What it costs to sell a home

Selling costs are national, so nobody publishes them side by side. Below: Germany and Poland — every market where we hold complete, sourced facts. The commission, which side actually pays it, and what the law requires either way.

Every figure here is a market norm or a statutory rule, with its source named. Where we do not hold a verified fact, the country is listed as missing rather than estimated.

Full, sourced facts

Country	Total commission	Who pays	What a private seller avoids
Germany	5.95%–7.14% incl. VAT	50 / 50 § 656c BGB (since Dec 2020)	3.57%
Poland	2%–3% plus VAT	—	3.08% (net rate plus 23% VAT)

Germany

A private seller saves only their own half (~3.57%), NOT the full total. The buyer separately saves their half.

Typically 7.14% incl. VAT; ~6.25% in Hamburg; ~5.95% in Bremen, Hesse and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

The brokerage contract requires text form (§ 656a BGB); an oral commission agreement is void.

On an illustrative round figure

An arbitrary round number used only to show the arithmetic. It is not a suggestion about any property and not a valuation.
€400,000 → €14,280 (3.57%)

What the law requires

A property purchase contract is void without notarial certification (§ 311b(1) BGB); the transfer of ownership (Auflassung) must also be declared before the notary (§ 925 BGB). The notary is legally mandatory — an agent is not.
The notary drafts the contract, checks the land register, secures the buyer with a priority notice, handles the discharge of old mortgages and files the registration. Fees are fixed by law (GNotKG), about 1.5–2% of the price together with land-register fees, and are usually paid by the buyer.
An energy performance certificate must be shown at the viewing and handed over at the contract, and key figures must already appear in the listing (§ 87 GEG). Violations can be fined (§ 108 GEG).
Transfer tax (Grunderwerbsteuer) of 3.5%–6.5% depending on the federal state is paid by the buyer.

Poland

Usually the seller pays the whole commission, so the seller's saving is the full gross amount (net rate + 23% VAT).

Rates are unregulated since the 2014 deregulation and are negotiable; who pays depends on the brokerage contract.

On an illustrative round figure

An arbitrary round number used only to show the arithmetic. It is not a suggestion about any property and not a valuation.
PLN 400,000 → PLN 12,300 (3.08%)

What the law requires

A contract transferring ownership of real estate requires the form of a notarial act, on pain of nullity (art. 158 Kodeks cywilny). The notary is legally mandatory — an agent is not.
The notary checks the land and mortgage register, verifies identity and title, drafts and reads the act, collects and remits the PCC tax and court fees, and files the application to register the new owner.
PCC transaction tax is 2% of the price on the secondary market and is paid by the buyer; registration of ownership in the land register costs 200 zł.
Maximum notary tariff rates are set by regulation and are halved for residential premises; the tariff is negotiable within that maximum.
Since 28 April 2023 the seller must hand the buyer an energy performance certificate at the sale contract.

Exemption: art. 9 pkt 17 of the Polish PCC act

Exempt from the tax: … 17) a sale whose subject is the ownership of a residential unit constituting a separate property, the ownership of a single-family residential building, or a cooperative ownership right to a residential unit or to a single-family house, if the buyer is a natural person or natural persons who, on the day of the sale and before it, held none of these rights and no share in them, unless that share does not or did not exceed 50% and was acquired by inheritance. (Our translation; the Polish original follows.)

Art. 9. Zwalnia się od podatku następujące czynności cywilnoprawne: … 17) sprzedaż, której przedmiotem jest prawo własności lokalu mieszkalnego stanowiącego odrębną nieruchomość, prawo własności budynku mieszkalnego jednorodzinnego, spółdzielcze własnościowe prawo do lokalu dotyczące lokalu mieszkalnego albo domu jednorodzinnego, jeżeli kupującym jest osoba fizyczna lub osoby fizyczne, którym w dniu sprzedaży i przed tym dniem nie przysługiwało żadne z tych praw ani udział w tych prawach, chyba że udział ten nie przekracza lub nie przekraczał 50 % i został nabyty w drodze dziedziczenia.
art. 9 pkt 17 ustawy z dnia 9 września 2000 r. o podatku od czynności cywilnoprawnych (Dz.U. 2026 poz. 191)

Commission only — no legal facts held

Ranges we hold for orientation. These have NO statutory detail behind them in our data and no citation, so they are shown separately rather than mixed into the table above.

Country	Total commission	Who pays
United Kingdom	1.4%	seller
Netherlands	1%–1.5%	each side pays its own agent
United States	5%–6%	seller, historically covering both sides
United Arab Emirates	2%	buyer, on resale

Countries we deliberately do not cover here

We publish official price statistics for these markets but hold no verified commission or legal facts for them. Rather than estimate, they are named: United States, United Kingdom, Spain.

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