{"id":21451,"date":"2019-10-14T11:27:23","date_gmt":"2019-10-13T22:27:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/propertynoise.co.nz\/au\/?p=21451"},"modified":"2019-10-14T11:27:23","modified_gmt":"2019-10-13T22:27:23","slug":"americans-and-germans-are-being-fleeced-by-real-estate-agents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/propertynoise.co.nz\/au\/americans-and-germans-are-being-fleeced-by-real-estate-agents\/","title":{"rendered":"Americans and Germans Are Being Fleeced by Real Estate Agents"},"content":{"rendered":"

PHOTO: Property is theft.\u00a0Photographer: ODD ANDERSEN\/AFP<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Germans (and Americans) pay far too much commission to real estate brokers.<\/p>\n

Real estate agents aren\u2019t well liked anywhere, but Germany\u2019s really take the biscuit. Here, home-buyers often pay the commission of an agent hired by the seller and this can be as high as 7% (6% plus sales\u00a0tax) of the purchase price. Who pays and how much varies by federal state.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re buying a 500,000 euro ($551,000)\u00a0apartment in Berlin, reckon on paying an eye-watering 35,000 euros ($38,500) or so to the agent.\u00a0In Hamburg and Frankfurt, they\u2019ll have to scrape by on\u00a030,000 euros.<\/p>\n

Add in notary costs and property transfer taxes and the one-off expense of buying a home in Germany\u00a0can add up to 15% of the purchase price. Banks usually won\u2019t finance these massive upfront costs and they\u00a0harm the buyer\u2019s ability to build up wealth for retirement. With house prices soaring, even fewer people have enough savings to get on the property ladder; only about half of households own their own home in Germany. That\u2019s\u00a0among the lowest level in Europe and makes inequality worse.<\/p>\n

READ MORE VIA BLOOMBERG<\/a><\/p>\n