What is typical real estate commission in Germany?

Question

I need to refer a client who needs to sell her house in Germany to a German broker. Can somebody please advice what a typical real estate commission would be in Germany?

Also, who pays it? Is it charged in percentage or a flat fee in Euros?

Many thanks/Danke schoen

Answer 1

Is different. I am living in Hamburg. Here you pay 5% to 6% for the broker plus VAT (19% of the comission) Here in Hamburg the buyer pays. There are areas the seller pays. There must be an agrement who pays. If there is no one, commission is payed half by the seller and half by the buyer ( that's law).

Greetings from Hamburg, Germany

Heinz

Answer 2

So, you mean the owner is employing the services of an agent who looks for potential buyers, shows them around, etc.?

That agent's fee is freely negotiable (not laid down by the law), but according to wikipedia, anything between 3 and 6 % of the house's price is common [personally, I know 4 % as "normal"];

Where I live, the seller pays that sum in full, but wikipedia claims that the question who pays (seller, buyer, or 50-50) is different from region to region.

There are also additional costs, such as high administrative fees for the town's Notary Public [or a freelance notary; that again is different from state to state]; as well as administrative fees for changing the entry in the land register.