Brokerage activities - Permit

Would you like to broker real estate or loan agreements on a commercial basis? You need an official permit for this. This also applies if you want to manage residential properties or prepare and carry out construction projects on a commercial basis.

You require a license if you wish to offer the following on a commercial basis:

• Real estate brokerage (real estate agents),
• Brokerage of loan agreements (except real estate loans for consumers),
• Management of residential real estate (residential real estate managers) or
• Preparation or implementation of construction projects in your own name or in the name of a third party (property developer, building supervisor)

Depending on which license you apply for, you are entitled to carry out the following activities, for example

• Brokering real estate and rights equivalent to real estate, as well as brokering the sale, encumbrance, letting or leasing of real estate
• Brokerage of residential property and contracts for mortgages and land charges,
• Brokerage of commercial premises and residential premises, i.e. all types of room rentals including leases and subleases, i.e. also apartment and room brokerage.
• Brokerage of loans (except real estate financing for consumers)
• Planning or implementation of construction projects using third-party assets, for example with assets of tenants, leaseholders, other beneficiaries or persons applying for acquisition or usage rights. It makes no difference here whether you act in your own name (property developer) or whether you act on behalf of third parties (building supervisor). The following activities are possible, for example: Submitting building applications, commissioning architects and craftsmen, procuring and calling up financing, taking out insurance, calculating future rents.
• Management of rented apartments or the joint residential property of several people. You are an administrator, for example, if you
  • implement resolutions of the apartment owners and ensure that the house rules are enforced;
  • take the measures necessary for the proper maintenance and repair of the common property;
  • arrange for and receive all payments and services associated with the ongoing management of the common property;
  • manage the monies collected.

For the brokerage of real estate consumer loan agreements, you require a different, separate license under trade law.

To the magistrates in the independent cities and to the district committees in the rural districts.

You can also handle the procedure electronically via the Single Point of Contact:

• Copy of identity card or passport with registration certificate or presentation on site.
• Proof of orderly financial circumstances
  • if resident in Germany, usually:
    • Extract from the debtor register
    • Certificate from the insolvency court
    • Certificate in tax matters (from the tax office)
  • If you live abroad: documents from your home country that prove your orderly financial circumstances
• Proof of the legal form of the company:
  • for companies based in Germany: for companies entered in a register: Extract from the commercial register or the partnership register or the register of cooperatives
  • for companies domiciled abroad: documents from the country of domicile proving the legal form
• Proof of personal reliability:
  • if domiciled in Germany:
    • Certificate of good conduct for submission to an authority
    • Extract from the central trade register for submission to an authority
  • if you live abroad: documents from your country of residence that prove your personal reliability

The competent authority may request further documents to verify your personal reliability.
In the case of legal entities such as a limited liability company, you must submit the personal documents for all natural persons authorized to manage the company (e.g. identity papers) or apply for them (e.g. extract from the central trade register for submission to an authority).
For legal entities, you also need an excerpt from the central trade register for submission to an authority.
Partnerships such as a GbR, KG, OHG, PartG or GmbH & Co KG are not eligible for a license as such.
Therefore, each managing partner requires a permit. Submit a completed application form and all personal documents for each of these persons.
If you wish to work as a residential property manager, you must submit proof of the professional liability insurance required by law.

• You have the reliability required for commercial operations. As a rule, you do not have this if you have been convicted of a crime or a (legally specified) property offense within the last 5 years.
• You live in orderly financial circumstances: No insolvency proceedings have been opened against your assets or dismissed for lack of assets.
• If you wish to work as a residential property manager, you need professional liability insurance of at least EUR 500,000 for each insured event and EUR 1,000,000 for all insured events in a year.

You must have the permit before you start operating. You should therefore submit the application in good time, i.e. a few weeks before you intend to start operating.

For the activity as

• Real estate agent,
• property developer
• Building supervisor
• Residential property manager

The license is deemed to have been granted if the authority has not made a decision on your application within 3 months of receiving the complete documentation.
At the same time, you must notify the authority responsible for business registrations of the start of your activity.

Real estate agents and residential property managers, as well as their staff, are obliged to undergo regular further training in line with their activities.