• Notary and land registry fees. Both are fixed by the Gerichts- und Notarkostengesetz (GNotKG, Court and Notary Fees Act), so they are the same at every notary (§ 125 GNotKG) and rise with the price (its fee table). Including registration of the lender's land charge, they typically come to about 1.5 to 2 per cent of the price.
• Maklerprovision (estate agent's commission). The amount is not regulated; the buyer's share is commonly advertised at 3.57 per cent including VAT. Since 23 December 2020, an agency contract for buying a flat or a single-family house must be in text form, such as an email (§ 656a BGB). Where the buyer is a consumer (§ 656b BGB), an agent acting for both sides must charge both the same (§ 656c BGB). If only the seller hired the agent, the buyer can be made to pay at most half, and only after the seller has paid its share and proof is shown (§ 656d BGB). The rules do not cover apartment buildings or plots of land.

Together, purchase costs typically come to between about 5 and 12 per cent of the price, depending on the state and on whether an agent is involved. Our mortgage calculator adds them up for a given price and state.

6. How much of your own money lenders expect

Lenders measure a loan against their own cautious valuation, the Beleihungswert (lending value, § 16 PfandBG), not simply the agreed price. Most expect the purchase costs to come from Eigenkapital (your own funds), and usually part of the price too. A common rule of thumb is the purchase costs plus 20 per cent of the price; the Verbraucherzentrale notes that banks often ask for 20 per cent of the total cost from own funds. In the first half of 2025, buyers put a little over a fifth of their financing in from their own funds on average (Bundesbank, Financial Stability Review 2025).

Loans covering the whole price exist, but the rate rises as the loan approaches the property's value, and lenders scrutinise income and credit history more closely. KfW loans can cover part of the price next to the bank loan, if you apply before signing.

7. The reading, and the interpreter rule

At the appointment the notary reads the whole contract aloud, and the parties approve and sign it (§ 13 BeurkG). The reading is a legal requirement. Deeds are drawn up in German, although a notary proficient in another language may draw one up in that language on request (§ 5 BeurkG).

If a party does not have a sufficient command of German, by their own statement or in the notary's judgement, the procedure changes (§ 16 BeurkG):

• the contract must be translated to that person instead of being read aloud, by an interpreter unless the notary translates personally;
• the person can ask for a written translation to review, which is attached to the deed, and the notary is to point out this right;
• an interpreter not generally sworn for court work is to be sworn in, unless all parties waive it;
• the interpreter cannot be a party or a party's spouse, registered partner or direct relative, because the notary's exclusion rules apply (§ 16(3) with §§ 6 and 7 BeurkG).

8. Why the draft matters more than the appointment

By the appointment the contract is essentially settled. Where a consumer buys from a business, such as a developer, the notary must ensure the consumer gets the intended text, as a rule two weeks in advance (§ 17(2a) BeurkG). Between private individuals that fixed period does not apply, but notaries normally circulate a draft beforehand. That is the realistic window for translation, checks and renegotiation. Buyers commonly check:

• Price, payment conditions and deadlines. Contracts usually include the buyer's Zwangsvollstreckungsunterwerfung (submission to immediate enforcement), letting the seller enforce the price without going to court first (§ 794(1) no. 5 ZPO).
• Defects. Resale contracts usually exclude the seller's liability, but the exclusion fails where the seller fraudulently concealed a defect or gave a guarantee (§ 444 BGB).
• Handover date and what is included: fittings, kitchen, parking.
• The land register: which Section II rights stay, and which charges go.
• For a flat, the Teilungserklärung (declaration of division).

Once signed, there is no statutory cooling-off period: consumer withdrawal rules for doorstep and distance contracts do not apply to notarised contracts or contracts over land (§ 312(2) BGB).

The short version

Nothing binds either side until the notary appointment, and after signing there is no cooling-off period. On top of the price come transfer tax of 3.5 to 6.5 per cent depending on the state, about 1.5 to 2 per cent for notary and registry, and any agent's commission, of which a consumer buying a flat or single-family house pays at most half unless they alone hired the agent. Lenders generally expect these costs from your own money. The draft is the time to translate and question the contract, and a buyer without sufficient German is entitled to a translation, not just a reading.

Primary sources checked on 15 October 2026: the statutes and official pages linked above.