Property tax when selling property in Berlin

Who owes the property tax in the year of sale

The Property Tax Act ties the tax to the start of the year. The tax arises at the beginning of the calendar year and is assessed on the circumstances at that time (Section 9 GrStG). The debtor is the person to whom the property is attributed when the property tax value is determined (Section 10 GrStG).

For your sale this means: if you sell in May, you remain liable to the tax office for the current year. The change in the land register no longer alters that.

When the buyer receives the assessment

If the attribution changes, the tax office updates the property tax value (Section 222 para. 2 BewG). Where the actual circumstances have changed, the update takes effect at the start of the following calendar year (Section 222 para. 4 BewG). Only then does the assessment go to the new owner. If the land register entry comes late in the year, an assessment for the following year may still go to the seller until the tax office has processed the change.

How buyer and seller split it

By law, the buyer bears the charges on the property from handover (Section 446 German Civil Code). Notarised purchase contracts almost always take this up: from the transfer of possession, the buyer takes over running charges such as property tax and reimburses the seller for the share the seller has paid in advance.

In practice you calculate to the day. Example: the annual tax is 291.40 euros and handover is on 1 July. The seller has paid the instalments of 15 February and 15 May, that is 145.70 euros for the first half of the year, and bears them himself. He continues to pay the instalments of 15 August and 15 November to the tax office, and the buyer reimburses him these 145.70 euros. How and when the reimbursement is made is set out in the purchase contract.

How to work out property tax in Berlin yourself

The new law has applied in Berlin since 1 January 2025. Three figures determine the amount:

• Property tax value from the tax office's assessment,
• Base rate: 0.31 per mille for residential property, 0.45 per mille for non-residential and undeveloped property,
• Multiplier: 470 percent (until 2024 it was 810 percent under the old law).

Calculation: property tax value times base rate gives the base amount, base amount times multiplier gives the annual tax. With a property tax value of 200,000 euros: 200,000 × 0.00031 = 62 euros, 62 × 4.7 = 291.40 euros per year. It is due in four instalments on 15 February, 15 May, 15 August and 15 November (Section 28 GrStG).

What this means for your sale

Add the current property tax assessment to your sale documents. Buyers ask about running costs, and an assessment answers that faster than an estimate. For owner-occupied flats, property tax is not part of the service charge; it is assessed separately for each flat.

Before the notary appointment, check whether your instalments run by direct debit. The direct debit does not end automatically with the sale.

Sources

• Section 9 Property Tax Act (GrStG), reference date and creation of the tax
• Section 10 GrStG, tax debtor
• Section 28 GrStG, due dates
• Section 222 Valuation Act, updates
• Section 446 German Civil Code, transfer of benefits and charges
• State of Berlin, information on the Berlin property tax (multiplier 470%, base rates 0.31 and 0.45 per mille), retrieved on 1 October 2026
• Senate Department for Finance, press release 24-007 of 21/02/2024, key points of the new property tax