Priority Notice Calculator: Calculate Auflassungsvormerkung Costs Exactly per GNotKG

The priority notice (Auflassungsvormerkung) is an entry in section II of the land register (Grundbuch) and protects you as the buyer during the delicate phase between the purchase contract and the final transfer of ownership. The legal basis is § 883 of the German Civil Code (BGB). During this period, which typically lasts two to six months, the property still belongs to the seller, but you have already paid the purchase price in full or in part.

Without the notice, the seller could in theory sell the property a second time, encumber it further, or creditors could seize it in the event of insolvency. With the notice in place, such later dispositions are ineffective against you (§ 888 BGB). Banks therefore insist that the notice is registered before they pay out the loan.

Our calculator shows you the exact fee under GNotKG fee table B that the land registry charges for registration. It is set by law, identical nationwide and non-negotiable.

Registering the priority notice in the land register costs a 0.5 fee from fee table B of the GNotKG (KV 14150). The assessment basis is the property's purchase price. The minimum fee is €15 (§ 34 (5) GNotKG).

The calculation steps in detail:

• Determine the transaction value (Geschäftswert): usually the notarized purchase price
• Look up the matching 1.0 fee from GNotKG fee table B (tiered by value brackets)
• Multiply by the factor 0.5 (half the fee for the notice)
• Apply a minimum of €15; do not add any VAT

Example calculation for a purchase price of €400,000: the 1.0 fee from table B is €785. Half the fee gives €392.50 for registering the priority notice. Other typical amounts: a purchase price of €300,000 costs €292.50, €500,000 costs €467.50, €600,000 costs €547.50. As a rule of thumb, the fee is around 0.1% of the purchase price and falls slightly in percentage terms at higher purchase prices, because table B is tiered regressively.

A note on terminology: in Germany, „Auflassungsvormerkung" is the only correct technical term. The term „Eigentumsvormerkung", common in Austria, is occasionally used as a synonym but is unusual in German land registry law.

Note: fee table B has not changed since the GNotKG came into force in August 2013. The 2025 cost-law reform (KostBRÄG) also left it untouched.

One of the most common mix-ups around the priority notice concerns who actually charges the fee. The short answer: it is a land registry fee, not a notary fee.

• Land registry (Grundbuchamt) (local court): charges the 0.5 fee under KV 14150 for the registration. As a court fee, it is therefore without 19% VAT.
• Notary (Notar): no separate fee for the notice itself. Consent is part of the notarization of the purchase contract (KV 21100, 2.0 fee). The later execution work (KV 22110, 0.5 fee) also covers, among other things, the application to the land registry.

If you want to know what the entire notarial process costs, use our notary cost calculator. It covers all GNotKG items, from notarization and execution to registering the land charge (Grundschuld).

The notice is a fixed building block in the process of buying a property. It follows a clearly regulated procedure:

1. Notarization: buyer and seller sign the purchase contract before the notary. This includes consent to the priority notice.
2. Application: the notary forwards the consent immediately to the competent land registry.
3. Registration: the land registry enters the notice in section II. Depending on workload, this takes two to six weeks, longer in major cities.
4. Payment due: only now does the notary send the notice that payment is due. The buyer pays the purchase price.
5. Transfer of ownership: after payment, the transfer tax clearance certificate (Unbedenklichkeitsbescheinigung) and other prerequisites, the buyer is registered as the new owner. At that moment the notice is cancelled automatically and free of charge.

Counting from the notary appointment, it usually takes three to six months until the transfer of ownership is completed. Throughout this period, the notice protects you without any gaps.

In practice, the buyer almost always pays for the priority notice. That is what almost every purchase contract states, because the notice secures the buyer's claim.

Legally, buyer and seller are jointly and severally liable to the land registry for land registry fees. The agreement made in the purchase contract, however, determines who ultimately bears the costs. Deviating from the buyer-pays rule is possible but unusual.

In the normal case, cancellation is free of charge. As soon as the buyer is registered as the new owner in the land register, the notice is cancelled in the same step, without any additional fee.

It is different in the case of an unwinding of the purchase contract, for example due to rescission or withdrawal. The notice then has to be cancelled on its own. For this, a flat land registry fee of €25 (KV 14143) applies, plus notary costs for the cancellation consent (a notarized declaration by the buyer).

If you want to work through this special case, enable the „Include cancellation costs" option in the calculator above.

The calculation always follows the same pattern, but in some situations a second look pays off:

• Condominium (Eigentumswohnung) (separate ownership, WEG): identical fee under KV 14150 on the purchase price. The notice is registered in the condominium land register.
• Heritable building right (Erbbaurecht): the transaction value is not the land value but the value of the heritable building right (capitalised ground rent plus building value). The 0.5 fee applies unchanged.
• Multiple buyers (married couple, GbR): no additional fee per person. The notice is registered once for the joint shares; the fee depends solely on the total purchase price.
• Market value above purchase price: if the market value is significantly above the purchase price (for example in a partial gift sale), the land registry may use the higher value (§§ 46, 47 GNotKG).
• Minimum fee: for very small purchase prices below around €2,000, the minimum fee of €15 (§ 34 (5) GNotKG) applies.

At around 0.1% of the purchase price, the priority notice is the smallest single item among the closing costs (Kaufnebenkosten). Even so, it is a mandatory part as soon as you buy a property with financing. For comparison:

• Property transfer tax (Grunderwerbsteuer): 3.5% to 6.5% depending on the federal state (largest item)
• Notary and land registry combined: 1.5% to 2.0%
• Agent commission: 2.38% to 3.57% buyer's share, often avoidable
• Priority notice (Auflassungsvormerkung): around 0.1%, part of the land registry costs

For the full calculation of your closing costs, use our closing costs calculator. It brings property transfer tax, notary, land registry and agent together in one overview, tailored to your federal state.