What experience do you have with buying property?

Hello everyone,

The thread is inspired by a user who asked here about the process of selling land by a municipality. This gave me the idea to simply collect the current status/stories/problems in this context. Just out of curiosity.

I'll start with myself....
We have always planned to buy only a building plot from a municipality in the area (no exaggerated prices, no broker, etc.)

Three years ago we registered on an interested parties list and two years ago on another.

The result of it all... with the older registration, we were not even informed about the allocation, although the list was supposed to regulate the order of interested buyers. Result: all plots were gone.

2nd list: And I really found that outrageous. Apparently, (feeling like) half the building area was sold under the table here. See screenshot.
Besides, the letter stated that only written reservations with signature would be accepted. Result: reservations by e-mail were later accepted.

We still got a plot, but this behavior of the municipalities really makes me angry that they do not stick to agreements one relies on.

What annoyed me because I did not know it beforehand: If a "building obligation" is included in the purchase contract, the notary is entitled to assess the transaction value higher (in our case 20% of the land price). Although it is a smaller three-digit amount - still annoying. One could also separate the building obligation from the notarial purchase contract and conclude a separate contract with the municipality.

Correct, we also had that stated in the notarial deed. On the other hand, we only had to pay the real estate transfer tax on the bare land price and not on the development costs and construction contributions. I didn't know that either, and it saved us 2000€.

Our city administration does it like this: It designates building land and selects a development agency to handle the development, parcelling, marketing, and preparation of the roads. After the sale is completed, it takes over the roads into public ownership. Starting in autumn/winter 2013-2014, our building area went on sale. The development agency was Bauland SH, a Volksbank company. Marketing was exclusively through them. On the internet, one could see relatively up-to-date what was still available and what had already been sold. All plots cost the same. 115/sqm all inclusive, even with soil survey. When we bought in summer '16, there were still 5 plots of interest to us available. We then reserved "our" ideal plot from those five, which was possible. I inspected it with a friend who is a garden-landscape builder, compared it with the other still available ones, regarding location/earthworks effort, etc. He advised buying the reserved one. The preliminary choice was logical and correct. The purchase was unproblematic, a phone call with the bank's IMMO department, my notary named. Appointment proposals made. A timely proposal was accepted. Done, finished. Karsten

That sounds more than professional. It shows again when specialists work in sales and not just a small construction office.

Well, that only works if the parcels go on sale when they are staked out.

For us, despite more than 150 plots, it was hard to get one. We were ready about a week after the marketing started. Many prime spots were already gone. Nevertheless, we were able to find a suitable plot for us.
Information about what was happening in the area was then provided at events and via newsletter.
A deposit of €1,000 was required to reserve the plot.
About 2 years after the reservation, we were then able to start building.