Selling property after ten years in Germany: which dates and exceptions matter?

Yes, you can usually sell a privately owned property tax-free after 10 years in Germany, but the ten years are measured precisely: from the day the notarised purchase contract binds both parties to the day the sale contract does, not from handover or the land-register entry. Inside that period, the gain is taxed at your personal income-tax rate, and the depreciation you claimed makes it larger. After it, the private-sale rule in § 23 EStG no longer applies, but own use, gifts, company ownership, repeated sales and special depreciation can each change the answer.

This guide covers the holding-period test for private owners. Moving abroad is covered in our relocation guide.

Current law. A Green bill of June 2026 would abolish the period for property not used as the owner's home (BT-Drs. 21/6637). The Bundestag's Finance Committee recommended rejection (BT-Drs. 21/7081), and a plenary debate is scheduled for 8 October 2026 (Bundestag). This article reflects the law in force on 3 October 2026.

A private sale (privates Veräußerungsgeschäft) of land, a building or an apartment is taxable if no more than ten years lie between acquisition and sale (§ 23(1) sentence 1 no. 1 EStG). The popular name is Spekulationsfrist (speculation period); the tax is ordinary income tax. The Federal Fiscal Court (Bundesfinanzhof, BFH) counts from the moment both parties' contractual declarations become binding (IX R 23/13). Under the civil-code rules applied by § 108(1) AO, the contract day is not counted and the period ends at the end of the same date ten years later (§ 187(1) and § 188(2) BGB).

Illustrative example. Fictional dates. Apartment A, the Leipzig flat from our cash-flow guide: purchase contract notarised Thursday 15 January 2026; benefits and burdens passed to the owner on 1 April 2026. The period runs from the January contract, not the April handover or the later land-register entry, and ends at midnight at the end of Tuesday 15 January 2036.

Row four follows two BFH judgments: a contract under a suspensive condition binds the parties when signed (IX R 23/13), as does one awaiting an official approval (IX R 10/20). For a binding offer (bindendes Angebot), both declarations normally have to fall inside the period, unless the sale was already economically carried out with the offer through the transfer of possession, risk, benefits and burdens (Übergang von Nutzen und Lasten) (IX R 23/13). Options and pre-contracts need the same review. Near the anniversary, have your notary and tax adviser (Steuerberater) check the dates before anything is offered or signed.

The gain is the sale price less selling costs and the acquisition cost (§ 23(3) sentence 1 EStG). The acquisition cost is reduced by the depreciation (Absetzung für Abnutzung, AfA), increased allowances and special depreciation you deducted (§ 23(3) sentence 4). For how the AfA itself is built, see our depreciation schedule guide.

Illustrative example. Fictional figures, not a valuation or a forecast. Apartment A: price €240,000 plus €25,368 of purchase costs (transfer tax, agent, notary and land registry for the purchase; the land-charge costs are financing costs and excluded), so €265,368. Building share 75 per cent, €199,026; AfA 2 per cent, €3,980.52 a year, claimed for exactly ten years (1 April 2026 to 31 March 2036): €39,805. Sale contract notarised 14 January 2036; benefits and burdens pass on 1 April 2036. The seller pays an agent 3.57 per cent including VAT; no other selling costs. The fixed rate is assumed to have ended, so no early repayment compensation. Marginal tax rate 42 per cent; solidarity surcharge and church tax excluded; no other private sales that year.

Two days separate a €22,715 tax bill from none. About €16,718 of it is the AfA coming back: deductions that saved tax while the flat was let now raise the gain. The other €5,997 is tax on the €14,279 market gain. Even a sale at the original price leaves a taxable gain of €5,869. The tax is assessed with the return for the year of sale and paid after the sale money arrives, so keep it aside.

Total gains from private sales in a calendar year are tax-free only if they stay below €1,000 (§ 23(3) sentence 5 EStG). This exemption limit (Freigrenze) is not an allowance: at €1,000 or more, the whole gain is taxable.

A loss, like the €13,417 in the third column, can be set only against private-sale gains of the same year, the previous year or later years (§ 23(3) sentences 7 and 8). It does not reduce tax on your salary or rent.

Property used for your own residential purposes is excluded from § 23 in two cases (§ 23(1) sentence 1 no. 1 sentence 3):

• Used only as your home for the whole time between acquisition (or completion) and sale. For this test, the tax authority looks at the transfer of economic ownership, not the contract dates (BMF letter of 5 October 2000, para. 25).
• Used as your home in the year of sale and the two preceding calendar years. The use must be continuous and cover the whole middle year; one day in each of the outer years is enough (BFH, IX B 72/19). A short letting in the year of sale after you move out does no harm (BFH, IX R 10/19); letting or vacancy in the middle year does.

Free use by a child for whom you receive child benefit counts as own use; use by parents or other relatives does not (BMF letter, para. 23).

For an investor, the second case is the relevant one. Suppose Apartment A's tenant leaves in 2033 and you move in on 1 December 2033, live there throughout 2034 and into 2035, and sell in 2035. The sale falls inside the ten years but is excluded. Whether you can move in at all is a tenancy question, not a tax one: see moving into your investment property.

• Gift or inheritance. The clock does not restart. On a gift, the donor's acquisition is attributed to you (§ 23(1) sentence 3); the tax authority treats inheritance the same way and also attributes the predecessor's own use (BMF letter, paras. 10 and 26). A part-paid transfer is split into a paid and an unpaid part (para. 30).
• Building during the period. A building erected, extended or converted within the period is included in the sale (§ 23(1) sentence 1 no. 1 sentence 2). The period still runs from the acquisition of the land, not from completion (BMF letter, para. 9). An off-plan apartment bought from a developer (Bauträger) is generally an acquisition, so its period runs from that purchase contract.
• Partnerships. Buying or selling a share in a property-holding partnership, such as a civil-law partnership (GbR), counts as buying or selling your share of the property (§ 23(1) sentence 4).

§ 23 is a rule for private assets. A German GmbH has no private sphere for tax purposes: all its income is business income (§ 8(2) KStG), so a sale by the company is taxed whenever it happens. Moving a privately held apartment into a company within ten years can itself count as a sale, whether against new shares (BMF letter, para. 6) or as a hidden contribution (verdeckte Einlage) (§ 23(1) sentence 5 no. 2).

Repeated sales raise a separate question. Under the three-object rule explained in our second-property guide, they can amount to commercial property dealing. Business income takes priority over § 23 (§ 23(2)), so the ten-year period then gives no protection.

Special depreciation for new rental housing (§ 7b EStG) runs on calendar years: the apartment must be let as a home, for rent, in the year of acquisition and the following nine. A sale in that window with an untaxed gain reverses the special depreciation, and earlier assessments are amended even if final (§ 7b(4)). Eligibility is covered in our § 7b guide.

Illustrative example. Fictional figures. Apartment B: a 50 m² new-build bought from a developer, purchase contract notarised 6 March 2025, completed and acquired in 2026. Assume it qualifies for § 7b and the owner claims 5 per cent a year for 2026 to 2029 on the capped base of €200,000 (50 m² × €4,000): €40,000 in total.

• Sale contract up to 6 March 2035: inside § 23. The gain is taxable, with the €40,000 and the ordinary AfA added back; § 7b stays.
• Sale signed and completed between 7 March and 31 December 2035: no tax on the gain, but the €40,000 is reversed. At 42 per cent, about €16,800 of earlier tax savings is repaid.
• Sale from 2036: neither rule bites, if the letting condition was met.

A tax-free sale does not clear the loan. On Apartment A, about €163,800 of the €216,000 is still owed after 120 monthly instalments, and the sale price repays the bank first.

Repaying during the fixed-rate period can trigger early repayment compensation (Vorfälligkeitsentschädigung) (§ 490(2) BGB); on a taxable sale it counts as a selling cost, not a rental expense (BFH, IX R 42/13). The borrower's own ten-year termination right runs from full disbursement of the loan, with six months' notice (§ 489(1) no. 2 BGB), not from the purchase contract.

Selling costs such as the agent's commission are due either way. Inside the period, they at least reduce the gain.

Most of the acquisition file is created during the purchase. If Alpha Minoris's Buyer's Agent service handled your purchase in Berlin, Dresden or Leipzig, it collected the notarised contract, the key dates and the purchase-cost invoices as part of that mandate and can provide them to you or your tax adviser, wherever you now live. It does not sell property and does not calculate the gain: the notary records the dates, and your Steuerberater prepares the calculation and the return.

If a sale is years away, the decision that matters now is a purchase whose dates and documents are clear from day one. Discuss your first rental property with Alpha Minoris.