Planning

Bau-Turbo Germany: section 246e BauGB for plot buyers

Since 30 Oct 2025 German towns may approve housing that departs from the development plan, if they consent. Real cases, 2026 town rules, the maths.

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Since 30 October 2025 the German Federal Building Code has a provision that estate agents like to quote in listings: section 246e BauGB, nicknamed the "Bau-Turbo" (Federal Law Gazette 2025 I no. 257). It allows housing projects to depart from planning law, including the local development plan (Bebauungsplan), without the town first having to change the plan. A plot where the plan allows one detached house of one storey could, in principle, take a small block of flats.

In principle. The Bau-Turbo works only with the town's consent, and there is no legal right to that consent; the municipality of Karlsbad says so in plain words in its council paper. How differently councils use their discretion shows in a single town near Stuttgart. In Grafenau (Böblingen district), the council unanimously approved a block of flats on an empty plot on Maichinger Straße in the village of Döffingen, although it departs from the development plan; it was the town's first Bau-Turbo case. For a building with five flats and an underground car park in the neighbouring village of Dätzingen, the same council demanded changes to the design and refused a dormer window. The local paper's headline: "The Bau-Turbo reaches its limits in Grafenau".

For a buyer, then, the Bau-Turbo is an opportunity, not a building right. This guide explains the procedure, uses real cases and 2026 town guidelines to show what councils ask for, works through the numbers on a plot, and covers what to do if the answer is no. It is written for buyers who do not read German planning documents every day, including investors from abroad. It is an overview, not legal advice.

Key terms

Key terms
German term Meaning
Bebauungsplan (B-Plan) Legally binding local development plan: use, density, storeys, building envelope
GRZ (Grundflächenzahl) Site coverage ratio: share of the plot that buildings may cover
GFZ (Geschossflächenzahl) Floor area ratio: total floor area on all full storeys divided by plot area
Vollgeschoss A "full storey" as defined by state law; plans cap their number
Zustimmung der Gemeinde The town's consent, required for any Bau-Turbo departure
Bauvoranfrage / Vorbescheid Pre-application and the binding preliminary decision that answers it
Leitlinien The town's guidelines on when it will consent
Bodenrichtwert Official standard land value per m², published by the local valuation committee
Key terms

Source: Figures from this guide, documented under “Sources”

What section 246e allows

The provision allows departures from planning law for housing: building, extending, altering or renewing residential buildings, and changing other uses into housing. The departure must be compatible with public interests, taking neighbours' interests into account. The decision must be taken by 31 December 2030; that deadline concerns when the rule can be used, not how long a permit stays valid, as the town of Friedberg's FAQ explains. For environmental matters the provision refers to a summary check against the criteria in Annex 2 of the BauGB itself.

According to the Bavarian building ministry's FAQ, a residential storey can be added to a mixed-use building, but a new mixed-use building is not covered. The building has to be for people to live in permanently. If the Bau-Turbo is used, it applies to the whole project, not only to the part that departs from the plan.

The same act also widened two smaller tools: exemptions from a development plan in favour of housing (section 31(3) BauGB) and departures from the "fit in with the surroundings" test in built-up areas without a plan (section 34(3b) BauGB). Both also need the town's consent under section 36a. Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania's implementing decree for the 2025 amendment deals with all three together. Their conditions are not identical, so ask the planning office at the first meeting which one it intends to apply, before you base a price on a number of flats.

What it does not change: state building regulations (setbacks, fire safety, parking), nature, flood and monument protection, and private easements and public-law encumbrances (Baulasten) all still apply. A plot in a designated flood area or a landscape protection area does not become more buildable because of section 246e. In the countryside the provision covers only projects next to areas with a development plan or existing built-up areas; an isolated farm usually does not qualify, according to the federal building ministry's FAQ. For farm buildings, see our guide on building in the outer area.

The procedure

  1. Building application to the building authority (district office or town, depending on the state), asking for the departure.
  2. Town consent under section 36a BauGB, needed even where the town is itself the building authority.
  3. Deemed consent: if the town does not refuse within three months, consent is deemed given; a voluntary public consultation extends the period.
  4. Building permit, if state building regulations are also met. Brandenburg's infrastructure ministry stresses in its FAQ that consent is one precondition and does not replace the permit.

The town should consent if the project fits its ideas for urban development. It can attach conditions, such as a share of subsidised homes or design quality, and can make an urban development contract (städtebaulicher Vertrag) a condition (section 36a(1) sentence 3, as Planegg's guideline puts it). Its discretion is wide but bound by equal treatment, a point the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania state government also makes in its Bau-Turbo presentation.

Who decides inside the town varies. Cologne's council adopted a policy resolution on 19 March 2026 and delegated most consent decisions to the administration. In Hattingen, a committee decides simple cases. Karlsruhe's administration has proposed handing the decision to the mayor. Erzhausen (Hesse) requires a council vote on every case. In small towns such as Grafenau or Herbolzheim, cases go through public council or committee meetings, and the local paper reports them with the street name. Your neighbours will hear about your plans early; talk to them before the meeting, not after.

Timing. Karlsbad warns that an application filed before the town has adopted its principles may first be refused because of the three-month deadline: a council that has not decided its policy tends to refuse rather than let consent be deemed. Before buying on Bau-Turbo hopes, check whether the town has guidelines yet.

A real case: Herbolzheim, Hohestraße 4

Herbolzheim, a small town in the Emmendingen district of Baden-Württemberg, shows how much the Bau-Turbo can change for one plot. A pre-application for a block of flats with an underground car park at Hohestraße 4 went to the building committee twice in 2025 and was refused. In January 2026 it came back, this time citing the Bau-Turbo, and received a positive answer subject to three conditions (Badische Zeitung, 30 January 2026). In February 2026 the same paper reported that the committee had approved several infill projects, including this one. If you buy a comparable plot, ask the town for the resolution with the full wording of its conditions.

What a buyer takes from this:

  1. A refusal from before October 2025 is not final. Ask the seller about earlier pre-applications and decisions; they are in the building file (Bauakte), which you can inspect with the seller's written authority.
  2. The pre-application is the right instrument. Herbolzheim answered the question in a preliminary decision, before anyone paid for full permit drawings. A preliminary decision binds the authority on the question it answers: for three years in Baden-Württemberg (section 57(1) of its building code), four years in Bavaria (Art. 71 BayBO). Other states set their own period.
  3. Consent comes with conditions. A price that assumes the project without conditions is too high.

What towns ask for: 2026 guidelines

What towns ask for: 2026 guidelines
Town (state) Decision What is known
Schwieberdingen (Baden-Württemberg) guidelines, May 2026 12+ new homes: at least 2 let as subsidised housing
Brunswick (Lower Saxony) council paper 2026 30% subsidised housing above 24 homes
Ritterhude (Lower Saxony) guidelines 2026 consent only if at least one new home is created; not for replacing or extending existing homes
Cologne (North Rhine-Westphalia) council, 19.3.2026 policy resolution; most decisions delegated to the administration
Bonn (North Rhine-Westphalia) council, 15.6.2026 binding rules; town cites need for about 1,600 new homes a year
Friedberg (Hesse) 12.3.2026, amended 23.6.2026 "hard" and "soft" criteria; FAQ of 13.1.2026
Bad Kreuznach (Rhineland-Palatinate) council, 25.6.2026 eight-page guidelines
Wedel (Schleswig-Holstein) draft, early 2026 30% of approved floor area subsidised (draft)
What towns ask for: 2026 guidelines

Source: Figures from this guide, documented under “Sources”

The thresholds bite differently. In Schwieberdingen, 2 of 12 homes is just under 17%, and an eleven-home project triggers nothing. In Brunswick a 24-home project is free of the quota, while a 25-home project must provide about 30%, which is 7.5 homes and in practice 8. A 30% floor-area quota as in Wedel's draft means 270 m² of subsidised housing in a 900 m² scheme. If your business plan sits just above a threshold, run it just below as well.

Finding the guidelines: search the town website for "Bauturbo" and "Bau-Turbo" (both spellings are common), then the council information system (Ratsinformationssystem, often called SessionNet, ALLRIS or sitzung-online) for "246e". Individual cases with street names appear there too. If nothing turns up, call the planning office (Stadtplanungsamt or Bauamt) and ask whether a policy is in preparation and who decides.

The maths: what a plot may be worth under the Bau-Turbo

An example with assumed figures, to show the logic. A 650 m² residential plot; the development plan sets a site coverage ratio of 0.3, a floor area ratio of 0.5, one full storey and detached houses.

  • Floor area allowed by the plan: 650 m² × 0.5 = 325 m². That is one generous house, or a house with a granny flat.
  • A Bau-Turbo project: three storeys on 0.35 of the plot, 650 × 0.35 = 227.5 m² × 3 = 682.5 m² floor area. With a usual ratio of living space to gross floor area of about 0.75, that leaves around 512 m² of living space, or about eight flats of 64 m².
  • Eight flats sit below the Schwieberdingen (12) and Brunswick (above 24) thresholds. A Wedel-style 30% floor-area quota would tie up about 154 m².

Now the price. Assume a standard land value of €500/m², so the plot is worth about 650 × 500 = €325,000 under the current plan. If the seller asks 20% more because "Bau-Turbo possible", €390,000, you pay €65,000 for a consent that does not exist yet. Real estate transfer tax (Grunderwerbsteuer) is charged on that premium too: 3.5% in Bavaria up to 6.5% in Brandenburg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Saarland and Schleswig-Holstein, so €2,275–4,225 on €65,000.

The standard land value reflects current planning law. Extra homes justify a higher price only once the town has consented, ideally in a preliminary decision. See land value and Bodenrichtwert.

Order of work for a buyer

  1. Read the development plan: use, density, building envelope, storeys, and any cap on homes per building. See zoning and buildability.
  2. Find the town's guidelines: quotas, minimum sizes, cost contributions, excluded areas, who decides.
  3. Inspect the building file with the seller's authority, for earlier pre-applications.
  4. Pre-meeting with the planning office, with a sketch. Bring a German-speaking architect; the meeting is informal but conducted in German, and only an architect entitled to submit plans in that state (bauvorlageberechtigt) can sign the application.
  5. Pre-application, ideally filed by the seller before the sale or with the seller's consent. See permits and pre-applications.
  6. Notarial contract only after a positive preliminary decision, or with a right to withdraw if the town refuses consent. German notarial contracts are binding on signing; there is no cooling-off period. Agree a deadline for the decision and who pays for the pre-application.
  7. Neighbours: their interests must be weighed. Expect objections to flats next to detached houses; in Dätzingen the council struck out a dormer.

If you are an investor from abroad

  • The contract binds you, not the plot. Subsidised-housing conditions come with rent caps and tenant-selection rules over a binding period, set in an urban development contract that you sign. Read it before you price the deal, and check whether it passes to a later buyer of the finished building.
  • Financing. German banks lend against the current planning position. A loan that assumes eight flats usually needs at least the preliminary decision. Bring that sequence into your timeline.
  • Language and documents. Council papers, minutes and the decision itself are in German only. Budget for a translation of the decision and of the urban development contract.
  • Company buyers. If you buy through a company, the town's guidelines apply in the same way; there is no special treatment for foreign or corporate applicants.

If the town says no

  • Read the reasons. If the town refuses consent, the building authority must reject the application. The reasons tell you what is missing: an excluded area, too many storeys, no subsidised homes.
  • Adjust the project. Fewer homes to stay below a quota threshold, one storey less, parking underground. In Dätzingen, Grafenau did not reject the building outright; it asked for changes.
  • Try the smaller tool: an exemption under section 31(3) or a departure under section 34(3b), if the project departs from the plan in one point only.
  • Suggest a plan change. For larger sites the town can adopt a project-specific development plan; slower, but it creates a building right.
  • Withdraw. If you bought with the clause from step 6, use it. Without it, the risk is yours.

The GrundCheck report shows the development plan, standard land value, protected and flood areas and a dated aerial photo for your parcel, each with its source: €29 in one language, €39 in English and German. It shows what is planned today; only the town can say whether it will consent to more. Select the plot on the map → · See a sample report

To prepare for the planning office meeting, the plan page of the report with its stipulations and source is often enough, and an architect abroad can work from it before travelling. Order the report for this plot → · See a sample report

Sources

Common questions

Can I rely on an agent's statement that the Bau-Turbo applies?

No. Only the town's consent, ideally in a preliminary decision, settles it. Ask the agent for the town's guidelines and any earlier decisions on the plot.

Does the Bau-Turbo help with holiday lets?

It covers housing for permanent residence. Whether a town consents to flats used as holiday lets depends on its guidelines and local rules on short-term letting; ask before you plan on it.

A previous owner was refused in 2024. Is it worth trying again?

It is worth checking. Herbolzheim gave a positive answer in January 2026, citing the Bau-Turbo, to a block of flats refused in 2025.

What happens after 2030?

The departure decision must be made by 31 December 2030. A permit granted by then remains valid under the normal rules on permit duration.

Does it help with offices or shops?

No. It is limited to housing; adding a residential storey to a mixed-use building is covered, building a new mixed-use one is not.

Keep reading

Planning

Can you build on land in Germany? Bebauungsplan checks

Permits

Building permits in Brandenburg: the four procedures

Value and price

Bauerwartungsland: when farmland may be built

Check this on your own property

The GrundCheck report organises public sources, visible risks and open professional questions for the parcel you confirm.

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Limits of this service

This service provides an automated pre-purchase check only. It does not establish ownership, title, buildability, construction permissions or service connections. It does not replace legal advice, a survey, advice from a surveyor or engineer, or tax or investment advice. Coverage is available across Germany, with data differences between state services.