General information on real estate cadastre

The real estate cadastre contains a state-wide and up-to-date record of all land and buildings in Hesse. Together with the land register, it guarantees the security of ownership of the land and gives it marketability and creditworthiness. Changes to the properties are continuously recorded in situ by surveying and transferred to the real estate cadastre for updating, whereby such real estate surveys are reserved for specially qualified bodies (e.g. publicly appointed surveyors, land management offices). The real estate cadastre is maintained in digital form in the Official Real Estate Cadastre Information System (ALKIS®) in accordance with a uniform nationwide standard.

In addition to its function of securing ownership, the real estate cadastre forms an essential basis for a wide range of tasks in business and administration, e.g. in the context of environmental and nature conservation, regional planning, urban land use planning, urban and rural land readjustment, legal transactions and statistics.