What buying
a home in Germany
really costs.
The same €400,000 home costs €17,980 in transfer tax, notary and land registry fees in Bavaria and €29,980 in North Rhine-Westphalia: in Germany each state sets its own transfer tax, and Payotte computes the bill from the official rates and fee tables.
€29,980
transfer tax, notary and land registry on a €400,000 home in North Rhine-Westphalia
3.91%
average rate on new housing loans fixed 5 to 10 years (Bundesbank, September 2026)
€1,417
monthly payment on €300,000 over 30 years
7.28 €
average net cold rent per m², 2022 census
44.3%
of homes lived in by their owners, 2022 census
Housing loans fixed 5 to 10 years, September 2026 3.91% Deutsche Bundesbank, MFI interest rate statistics (3.81% in August 2026) Your payment →
Where to look
The largest cities, with the average net cold rent per m² of the 2022 census and the state's transfer tax. Professionals are coming soon.
7.67 €/m²
Berlin
City-state
6% transfer tax
9.16 €/m²
Hamburg
City-state
5.5% transfer tax
12.89 €/m²
Munich
Bavaria
3.5% transfer tax
9.39 €/m²
Cologne
North Rhine-Westphalia
6.5% transfer tax
10.58 €/m²
Frankfurt
Hesse
6% transfer tax
9.24 €/m²
Düsseldorf
North Rhine-Westphalia
6.5% transfer tax
6.44 €/m²
Leipzig
Saxony
5.5% transfer tax
10.39 €/m²
Stuttgart
Baden-Württemberg
5% transfer tax
6.45 €/m²
Dortmund
North Rhine-Westphalia
6.5% transfer tax
7.75 €/m²
Bremen (city)
Bremen
5.5% transfer tax
6.72 €/m²
Essen
North Rhine-Westphalia
6.5% transfer tax
6.92 €/m²
Dresden
Saxony
5.5% transfer tax
More cities: Bielefeld · Bochum · Bonn · Duisburg · Hanover · Karlsruhe · Mannheim · Münster · Nuremberg · Wuppertal
States: Baden-Württemberg · Bavaria · Berlin · Brandenburg · Bremen · Hamburg · Hesse · Lower Saxony · Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania · North Rhine-Westphalia · Rhineland-Palatinate · Saarland · Saxony · Saxony-Anhalt · Schleswig-Holstein · Thuringia
Five trades
For each, the register or permit you can check yourself with the official body. Notaries are not listed: they hold a public office, and the page explains their role.
Calculators and guides
Official rates recomputed by an automatic check; 65 guides checked against the sources they cite, sorted by step.
Calculators and tables
Foreign buyers
Transfer tax by state
Buying
Financing
Selling
Renting
How the list will be made
The same rules as in Canada, France, Belgium, Spain and the other Payotte countries. The method in detail →
01
A business, never a person
Each profile presents a firm (its name, legal form and register entry). No person's name is published, and no notary is listed.
02
A registration you check yourself
The DIHK broker register, the chambers' lists, the public appointment of valuers: the profile says where to check, with the official body.
03
One firm per area and trade
Chosen on public data under a published scale. Never chosen on its ability to pay: Payotte is free, with no ads or commission.
How much will your purchase cost?
Your state, the price, a loan or not: the transfer tax, notary and land registry in a few seconds, from the official rates.
Calculate my purchase costs