Update Notice (as of 2026):
This article was first published in 2013. The basic regulations governing protection against eviction following the conversion of rental units into condominiums remain in effect. According to Section 577a of the German Civil Code (BGB), the restriction period is generally three years and may be extended by the federal states to up to ten years in areas with a tight housing market. However, some regional regulations have changed since the article was first published. For example, Berlin now has a uniform ten-year restriction period for the entire city, while the distinction by district described earlier no longer applies.
Waiting Period for Termination for Personal Use Following the Conversion of a Residential Unit
If a rental apartment is converted into a condominium and subsequently sold, the tenant is afforded special protection. The legislature has established a general three-year protection against eviction, colloquially known as the “restriction period.” According to Section 577a of the German Civil Code (BGB), the owner may not evict the tenant on the grounds of personal need during the three years following the conversion if the tenant was already living in the apartment at the time of the conversion. In municipalities where the demand for rental housing is particularly high, this “waiting period for personal use” may even be extended to up to ten years. It is up to the federal states to determine which municipalities are affected and how long the extended period should be.
Three or Seven Years of Tenant Protection in Berlin
However, the states exercise this right in quite different ways. For example, in Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt, the waiting period is three years everywhere, while North Rhine-Westphalia has established longer waiting periods for a total of 37 municipalities. The maximum ten-year waiting period for personal use applies in the urban areas of Hamburg and Munich. In Berlin, the situation is somewhat more complicated: A Senate ordinance in effect since September 2011 stipulates that in six Berlin districts, tenants are protected from eviction for seven years if their apartment is converted into a condominium and sold. This extended protection period applies in Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, Mitte, Pankow, Steglitz-Zehlendorf, and Tempelhof-Schöneberg. In the other six districts, however, the protection period is only three years.
The lock-up period for personal use begins on the date of the first sale
Regardless of the length of the lock-in period, it begins on the date the rental apartment is converted into a condominium and sold. If the apartment is sold again during the lock-in period, the lock-in period is not extended. There is no lock-in period at all; only the statutory notice periods apply if the tenant moved into the apartment only after it was converted into a condominium.
