Buy a property in Berlin: step by step

Step 1: work out your budget honestly

At the start there is no flat, but a number. What purchase price can your income and your savings carry? Many buyers calculate only with the price in the advertisement and forget what comes on top.

In Berlin there are four items. Real estate transfer tax is 6.0%. Notary and land registry together cost around 1.5 to 2.0%. If an agent is involved, you usually pay 3.57% including VAT on a flat or a detached house. How the items add up is explained in detail in the guide Additional purchase costs in Berlin.

For a flat at €400,000, the calculation looks like this:

Example, rounded. Interest and repayment are assumptions for the calculation, not a statement about today's market. The rate that applies to you depends on the bank, equity, fixed-rate period and your credit standing.

The additional costs of €45,480 are the part that banks generally do not finance. They have to come from your own money. How much extra equity makes sense is explained in the guide Equity when buying a property. Which purchase price fits your net income is shown in the guide How much property can I afford?, and with the affordability calculator you can run your own figures in two minutes.

Step 2: sort out financing before you search

Sellers in Berlin rarely decide on price alone. They want to know whether the buyer can actually pay. Anyone who brings written confirmation of financing to the viewing therefore stands further ahead in the queue than someone who still wants to talk to their bank.

To assess your case, a bank needs proof of income, an overview of your assets and current loans, and later the documents for the property. That takes time. If you have done this beforehand, you can commit within a few days after a good viewing.

At BBI, Maximilian Vigansky advises you on this. He holds the licence as a mortgage loan intermediary under § 34i Gewerbeordnung (German Trade Regulation Act) and compares offers from several banks. We do not promise terms in advance, because the bank sets them after reviewing your case. What mortgage financing in Berlin involves and which questions to ask the bank is covered in the guide Mortgage financing in Berlin.

We do not give interest rate forecasts. How the interest rate level has developed since 2015 is shown in our report Interest rates and framework conditions, based on the series from the Deutsche Bundesbank.

Step 3: search where listings appear first

Most buyers search on the large portals. There, every listing reaches everyone at the same time. Some properties change hands before they even appear there, because the agent first calls the prospective buyers who have already told them what they are looking for.

That is why a search profile is worthwhile. At BBI, we notify you of matching new properties up to 72 hours before they appear on our website and the portals. The search profile is free of charge for you and can be ended at any time.

Which property suits you depends on your goal. Depending on what you are looking for, these chapters will help:

• Your first property, if you are buying for the first time.
• Flat in Berlin, with what matters about the owners' community and service charge (Hausgeld).
• House in the Berlin surroundings, if a garden matters more than the Ringbahn.
• New build in Berlin, with developer contract and staged payments.
• Buying a tenanted flat, as an investment property or for later. More on investing can be found in the Investment property section.
• Do you live abroad and want to buy in Berlin? We have our International section for that.

Step 4: view with a plan

At the first appointment, gut feeling often decides. That is fine, as long as your head comes along to the second one. Then look specifically for damp in the cellar and on external walls, for the age of the heating and windows, and for the condition of the stairwell and roof. Come back at a different time of day from your first visit. Light and street noise make morning and evening two different flats.

The seller must show you the energy performance certificate at the latest at the viewing. What else to check, which questions to ask and which documents to ask to see is set out point by point in the checklist for the viewing.

Step 5: check the documents and the land register

If you like the property, the paperwork follows. In the land register extract (Grundbuchauszug), you are mainly interested in Section II, because that is where third-party rights such as a right of residence or a right of way are recorded. Section III shows the seller's land charges, which must be deleted by the time of payment. Check the date of the extract. An extract from last year says nothing about today.

For a flat, the declaration of division (Teilungserklärung), the minutes of the owners' meetings, the budget plan and the latest annual statement are added. From them you can read how high the service charge (Hausgeld) is, how much is in the maintenance reserve and whether expensive works have been approved. Who pays an approved special levy? That question needs answering before you sign. You will find the complete list with explanations in the guide Buying a property: what to bear in mind

These guides go into more depth: Declaration of division and conversion ban, Service charge and special levy, Energy performance certificate and, for technical terms, the property glossary. You can judge whether the price fits the location using the standard land value (Bodenrichtwert). If the house lies in a social preservation area, the social preservation area (Milieuschutz) map shows it.

And the price? An offer below the asking price is usual, as long as you can justify it. Good reasons are in the documents: an approved special levy, a heating system at the end of its service life, a living space smaller than in the advertisement. An offer without justification, by contrast, looks like a test, and when there are several interested parties, the one who can reliably pay usually gets the property.

Step 6: reserve and obtain a loan commitment

If you want to buy, tell the agent in writing. The property is then often reserved for a short time, so that you can prepare financing and the notary appointment in peace. Legally, a reservation binds nobody to buy. A purchase contract for a property is only valid once it has been notarially certified (§ 311b para. 1 BGB). Before reserving, ask whether it costs anything and what happens to the money if the purchase does not go ahead.

Now you submit the property documents to the bank. The bank values the property itself and may come out below the purchase price. Only fix a notary appointment once you have the binding loan commitment. How the weeks between reservation and keys unfold is shown in the guide Purchase process from reservation to keys, with a timeline.

Step 7: purchase contract and notary appointment

The notary writes the draft contract. If you buy as a private individual from a business, such as a developer or a housing company, the notary generally has to make the draft available to you two weeks before the appointment. That is what § 17 para. 2a of the Beurkundungsgesetz (German Notarisation Act) requires. If a private individual sells, this period does not necessarily apply. Even then, ask the notary's office for enough time. Use these weeks. Read when the purchase price falls due, when you get the keys, what is provided for defects and who bears any approved special levies. Requests for changes go to the notary's office early, not only at the appointment.

At the appointment, the notary reads the contract aloud and explains it. The notary is neutral and represents neither side. What exactly happens at the appointment and how to read a land register (Grundbuch) is described in the guide Notary appointment and land register.

Step 8: pay when the notary says so

After the appointment, the notary has a priority notice of conveyance (Auflassungsvormerkung) entered in the land register (§ 883 BGB). It secures your claim, so that the seller can no longer sell the property elsewhere. The notary also obtains the release documents from the seller's banks and asks the district whether it wants to exercise a statutory right of first refusal.

For a flat that was converted into owner-occupied property after the tenant moved in, the tenant may also have a right of first refusal (§ 577 BGB). The tenant then has two months to decide. Details are in the guide Tenant's right of first refusal.

Once everything is in place, the notary sends the notice that payment is due. Only then do you transfer the money. Never pay earlier, even if someone asks you to. Separately comes the real estate transfer tax assessment, in our experience six to ten weeks after the notary appointment. The tax is due one month after the assessment is notified (§ 15 GrEStG).

Step 9: handover and land register

Once the purchase price has reached the seller, you receive the keys. Record a handover protocol: meter readings, number of keys, visible defects, items sold with the property. From handover, you bear the running costs in relation to the seller, if the contract provides for it, which is usual.

You still only become the owner with the entry in the land register (§ 873 BGB). The notary applies for it as soon as the purchase price has been paid and the tax office has confirmed that the real estate transfer tax has been settled. In Berlin, three to four months usually lie between the notary appointment and the entry. That is normal and carries no risk for you, because the priority notice protects your claim.

What is different in Berlin

Four Berlin peculiarities come up again and again in purchases.

Real estate transfer tax. At 6.0%, Berlin is in the upper range of the federal states. On a purchase price of €400,000, that is €24,000, which you pay from your own money.

Conversion into owner-occupied flats. Since 1 January 2026, dividing a residential building with more than five flats in Berlin requires approval from the district office (§ 250 Baugesetzbuch (German Building Code) in conjunction with the Berlin conversion ordinance, valid until the end of 2030). For you as the buyer of a flat that has already been divided, this changes little. But it explains why the supply of period-building flats for sale stays tight.

Tenanted flats. If the flat was converted into owner-occupied property after the current tenant moved in, the new owner may only give notice for personal use once a blocking period has expired. In Berlin it lasts up to ten years from the first sale after the conversion (§ 577a BGB). Anyone buying a tenanted flat today in order to move in themselves therefore first checks the declaration of division (Teilungserklärung) and the tenancy agreement. More on this in the chapter Buying a tenanted flat.

Social preservation areas (Milieuschutz). In social preservation areas, many things that would be straightforward elsewhere need approval: adding a second bathroom, combining flats, certain modernisations (§ 172 Baugesetzbuch (German Building Code)). If you plan a larger conversion after the purchase, ask the district office beforehand.

And then there are flats on leasehold (Erbbaurecht). Here you buy the building, not the land, and pay the landowner an ongoing ground rent (Erbbauzins). That makes the purchase price look low. Include the ground rent in your monthly burden and check how long the contract still runs, because your bank will check that too.

Sources

• Senatsverwaltung für Finanzen Berlin (Berlin Senate Department for Finance), real estate transfer tax rate 6.0%
• § 15 Grunderwerbsteuergesetz (German Real Estate Transfer Tax Act), due one month after notification of the assessment
• Gerichts- und Notarkostengesetz (German Court and Notary Fees Act), costs for notary and land registry
• §§ 656a to 656d BGB (German Civil Code), agent's commission for flats and detached houses
• § 17 para. 2a Beurkundungsgesetz (German Notarisation Act), draft two weeks before certification
• § 311b BGB, § 873 BGB, § 883 BGB, § 577 BGB
• § 34i Gewerbeordnung (German Trade Regulation Act), mortgage loan intermediary
• Typical figures for notary costs, tax assessment and land register timing: BBI guides Additional purchase costs and Notary appointment and land register