Viewing: what to look for when buying a property

Before the appointment: what to bring

Have the brochure, floor plan and energy performance certificate sent to you in advance and read them before you set off. Then you know what area to expect, what year the building dates from and how it is heated. At the appointment, you only compare.

• Floor plan, printed out, for writing notes on
• Torch for the cellar, loft and corners behind cupboards
• Folding rule or laser distance meter, if your furniture has to fit
• Your phone for photos of rating plates, meters and damage
• A second person. Whoever talks sees less. Whoever listens sees more.

A moisture meter from a DIY store can be useful. But do not rely on its reading alone. The values depend heavily on the material, and on plasterboard it shows something different from brick.

Building fabric and damp

Damp is the most expensive defect you can miss at a viewing. Start at the bottom. In the cellar you often smell it before you see it. Look for white salt rims on the walls, flaking plaster and water stains on the floor. A freshly painted cellar room in an otherwise old building is no proof of a problem. You should still ask.

In the flat, look behind cupboards on external walls, in window reveals and in the corners of the bathroom and bedroom. Dark spots there are usually mould. Whether it comes from ventilation habits or from a thermal bridge in the wall can rarely be settled at the appointment. Note the spot and ask about it.

In Berlin period buildings, timber beams often carry the ceilings. Creaking floorboards are normal there. Floors that sag noticeably, cracks above door lintels or beam ends that have been worked on before should be looked at by a building surveyor before you buy. For houses, a look at the roof, gutters and the junction of wall and plinth is part of it.

Two things are seldom visible, but you should ask about them. The electrics: an old fuse box with screw-in fuses and no residual-current device points to wiring that will be replaced in any renovation anyway. And the water pipes: in buildings with very old risers, it is worth asking whether lead pipes are still installed and whether the owners' association has already replaced them.

Windows and heating

The year a window was made is often revealed by the spacer between the panes. Many manufacturers print the month and year there. Check whether the sashes open and close easily, whether the seals are soft and whether moisture condenses between the panes. Misted double glazing cannot be repaired from the inside, only replaced.

For the heating, photograph the rating plate. It shows the manufacturer, type and usually the year of manufacture. Ask for the last service record and the chimney sweep's record.

Old boilers have an operating limit. Oil and gas boilers more than 30 years old generally may not continue to be operated. Low-temperature and condensing boilers are exempt, as are very small and very large systems (§ 72 of the Building Energy Act, called the Building Modernisation Act since July 2026). If you buy a detached or two-family house where the previous owner did not have to replace the boiler because of an exemption, you have two years after the transfer of ownership to meet the obligation (§ 73). Before the notary appointment, clarify with the chimney sweep or an energy consultant whether this applies to your house, and include the replacement in your budget.

The energy value in the certificate helps when comparing two flats. An example with two flats of 80 square metres each:

Example. The price per kilowatt hour is an assumption for the calculation; you will find your actual unit rate in the contract with your supplier. A consumption-based certificate also reflects the heating habits of the previous occupants, a demand-based certificate the building itself.

Common property: stairwell, cellar, roof

When you buy a flat, you also buy a share in the whole building. Whatever is due there, you help pay for through the service charge (Hausgeld) and special levies. That is why the walk through the building is at least as worthwhile as the walk through the flat.

The stairwell shows how the owners' association treats its building. Are the walls and banisters well kept, does the light work, are the letterboxes and doorbell system in order? In the cellar, look for damp, the condition of the pipes, and whether the cellar room assigned to you is the one in the declaration of division (Teilungserklärung). Ask when the roof, facade and heating system were last renewed.

You check the answers later in the minutes of the owners' meetings. If a larger renovation is listed there, work out your share. How to do that is shown in the article Buying a property: what to consider with a worked example. Background on the reserve is in the guide Service charge and special levy, on the division of the building in the guide Declaration of division.

Light, noise and surroundings

Viewings often take place at the same time, usually early evening or Saturday morning. Come at a different time for the second appointment. A flat facing the street sounds different in rush hour than at the weekend. A west-facing balcony gets no sun in the morning.

Open the windows and listen for a minute. Is there an S-Bahn line nearby, a pub on the ground floor, a school playground in the courtyard? Then walk once around the block. Gaps between buildings and wasteland can be built on, and then the view is gone. You can find out what is planned for the neighbouring site at the district's urban planning office.

For the location, the standard land value helps you place the price. Whether the building lies in a social preservation area (Milieuschutz), which can make later alterations subject to permission, is shown on the social preservation map.

Questions for the seller and agent

These questions should be asked at the appointment. Note down the answers and compare them later with the documents.

• Why is it being sold, and since when has the flat been empty or let?
• When were the heating, windows, electrics and bathroom last renewed? Are there invoices?
• Has there been water damage or mould, and how was it remedied?
• How high is the service charge, and what part of it goes into the reserve?
• Have special levies been decided or are they planned for the next meeting?
• Is there a dispute in the owners' association or are proceedings under way?
• What stays in the flat, such as kitchen, fitted cupboards, awnings?
• If the flat is let: how much is the rent, the deposit, and when was the last rent increase?
• How many interested buyers are there, and by when does the seller want to decide?

Why the questions should be this specific: in a private sale, the contract almost always excludes liability for defects. For defects the seller knew about and fraudulently concealed, they are still liable (§ 444 BGB, German Civil Code). The more precisely you asked, the clearer it is afterwards what was said.

Documents you should see on site

The energy performance certificate must be shown to you unprompted at the latest at the viewing (§ 80 GModG). Also ask for the floor plan and the living space calculation so you can compare the measurements on site. For let flats, the tenancy agreement is part of this. You usually only receive the minutes, the annual budget and the land register extract after the appointment, once you are seriously interested. Which documents you should have in full before a reservation is listed in the article What to consider when buying.

After the viewing

Write down your impressions the same day, before the third flat overlays the first. Go through the photos and note any open questions. If anything about the building fabric worried you, bring in a building surveyor before you commit to buy. Their fee is small compared with a wet cellar.

If everything fits, speak first to your bank, then to the agent. What happens next is shown in the article The purchase process from reservation to keys. The guide Buying a property in Berlin gives the overview of all the steps.

Sources

• § 72 Building Energy Act, operating ban for old boilers, and § 73, exemption and deadline after a change of owner; continued since July 2026 as the Building Modernisation Act
• § 80 Building Modernisation Act, presenting the energy performance certificate at the viewing
• § 444 BGB (German Civil Code), exclusion of liability and fraudulently concealed defects
• Efficiency classes and types of certificate: BBI guide Energy performance certificate and mandatory information