The Spekulationsfrist is the holding period after which you can sell a privately owned investment property free of capital gains tax. For a rental property in Germany, that period is ten years.
How It Works
Sell a privately held rental property before ten years are up, and the full gain is taxed at your marginal income tax rate. Sell after ten years, and the gain is generally tax-free. The clock starts at the Beurkundung — the notarial signing date of the original purchase contract — not at the handover or the Grundbuch entry.
Because of this, the precise purchase date matters enormously: nine years and ten months produces a completely different tax outcome from ten years and one day.
The Personal-Home Exception
A separate rule applies to property used as your own home: a sale is free of speculation tax if the property was used personally in the year of sale and the two preceding years. This does not apply to a property let to tenants throughout.
Key Points
- Ten years for a privately held rental property, from the notarial signing date
- Sell early and the entire gain is taxed at your marginal rate
- Life events that force an early sale do not respect the calendar — plan for a ten-year hold
- Leaving Germany does not stop the clock; Germany keeps the right to tax the eventual sale