Property Tax Calculator 2025/2026: Calculate Germany's New Grundsteuer

The reform was triggered by a ruling of the Federal Constitutional Court on 10 April 2018. The old assessed values from 1964 and 1935 were unconstitutional because they no longer reflected actual values. Property tax was then reorganised from the ground up. The main valuation took place as of 1 January 2022, and the new property tax has applied since 1 January 2025.

The basic principle is the same across the country and works in three stages: a tax base amount (Grundsteuermessbetrag) is derived from value or area, the municipality applies its multiplier (Hebesatz) to it, and that gives the property tax due. Many bills changed sharply for two reasons: the full revaluation and the new multipliers that many municipalities set at the start, often revenue-neutral.

The law distinguishes Grundsteuer A for agricultural and forestry land, Grundsteuer B for developed and developable plots, and an optional Grundsteuer C that lets individual municipalities tax building-ready vacant plots more heavily. This calculator covers Grundsteuer B for plots used mainly for residential purposes. The models and assessment figures are as of 2025/2026; the multipliers can change every year.

Eleven states use the federal model: Berlin, Brandenburg, Bremen, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saxony-Anhalt, Schleswig-Holstein and Thuringia, plus Saarland and Saxony, which run the federal model with their own assessment figures.

Five states used the opt-out clause and adopted their own models: Bavaria (area model), Baden-Württemberg (modified land-value model), Hamburg (residential-location model), Lower Saxony (area-location model) and Hesse (area-factor model). The core difference is whether value or area counts. The federal model and Baden-Württemberg are purely value-based. Bavaria is the only purely area-based and truly location-independent model. Hamburg, Lower Saxony and Hesse also work from area but additionally weight the location: Hamburg through the residential location, Lower Saxony and Hesse through a location factor derived from the land value.

You do not need to memorise this. Just click your federal state on the map above. The calculator switches to the right model automatically and shows exactly the fields you need.

The federal-model formula is: assessed value × assessment figure × multiplier = property tax. The assessment figure is 0.31 per mille for residential use (detached and semi-detached houses, residential rental plots, condominium ownership) and 0.34 per mille for commercial, mixed-use and other plots. Saarland and Saxony use their own figures: Saxony charges 0.36 per mille for residential and 0.72 per mille for commercial use (vacant plots stay at 0.36 per mille), and Saarland 0.34 per mille for residential and 0.64 per mille for vacant, mixed-use and commercial plots.

The tax office determines the assessed value via the income approach from land value, area, living space, year of construction and a statistical net cold rent. You get the most accurate result by taking this value straight from your value notice. An example: €300,000 assessed value × 0.31 per mille gives a €93 base amount. At a 500% multiplier that is €465 per year, or about €38.75 per month.

In Bavaria, location and land value play no role. Only the plot size and the living or usable area count. Bavaria is therefore the only pure area model. The calculation uses equivalent figures: €0.04/m² for land and €0.50/m² for the building area.

The assessment figure applies in full (100%) to the land equivalent amount and at 70% to the living area, a discount of 30%. An example: 600 m² of land gives €24, 160 m² of living area gives €80, of which 70% is €56. That adds up to an €80 base amount. At a 400% multiplier that is €320 per year.

Baden-Württemberg values plots solely via plot size × land value. That gives the assessed value, rounded down to full €100. Buildings and living space are left out. The assessment figure is 1.3 per mille and drops by 30% to 0.91 per mille for mainly residential use.

The consequence is clear: a large plot in a good location leads to a higher property tax regardless of the building. An example: 500 m² × €300/m² gives a €150,000 assessed value, × 0.91 per mille is a €136.50 base amount. At a 400% multiplier that is €546 per year.

These three states work from area but factor in the location. Hamburg uses the equivalent figures €0.04 and €0.50/m² and a living-area assessment figure of 70%. In a normal residential location a further 25% discount applies, so the figure drops to an effective 52.5%. In a good location it stays at 70%.

Lower Saxony calculates like the area model but multiplies both equivalent amounts by a location factor: land value divided by the average land value of the municipality, to the power of 0.3. This factor is rounded down to two decimals (§ 5 Abs. 1 NGrStG), and the base amount to whole cents.

Hesse uses the same area logic and the same factor (to the power of 0.3, also rounded down to two decimals), but applies it to the base before the factor, that is, the base amount before the factor (§ 7 HGrStG). The tax base amount in Hesse is rounded down to whole euros. Hesse and Lower Saxony provide the average land value of the municipality. Without it, only a rough estimate is possible.

The assessed value (Grundsteuerwert) is the value the tax office sets for your plot. It is stated in the value notice and rounded down to full €100 (§ 230 BewG). The tax base amount (Grundsteuermessbetrag) results from assessed value × assessment figure, or from the sum of the equivalent base amounts, and is stated in the base-amount notice. The rounding differs by state: commercial rounding in the federal model and in Bavaria, Hamburg and Baden-Württemberg, rounding down to whole cents in Lower Saxony and to whole euros in Hesse.

The multiplier (Hebesatz) is set by each municipality (§ 25 GrStG) and largely decides how high the tax is. Many municipalities reset it after the reform. You find it on your municipality's property-tax bill or online on its website.

Anyone buying a property should know the one-off costs as well as the ongoing property tax. You work out the total closing costs with the closing-costs calculator, the tax on acquisition separately with the property transfer tax calculator and the notarisation with the notary fees calculator. You estimate the market value of your property with the property valuation calculator.

Property tax is an allocable operating cost under the German operating-costs regulation. As a landlord you can pass it on to your tenants via the service-charge statement if the lease provides for it. For rented properties it is also deductible as an income-related expense. If you live in the property yourself, you bear the property tax in full and cannot deduct it.

Property tax usually falls due quarterly on 15 February, 15 May, 15 August and 15 November, or annually on 1 July on request. As an ongoing, allocable operating-cost item, it belongs in every landlord's cash-flow calculation. To see how property tax, together with interest, repayment and maintenance, affects your monthly surplus, use the cash flow calculator. One distinction matters: property tax is an ongoing tax, whereas property transfer tax is paid only once at purchase.

Telling the notices apart matters. The tax office issues the value notice and the base-amount notice; the municipality issues the actual property-tax bill. An appeal is possible within one month of notification, namely against the underlying notice with value and base amount, not only against the municipal bill, which builds on those underlying notices.

Typical sources of error are a wrong plot or living area, an incorrect year of construction or a land value set too high. Check these figures first. Test cases and constitutional questions are running on individual points of the federal model. This calculator provides guidance and does not replace legal advice. If you are thinking about selling anyway, also check whether capital gains tax applies within ten years.

The result is guidance, not tax advice. Only the notices from the tax office and the municipality are binding. In the federal model the assessed value is taken from the notice; the tax office's statistical income-approach valuation with net cold rent, rent-level tier and remaining useful life is not fully reproduced.

For the state models, the calculator covers the typical standard cases of plots used mainly for residential purposes. Special cases and reductions, for example for listed buildings or subsidised housing, are only partly included. The assessment figures and models are as of 2025/2026. Multipliers change, and Saarland and Saxony use the federal model with adjusted assessment figures.