The German property exposé, explained for agencies abroad

Immowelt's own guide lists the parts buyers expect: key data, the location, a description of the property, features and condition, technical data including the energy certificate, the financial details, legal information, photos with a floor plan and site plan, and a contact. ImmoScout24's guide adds the room layout and running costs (Nebenkosten).

Buyers compare the key data first: purchase price (Kaufpreis), living area (Wohnfläche), plot size (Grundstücksfläche), rooms (Zimmer), year of construction and condition. ImmoScout24 marks rooms, living area and price as mandatory fields. German listings count the living room as a room and leave out kitchen and bathrooms, so a Spanish "3 dormitorios" usually becomes 4 Zimmer.

Living area is the other trap. German listings state Wohnfläche, the usable living space, while many southern European listings quote built area including walls and terraces (superficie construida, área bruta). Put next to a German comparable, the built figure reads as inflated.

Germany's building energy law, renamed Gebäudemodernisierungsgesetz (GModG) in July 2026 and formerly known as the GEG, sets out in § 87 what a commercial property ad must state when an energy certificate exists: the type of certificate, the energy demand or consumption value, the main heating energy source, and for homes the year of construction and the efficiency class. Under § 80, sellers and brokers must also show the certificate at the viewing at the latest and hand it over after the purchase contract.

Leaving the data out is an administrative offence under § 108, and since 2017 the Federal Court of Justice has treated missing energy data in broker ads as misleading buyers under competition law. ImmoScout24 lists the same five details as legally required in its own help pages.

For property abroad the law is less clear. The GModG doesn't say whether § 87 covers a German ad for a building in Spain or Croatia, and such a building has no German energy certificate. We found no ruling or ministry guidance either way, so we carry over the values from your national energy certificate where one exists.

For flats and single-family houses sold to a consumer, German law limits what the buyer pays. A broker working for both sides must charge both the same (§ 656c BGB), and a seller who passes part of the commission on must keep paying at least as much as the buyer (§ 656d BGB). The broker contract itself needs text form, which an email satisfies (§ 656a BGB).

In the ad, commission is quoted as a gross figure: "3.57% incl. VAT", not "3% plus 19% VAT", as immowelt's guidance for brokers under the Price Indication Ordinance puts it. German courts have also tied the broker's commission claim to a clear notice in the ad and the exposé (BGH III ZR 62/11; OLG Frankfurt 13 U 84/21). Whether German broker law governs a sale abroad depends on your contract, so check with your lawyer.

We rebuild every listing in this format from the exposé you already have: German key data, Wohnfläche, the German room count, the energy fields and a German description. You don't need a German template or a German-speaking member of staff, and the commission on the sale stays with your agency.