Property purchase / financing in the current situation - yes / no?

I work in a municipal administration and would like to share my perspective regarding plots of land with a building obligation. Yes, you can reclaim the plots if they are not developed, of course. But: 1. in the current times, the next owner will not immediately have a house built either, so if an owner can credibly assure after 2/3 years that they will actually build within the next few years, most municipalities will not buy back the plot and resell it, because that does not result in a house being built any faster and only causes unnecessary stress. 2. plots are only bought back if there is certainty that they can be resold promptly. If the current trend continues as feared, depending on the location, it may well be that plots will no longer sell like hot cakes in the next few years, and then a municipality must carefully consider whether it can justify financially (in front of citizens, supervisory authorities, etc.) that unplanned expenses were incurred due to a buyback and that the costs may not be immediately covered again through resale. Therefore, in the current situation, I consider this a realistic problem only in truly desirable areas. In rural areas, municipalities are likely to regularly be willing to accommodate.

I work in a municipal administration and would like to share my view regarding plots of land with building obligations. Yes, you can take back the plots if they are not built on, of course. But: 1. these days, the next owner won't have a house standing on it immediately either, so if an owner can credibly assure after 2/3 years that they will actually build within the next few years, most municipalities will not buy back the plot and resell it, because that wouldn't result in a house being built any sooner and you would only have had unnecessary hassle. 2. plots are only bought back if the municipality is sure that they can sell them again promptly. If things continue as currently feared, it may well be that in the coming years plots will no longer sell quickly, depending on the location, and then a municipality must carefully consider whether it can justify financially (to citizens, to the supervisory authority, etc.) that it made unplanned expenditures for a buyback and that the costs may not be immediately covered again by a sale. In the current situation, I therefore consider it a realistic problem only in truly desirable areas. In rural areas, municipalities are regularly willing to accommodate.

I have also thought that the new owner would then again have 3 years. I don't know how that helps the municipality. The plot is, as said, 15 km from the nearest city, but is itself located in the countryside in a municipality that has so far been among the less popular ones (here everyone always wants to be in the southern district of the city, which is why plots in the north are significantly cheaper).

I work in a municipal administration and will describe my perspective regarding properties with building obligations.

Is there "actually" some kind of sales obligation for municipalities? I ask because my brother-in-law and his wife bought a plot from the municipality in postal code 5635x/Rhineland-Palatinate for a relatively high price and were the only builders in the new development area for several years. After the municipality was still unable to sell the plots at the desired price after years, prices dropped enormously and meanwhile all building plots have been sold and developed. My brother-in-law suspected that there might also be legal obligations for municipalities to sell plots in designated new development areas after a certain period. (My sister-in-law actually marched to the municipality years after their purchase and asked if she could get money back because the plots had become so inexpensive and they had to pay an excessive price. It was worth a try, but of course she did not get any money back.)

Would you like to reveal where/how one can find the report?

That should have been on Tue 8:15 PM Marktcheck on SWR? It was just a part segment.

Is there "actually" some kind of sales obligation for municipalities?

Why should there be? Until a few years ago, it was common in many areas that a new development area was sold over several years and not, as in more recent times, immediately and often oversubscribed.

Is there "actually" some kind of sales obligation for municipalities? I'm asking because my brother-in-law and his wife bought a plot of land from the municipality in postal code 5635x/Rhineland-Palatinate for a relatively high price and were the only builders in the new development area for several years. After the municipality was unable to sell the plots at the desired price even after years, prices dropped enormously and by now all building plots have been sold and developed. My brother-in-law has now suspected that there might also be legal obligations for municipalities to sell plots in designated new development areas after a certain period of time. (My sister-in-law actually went to the municipality years after her purchase and asked if she could get money back because the plots were so cheap and they had to pay an excessive price. It was worth a try, but of course she did not get any money back.)

I'm not entirely sure, but I don't think there is a sales obligation of that kind, but in the case you described, I can well imagine that the municipality is financially rather strapped and at some point reached the point where income was needed (possibly the supervisory authority also put pressure there) and since there are principles regarding the order in which financial means are to be generated, for example, debt is not always legally possible if there are still a bunch of plots lying around that can be sold.