Buying
Buying a house in Germany without a Makler
German buyers have paid half the commission since December 2020, about €14,300 on a €400,000 house, and no bank will lend you that part.
English
Where private sellers actually list in Germany
Each of these is a separate pool. A saved search on one tells you nothing about the others, so set up alerts on every one you intend to use.
- Anyone.com Listed by the owner
Homes put up by the owners themselves. With no Makler in the deal there is no half-commission on your side, and nothing extra to find in cash at the notary appointment. You agree the price with the owner and the Notar draws the Kaufvertrag as always.
More than 31 million active listings across 31 markets, agent-represented and owner-listed together. ImmoScout24 carries agent and private listings, filtered by commission rather than by seller.
Search owner-listed homes ↗ - ImmobilienScout24 Owners can list, for a fee
Buyer filter Provisionsfrei für Kaufende, a checkbox in the filter panel
The largest German portal takes private listings on a paid package and gives buyers a proper commission-free filter. Use it, but read what it means: it tells you no commission is due from you, not that the seller is a private person. Developers selling their own new-builds show up here too.
- Immowelt Owners can list
Buyer filter Ohne Provision, which is a segment of the URL so the search can be bookmarked
Free for a private seller to list, and the commission-free search has its own address. The inventory behind that filter runs into tens of thousands nationally, which is far more than the dedicated private-sale sites hold.
- Kleinanzeigen Owners can list
Buyer filter Keine zusätzliche Käuferprovision, plus a separate Anbieter filter for Privat or Gewerblich
The only major German site that lets you filter on the seller being private and on there being no buyer commission as two separate things. That combination is exactly what you want, and it is why this is worth checking even though it looks like a classifieds site.
- ohne-makler.net Owners can list
Buyer filter Private sellers only, by definition
Worth knowing how this works: its business is placing private listings onto ImmoScout24, Immowelt and Immonet for a fee. So much of what is here also appears there. Checking it directly still helps, because here you know the seller is a private person.
How many homes this really covers
Discovery is not the German problem. All three major portals ship a commission-free filter, and the biggest private-sale site pays to push its listings onto them, so private homes are not hidden here the way they are in the Netherlands. The real difficulty is telling a private owner apart from a developer inside a provisionsfrei search, and knowing when a commission claim has already attached to you.
Sections 656a to 656d of the Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch
The law halves the commission on a Wohnung or Einfamilienhaus bought by a consumer: whoever engaged the agent can pass on at most 50 percent, in writing, and the buyer's share only falls due once the other side has proved they paid theirs. Two limits matter. It does not cover Mehrfamilienhäuser, two-family houses, building plots or commercial purchases, where the old free-for-all still applies. And a Nachweismakler can acquire a claim simply by being the one who pointed you at a property, even without a signed contract, if you did not tell them you already knew about it. If you found a house privately and an agent later surfaces, say so immediately and in writing.
In force since 23 December 2020. Read the legislation
Buying one, step by step
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Work out your Nebenkosten by Bundesland first
Grunderwerbsteuer runs from 3.5 percent in Bayern to 6.5 percent in several states, and the Notar and Grundbuch add another 1.2 to 1.5. With a Makler the total reaches 12 percent or more of the price, and most of it has to be paid in cash rather than borrowed.
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Filter on the seller, not only on the commission
Provisionsfrei and von privat are different things. Kleinanzeigen lets you set both at once. On ImmoScout24 and Immowelt, set the commission filter and then read who is advertising.
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Tell an agent in writing if you already knew the property
This is the step that saves five figures. A Nachweismakler's claim can arise from the introduction alone. If you found the house privately and an agent then contacts you about it, put your prior knowledge in an email before you view anything with them.
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Get the Grundbuchauszug and the Teilungserklärung
The register extract shows the owner, mortgages and any rights of way. For a flat you also want the declaration of division, the Protokolle of recent owners' meetings and the Rücklage balance.
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Have the Notar draft, and read the draft
You get the draft contract at least two weeks before signing for a consumer purchase. Use that time. The Notar will explain anything in it, and asking costs nothing.
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Pay only after the Vormerkung is registered
The Auflassungsvormerkung reserves your claim in the Grundbuch. The Notar tells you when to pay, and that instruction is the one to follow rather than any request from the seller.
Check before any money moves
- The Grundbuchauszug: owner, Abteilung II rights and Abteilung III mortgages, and what will be deleted before transfer
- Which Bundesland rate of Grunderwerbsteuer applies, since the spread is three percentage points
- The Energieausweis, which the seller must show at the first viewing
- For a flat, the Teilungserklärung, the last three years of owners' meeting minutes and the Instandhaltungsrücklage
- Whether the property sits in a Sanierungsgebiet or has Denkmalschutz status, both of which restrict what you may change
- Any Baulast recorded against the plot, which does not appear in the Grundbuch and has to be requested separately
Selling one instead? See where to list a home yourself in Germany , or the full guide to selling without an agent in Germany .
Common questions
How much commission does a German buyer pay?
At most half the total, which in practice is around 3.57 percent including VAT, so about €14,280 on a €400,000 house. Your share only becomes payable once the seller has proved they paid theirs.
Can I put the Makler fee in my mortgage?
Usually not. German lenders treat it as Nebenkosten, which you are expected to cover from your own funds. That is why the commission bites harder here than the percentage suggests.
Does the split apply to every purchase?
No. It covers flats and single-family houses bought by consumers. Buy a Mehrfamilienhaus, a two-family house, a building plot or anything commercial and the halving rule does not apply at all.
An agent contacted me about a house I already found. Do I owe them?
Possibly, and this is where people lose money. A Nachweismakler can claim on the basis of having pointed you at the property, and silence can be read as accepting their service. If you knew about it first, say so in writing before you view with them or accept anything from them.
Is provisionsfrei the same as buying from a private seller?
No. It only means no commission is charged to you. Developers selling their own new-builds are commission-free too. If you specifically want an owner to negotiate with, filter on the seller type as well, which Kleinanzeigen lets you do directly.
Sources
Every legal, tax, and process claim on this page traces to one of these. We re-check them on a schedule and date the page when anything changes.
- BGB §§ 656a bis 656d: Verteilung der MaklerkostenGesetze im Internet · gesetze-im-internet.de
- Provisionsfreie ImmobilienImmobilienScout24 · immobilienscout24.de
- Wohnimmobilien ohne Provision kaufenImmowelt · immowelt.de
- Provisionsfreie Immobilien ohne Makler von privatohne-makler.net · ohne-makler.net