Convert a barn to a house in Germany: the rules

A former farmstead (Resthof) with a brick barn, a few hectares and no neighbours is one of the classic purchases of buyers from the Netherlands, the UK and Scandinavia in rural Germany. The barn is usually the reason for the price: it could become two, three or five homes. Whether it can depends on one provision of the Federal Building Code, section 35(4) sentence 1 no. 1 BauGB, and on how your federal state applies it.

A 2026 case shows that the rule has teeth on both sides. A market town in Lower Franconia (Bavaria) tried to stop a former full-time farmstead from being converted into a house. It refused its consent; the district office (Landratsamt) replaced that consent and granted the permit. The town sued and lost at the Würzburg Administrative Court (decision of 2 September 2025, W 4 K 24.591), and on 10 June 2026 the Bavarian Higher Administrative Court refused leave to appeal (9 ZB 25.1939). Access, firefighting water, the owner's undertaking and whether the conversion was uneconomic were all argued.

So the conversion is not a favour the town grants; under the conditions it is a right. But the conditions are checked in detail. This guide takes them one by one. For the general rules on building in the countryside, see our guide on the outer area. It does not replace a formal pre-application, which is what you should get before buying.

Key terms

Key terms

German	Meaning
Außenbereich	land outside built-up areas and outside development plans: the countryside
Resthof	farmstead whose farming has stopped or shrunk; the land is often sold separately
Hofstelle	the farmyard with its buildings
Teilprivilegierung	"partial privilege": certain planning objections cannot be raised against the project
Einvernehmen	the town's consent to a permit in the outer area
Bauvoranfrage / Vorbescheid	pre-application / binding preliminary decision
Landratsamt / Kreisverwaltung	district office, usually the building authority in rural areas

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

Why barns need a special rule

In the countryside, new houses are not privileged. A house as an "other project" under section 35(2) almost always fails because it conflicts with public interests: it contradicts the land-use plan, harms the natural character of the landscape, or creates or consolidates scattered settlement.

Section 35(4) no. 1 takes exactly these three objections off the table for the change of use of a building that served a farm: conflict with the land-use plan or a landscape plan, harm to the natural character of the landscape, and the risk of scattered settlement arising, consolidating or spreading. The project stays an "other project", but those particular objections cannot be raised against it. Others can: nature protection, flooding, or the cost to the town of roads and utilities.

The seven conditions

All of them must be met.

1. Worth keeping. The building must be sound enough to be sensibly reused. A collapsing field barn is not; a solid stone stable is.
2. The outside stays essentially the same. Inside you can change a lot; outside, little. The Würzburg administrative court (judgment of 11 October 2024, BeckRS 2024, 35321) held that a substantial change of external dimensions or volume is not allowed and that substantial parts of the walls and roof must remain. The Munich administrative court (judgment of 27 February 2024, BeckRS 2024, 6542) refused a conversion because new dormers increased the volume and gave the building the character of a new build. For a buyer this is the condition that most often clashes with the plans: big glazed openings and roof dormers are exactly what changes the "external appearance".
3. Farming use ended no more than seven years ago. See the state table below.
4. The building was lawfully built more than seven years ago. No unauthorised buildings, and nothing built less than seven years ago.
5. Spatial and functional link to the farmyard. The barn must belong to the Hofstelle, not stand alone in a field.
6. No more than five homes per farmstead for residential use, on top of those the farm was already allowed. Older guides say three; the Building Land Mobilisation Act raised it to five in 2021.
7. An undertaking not to build replacements for the abandoned farm use, unless needed for the farm's development. The authority usually requires this as a written undertaking, often secured by a Baulast (entered by the building authority in its register for an administrative fee) or, in Bavaria, by an easement registered through a notary. It was one of the disputed points in the Franconian case.

Commercial livestock buildings permitted under section 35(1) no. 4 rather than no. 1 do not qualify, according to Bavaria's implementation guidance.

The seven-year rule by state

Farmsteads often stand empty for years, so condition 3 is the number that matters most. States may switch it off (section 245b(2) BauGB).

State	Seven-year rule on end of farm use	Basis
Bavaria	does not apply	art. 82(6) Bavarian Building Code, applied by Würzburg court 11.10.2024
North Rhine-Westphalia	does not apply to farmyard buildings	NRW act implementing the BauGB
Baden-Württemberg	does not apply	section 1 of the state act implementing the BauGB of 23.6.2009 (GBl. p. 251), no expiry date
other states	applies unless the state has opted out	ask the district building authority whether a state rule under section 245b(2) BauGB exists

Worked example: the last farmer stopped dairy farming in spring 2018; you want to convert in 2026. In Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg and North Rhine-Westphalia (for farmyard buildings) the date does not matter. In a state without an exemption, eight years have passed, condition 3 fails, the partial privilege is lost, and the project will usually fail on the objections that are no longer excluded.

When farming "ended" is itself often disputed. Ask the seller for evidence: deregistration of the farm, last subsidy applications, lease contracts for the fields.

What the town can and cannot do

The building authority decides on outer-area projects with the town's consent (section 36 BauGB). The town may refuse consent only on grounds under section 35. If it refuses unlawfully, the authority designated by state law can replace its consent (section 36(2) sentence 3 BauGB; in Bavaria art. 67 of the Building Code, after hearing the town). That is what happened in Franconia, and the courts upheld the permit. You cannot demand the replacement as of right; it only happens where the refusal really was unlawful.

A hostile mayor is a warning sign, not the end. But disputes take time: in the Franconian case more than nine months passed between the first-instance decision and the higher court's order alone.

Practical hurdles the privilege does not remove

• Access: a farm track fit for tractors is not necessarily secured access for five households; see our guide on access and infrastructure.
• Firefighting water: residential use needs a water supply for the fire brigade that an isolated farm often lacks. District guidance notes based on the DVGW technical rule W 405 require the water to be available from sources within 300 m of the building; Gütersloh district accepts a hose run of about 450 m as an exception. The same note calculates a tank that only bridges the time needed to lay hoses: 20 minutes × 800 litres a minute = 16 m³. The Bavarian fire brigade association notes (2023) that for outer-area projects the supply can in exceptional cases be left to the builder, meaning you pay. How much water your building needs is for the district fire safety office to say. A tank takes money and space; ask before you buy.
• Sewage: without a sewer connection, a small treatment plant with a water-law permit.
• Uneconomic costs to the town: if the town would have to build roads or mains for you, that objection remains open.

The maths: how many homes fit in the barn?

An example with assumed dimensions. A farmstead with the old farmhouse (one home, permitted as part of the farm) and a barn of 18 × 12 m.

• Barn footprint: 18 × 12 = 216 m².
• Ground floor plus a converted upper floor under the existing roof: 2 × 216 = 432 m² gross. After walls, stairs and services, at a factor of about 0.75, roughly 324 m² of living space.
• At 80 m² per home that is four homes, at 65 m² almost five. The cap of five additional homes per farmstead is reached; a second outbuilding could not take more.
• For light upstairs, plan roof windows rather than dormers: dormers add volume, which the Munich court held in 2024 broke the appearance condition.

This is also where the price comes from. Four or five homes in the countryside, where no new house could be built, are why farmsteads with large barns cost more than those with small sheds. Pay that premium only once the preliminary decision confirms it; real estate transfer tax (3.5% in Bavaria up to 6.5% in Brandenburg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Saarland and Schleswig-Holstein) is charged on the whole price.

Converting a second time. It used to be disputed whether a building could be converted under this rule more than once. In a 2024 case at the Gelsenkirchen administrative court, the authority accepted that after the 2021 amendment repeated changes of use can be allowed and indicated partial privilege for the existing flats, provided the outside volume stays unchanged (judgment on acknowledgment of 5.11.2024, 6 K 1649/22). A barn already turned into a store or workshop is therefore not automatically lost, though this was one authority's concession, not a leading judgment.

The 2025 "Bau-Turbo" (section 246e BauGB, in force since 30 October 2025) lets towns approve housing that departs from planning law until the end of 2030, but in the outer area only next to development-plan areas or built-up areas. An isolated farm usually does not qualify, as the federal building ministry's FAQ explains.

Before buying: the pre-application

Do not buy a farmstead whose value lies in conversion potential without a written answer from the authority. A pre-application (Bauvoranfrage) produces a binding decision on specific questions: does the partial privilege apply, how many homes, are the planned dormers still "essentially" the old appearance? See our guide on permits and pre-applications.

Until you have it, either do not sign the notarial contract or make sure it gives you a right to withdraw if the answer is negative. German notarial contracts are binding from signing, and there is no cooling-off period. If the building is listed, monument consent is needed too and freedom over windows and roofs shrinks: see monuments and archaeology.

If you are buying from abroad: the pre-application must be filed in German, with drawings by a qualified German architect or engineer (bauvorlageberechtigt). Budget for that before you commit, and see our guide on buying from abroad.

Where to check what

Where to check what

Question	Where	Who
Outer area? What does the land-use plan show?	state geoportal (e.g. BayernAtlas), land-use plan on the town site	you, online
When and for what were the buildings permitted?	building file at the district building authority	with the seller's written authority
When did farming end?	deregistration with the animal disease fund, subsidy applications, leases	seller
Public-law obligations or easements?	Baulastenverzeichnis (not in Bavaria), land register section II	authority, land registry, notary
Firefighting water, sewage, access	district fire safety office, water authority, town	architect at the pre-meeting
Is the conversion allowed?	pre-application	architect; decided by the authority

Source: See a sample report

The first row, outer-area location and land-use plan designation, plus protected and flood areas, is what the GrundCheck report gives you for the farmstead, with source and date, before you pay an architect. Order the report for €29 → · See a sample report

If the preliminary decision is negative

• Read the reasons. If it fails on appearance, the design can often change: no dormers, windows in existing openings. If it fails on the seven-year rule or on the building never having been permitted, no redesign helps.
• Consider another use. The rule covers a change of use, not only housing. Storage, a workshop or an office in the old stable may be allowed where flats are not.
• Fewer homes. If access or water is the problem, two homes are sometimes approved where five are not.
• Renegotiate or walk away if your contract has a withdrawal right. Without conversion, the barn is an outbuilding with upkeep costs.
• Challenge it. Depending on the state, an objection (Widerspruch) or a court action is available; the deadline is in the notice. The Franconian case shows courts examine every condition closely, in both directions.

Checklist

1. Original permit for the barn or stable and proof it served the farm.
2. Date farming ended, with evidence; your state's seven-year rule.
3. Condition of the building, ideally with a survey.
4. Sketch of external changes, discussed with the authority.
5. Number of homes already on the farmstead.
6. Access, firefighting water, sewage.
7. Protected areas, flood zones, monument status.
8. Pre-application before signing, or a withdrawal right in the contract.

Parcel, outer-area location, land-use plan, protected and flood areas and a dated aerial photo for your farmstead are in the GrundCheck report, each with its source: €29 in one language, €39 in English and German. Whether the barn can be converted is for the building authority. Select the plot on the map → · See a sample report

Sources

• Federal Building Code, sections 35, 36, 245b, 246e, gesetze-im-internet.de, accessed via search engine 1.11.2026.
• Bavarian Higher Administrative Court, order of 10.6.2026, 9 ZB 25.1939 (lower court: Würzburg Administrative Court, 2.9.2025, W 4 K 24.591), gesetze-bayern.de, 1.11.2026.
• Würzburg Administrative Court, 11.10.2024, gesetze-bayern.de (1); Munich Administrative Court, 27.2.2024, gesetze-bayern.de (2), 1.11.2026.
• Bavarian Building Code art. 82(6), gesetze-bayern.de; NRW BauGB implementing act, recht.nrw.de, 1.11.2026.
• Bavarian implementation guidance on section 35, gesetze-bayern.de; Brandenburg model decree on the Building Land Mobilisation Act, mil.brandenburg.de, 1.11.2026.
• Federal Law Gazette 2025 I no. 257 (Bau-Turbo), recht.bund.de; federal building ministry FAQ, bmwsb.bund.de, 1.11.2026.
• Baden-Württemberg act implementing the BauGB (AGBauGB) of 23.6.2009, GBl. p. 251, section 1, text: umwelt-online.de; overview of state rules (listed without expiry): North Rhine-Westphalia state parliament, landtag.nrw.de, accessed via search engine 2.11.2026.
• Section 36(2) sentence 3 BauGB and art. 67 Bavarian Building Code, gesetze-bayern.de (1); Bavarian Higher Administrative Court, judgment of 18.12.2025, 2 B 24.1968, gesetze-bayern.de (2), 2.11.2026.
• Gelsenkirchen administrative court, 5.11.2024, 6 K 1649/22, nrwe.justiz.nrw.de, 2.11.2026.
• Gütersloh district, note on firefighting water in the outer area (04/2024), kreis-guetersloh.de, 2.11.2026.
• Bavarian fire brigade association, note on firefighting water in the outer area (2023), lfv-bayern.de, 2.11.2026.