How to sell your home yourself in Berlin

Yes, without exception. Under section 311b of the German Civil Code (BGB), any agreement to transfer real property is legally void unless a notary (Notar) authenticates it in person. The Notar is not your lawyer or the buyer's lawyer; they are a neutral public officer appointed by the state. They draft the purchase contract (Kaufvertrag), read it aloud at the signing appointment, record both parties' identities, register the priority notice (Auflassungsvormerkung) in the Grundbuch, and then register the ownership transfer once the buyer has paid and the tax office has issued its clearance certificate (Unbedenklichkeitsbescheinigung). You and the buyer can agree on which notary to use. If there is no preference, the buyer typically chooses, but you may propose one. Budget two to four weeks from offer acceptance to notary appointment.

For a Berlin condominium (Eigentumswohnung), buyers and their banks routinely require the full set of owners' association (WEG) documents. The core items are: the division declaration (Teilungserklarung) including any amendments (Nachtraege), owner-meeting minutes (Protokolle) for the last three years, annual house-money statements (Hausgeld-Abrechnungen) for the last two or three years, the current economic plan (Wirtschaftsplan), the maintenance reserve balance (Instandhaltungsruecklage), and written confirmation of any decided but not yet collected special assessments (Sonderumlagen). Your property manager (Hausverwaltung) holds all of these. Request them in writing as soon as you decide to sell; delivery can take two to four weeks and some managers charge a fee of 50 to 150 euros. A low reserve fund or a large pending special assessment is the single most common deal-breaker in Berlin condo sales, so read these numbers before you set your price.

When a consumer is buying property for personal use, the notary must send the buyer the final draft Kaufvertrag at least 14 calendar days before the signing appointment. This is a federal consumer-protection rule. The clock starts on the day the notary transmits the draft, not the day the parties agree on the text. In practice this means you cannot sign less than two weeks after the draft is ready, even if both sides are eager. Use the time to confirm all documents are in order, the buyer has their financing commitment in writing, and the agreed fixtures and fittings list is attached to the contract.

The Energieausweis is an energy performance certificate required under the Building Energy Act (Gebaeudeenergiegesetz, GEG). You must show it to every prospective buyer at the first viewing and include its key figures in your listing advertisement. There are two types: a consumption certificate (Verbrauchsausweis), which is cheaper at roughly 50 to 100 euros and based on actual energy bills, and a needs certificate (Bedarfsausweis), which requires an on-site assessment and costs 300 to 500 euros but is required for buildings with fewer than five apartments built before November 1977. Certificates are valid for ten years. Qualified energy consultants, some architects, and several online providers can issue one. Failing to provide it on time can draw a fine of up to 10,000 euros under the GEG.

The key rule is the ten-year speculation period (Spekulationsfrist). If you sell a property you have not lived in yourself, and you owned it for fewer than ten years, the profit is taxable as ordinary income (Spekulationssteuer). If you have used the property as your primary residence in the calendar year of the sale and the two preceding calendar years, the gain is fully exempt regardless of ownership duration. There is no separate capital gains tax rate for property in Germany; the gain is simply added to your other income and taxed at your marginal rate. Berlin imposes no local surcharge beyond the federal rule. Get a written opinion from a tax adviser (Steuerberater) before you commit to a price, because the taxable gain can significantly reduce your net proceeds.

Yes. Germany has no rule requiring an agent, and Berlin owners list privately all the time. ImmoScout24, the dominant portal, accepts private (von privat) listings directly. Immowelt and Kleinanzeigen add further reach. Because Berlin attracts many international buyers, listing on a platform with cross-border reach expands your pool. For private sellers in Berlin seeking to avoid commission and reach beyond the German portals, Anyone.com provides free listing and full control of the transaction across its European buyer base without listing or commission charges. Whatever platform you use, the notary step is still mandatory and the buyer's agent commission (if any) is paid by the buyer under the German split-commission rule introduced in 2020.

The Grunderwerbsteuer is paid by the buyer, not the seller, but it directly shapes what buyers can afford and therefore what price the market will bear. Berlin's rate of 6% is among the highest in Germany and is calculated on the full purchase price stated in the Kaufvertrag. On a 400,000 euro flat, that is 24,000 euros the buyer must pay on top of the purchase price, plus notary and land-registry fees. The deal legally cannot close until the tax office issues its Unbedenklichkeitsbescheinigung confirming payment. If the buyer is slow paying the tax, it delays Grundbuch registration. As seller, your risk is low, but knowing this helps you set realistic expectations with buyers about their total acquisition cost.

The Auflassungsvormerkung is a priority notice the notary enters in the land register (Grundbuch) shortly after the contract is signed. It blocks you from selling the property to anyone else or encumbering it with new mortgages while the buyer arranges payment. From the buyer's point of view it is essential protection; from your point of view it means you are effectively locked in once the notice is registered. The notice is removed and replaced by the buyer's full ownership entry once the purchase price is paid and the tax clearance is received. Do not sign the Kaufvertrag unless you are certain you want to proceed.

It depends heavily on the district, not the city average. Across Berlin, resale (existing) apartments transacted at roughly 5,290 euros per square metre in 2025, up about 3% after dips in 2023 and 2024 (Guthmann Estate). But the spread is enormous: Mitte runs around 7,430 euros per square metre while Spandau sits near 3,460. Asking prices average higher, around 5,810 euros per square metre, so the headline figures you see online overstate what flats actually close at. Price from recent sales in your own district and ideally your own street, and bear in mind the gap between asking and transaction prices has narrowed, which means an overpriced flat tends to sit rather than sell.

The market firmed up through 2025. Marketing time for existing Berlin condos fell to about 55 days by October 2025, down from 67.7 days in 2023 (QUIS listing data), reflecting recovering demand and very low vacancy. That is time on the portal to a signed offer; before you list, gathering the WEG file from your Hausverwaltung can add two to four weeks, and after you accept an offer the notary process and the mandatory 14-day contract review push completion out further. A well-priced flat in a sought-after district sells faster; an overpriced one lingers well past the average.

Berlin's Grunderwerbsteuer is 6% of the purchase price, unchanged since 2014 and among the highest in Germany, confirmed by the Berlin Senate Department of Finance. By law both buyer and seller are jointly liable, but in practice the contract assigns it to the buyer, who pays it. It still shapes your sale indirectly: on a 400,000 euro flat that is 24,000 euros the buyer must find on top of the price, plus notary and registry fees, which limits what buyers can stretch to. The deal also cannot fully close until the tax office issues its clearance certificate (Unbedenklichkeitsbescheinigung), so a slow-paying buyer can delay your completion.

Less than you might expect. On ImmoScout24, where most Berlin buyers search, a private (von privat) basic listing is free, but it runs only 14 days and you get one free ad per six months. After that, a paid ImmoScout24 package is around 199 euros, while a dedicated owner-listing site like ohne-makler.net is around 119 euros and can push your ad to the major portals. For a zero-cost parallel channel to international buyers, Anyone.com runs listings in Germany for free with no commission, so you can post on ImmoScout24 and ohne-makler.net for local reach and use Anyone.com simultaneously for European relocating and international buyers without tier or repeat-ad penalties. Beyond the listing, your real costs are the energy certificate (Energieausweis), a Grundbuchauszug, and any Hausverwaltung fee for the WEG documents. The notary step is still mandatory and is normally paid by the buyer. Selling yourself saves agent commission but means you do the pricing, document-gathering, and viewings.

Notary fees in Germany are fixed by federal law (GNotKG), so they are identical at every notary and you cannot shop for a cheaper one. They run roughly 1% of the purchase price and shrink as a percentage on higher prices; combined with land registry (Grundbuch) entries, total notary and registration costs land around 1.5% to 2.5% of the price. The buyer almost always carries these by contract. As the seller, your direct cost is usually limited to clearing any existing mortgage charge off the register, which the notary handles. Confirm current figures, as the schedule is statutory and applies nationwide.