The appraised market value, the Verkehrswert, is the most important figure in the whole procedure. The lowest admissible bid, the deposit, the statutory thresholds and ultimately your decision whether to bid all hang on it. Yet many bidders do not understand how the figure is arrived at, or where its limits lie. That is what this article is for.
It is the price that could be achieved for the property in ordinary trade on the valuation date. That is the definition in § 194 BauGB. In a foreclosure the enforcement court fixes this value by decision under § 74a (5) ZVG, almost always on the basis of a surveyor's report.
The distinction matters: the appraised value is not an asking price and not a minimum price. It is a professional estimate that serves as a reference figure in the proceedings. What you finally bid is your decision, and what the property finally costs is decided by the bidding in the room.
The enforcement court usually instructs a publicly appointed and sworn surveyor to produce a valuation report. The surveyor inspects the property, works through the land register, the standard land values and market data, and gives the court a result. The court then fixes the value by decision.
The typical sequence, in six steps:
No owner is obliged to let the surveyor in. If access is refused, the surveyor assesses from outside and works with assumptions: usual fittings, usual condition, often with a flat deduction for what is unknown. You recognise such reports by wording like "an internal inspection was not possible". For you as a bidder that means higher uncertainty, and it belongs in your maximum bid.
The German valuation ordinance, the ImmoWertV, knows three standard methods: the sales comparison approach using prices of similar properties, the income approach using achievable rents, and the cost approach using land and construction costs. The surveyor chooses by property type and by the data available, and often runs a second method as a check.
| Method | Typical use | Data basis |
|---|---|---|
| Sales comparison approach | Apartments, terraced houses, undeveloped land | Price collections of the valuation boards |
| Income approach | Let apartment buildings, commercial property | Achievable rent, running costs, property yield rate |
| Cost approach | Owner-occupied houses without good comparables | Standard land value plus construction cost less depreciation |
Here the surveyor derives the value from prices actually paid for properties as similar as possible. The data comes from the price collections kept by the official valuation boards. The method is close to the market, but it only works when enough comparable sales exist.
For an investment property what counts is what it earns. The surveyor capitalises the rent that can be achieved on a sustained basis, deducts running costs and discounts using the property yield rate. Check the rent used with particular care: if it is higher than the rent actually being paid, the appraised value contains an assumption that you would have to make good through your own letting work.
The cost approach adds the land value and the building value. The land value comes from the standard land value, the building value from standard construction costs less depreciation for age, adjusted by a market factor. It is used mainly for owner-occupied houses where few comparable sales exist.
The appraised value is a figure for one date, built on documented assumptions. It is not a guaranteed market price. The most common reasons for a difference: a refused internal inspection, a valuation date well in the past, flat assumptions for deferred maintenance, and value-reducing rights such as a right of residence or a usufruct. On top of that, many months often pass between the report and the hearing.
Four points deserve your attention:
How wide the range gets in practice is visible in Klaava's own stock: as at 21 August 2026 it listed 3,204 coming auction hearings at 418 local courts, 2,884 of them with a fixed appraised value. The median is 170,000 euros, and the range runs from garages in the low thousands to apartment buildings in the millions. A single average therefore says little about your particular property. What decides it is the individual report.
At the first hearing the appraised value protects owner and creditors through two statutory thresholds. If the highest bid stays below 50 per cent of it, the court refuses the award of its own motion under § 85a ZVG. If it stays below 70 per cent, an entitled creditor can apply for refusal under § 74a ZVG. At a later hearing both thresholds fall away.
For your strategy that means bids below the 50 per cent line are hopeless at the first hearing, while bids between 50 and 70 per cent depend on how the creditors behave. How to turn that into a concrete approach is set out in bidding successfully at a foreclosure auction. The arithmetic behind the lowest admissible bid is in minimum bids at German foreclosure auctions.
Check four things before trusting the figure: the valuation date, whether an internal inspection took place, which method the surveyor used, and which deductions or rights they applied. Then compare the value with current listings and with the standard land values for the region.
A practical order to work in:
How to work through a full report systematically is set out in reading a German valuation report. Klaava is a German platform for foreclosure auction dates that analyses the associated valuation reports automatically; as at 21 August 2026, 996 hearings were available with such an analysis. On the map you see the appraised value, the hearing date and the property data at a glance.
Who fixes the appraised value? The enforcement court fixes it by decision under § 74a (5) ZVG. The basis is almost always the report of a surveyor the court instructed. The parties can appeal against that decision.
Is the appraised value the price I have to pay? No. It is a reference figure for the proceedings, not a minimum and not a purchase price. What you pay is set by the winning bid at the hearing. Awards well below the appraised value happen, and so do bids above it when several people compete.
How current is the value in the report? It applies to the valuation date named in the report. Many months often pass between that date and the hearing, in some cases several years. The older the date, the more your own comparison with the current market matters.
What happens if the highest bid is below 50 per cent? At the first hearing the court refuses the award of its own motion under § 85a ZVG. Between 50 and 70 per cent an entitled creditor can apply for refusal under § 74a ZVG. At a later hearing neither threshold applies.
Can the appraised value be wrong? It can differ from market reality, above all where no internal inspection was possible, where the valuation date is old, or where flat figures were used for the condition. The report records its assumptions, and that is exactly where your own check begins.
For a step-by-step walk through a full report, see reading a German valuation report. The whole course from order to award is set out in how a German foreclosure auction works.
This article is general information. It does not replace advice from a qualified lawyer.
Klaava
Foreclosure auctions across Germany. Valuation reports read. Yield calculator. Updated daily.
Open the map →
Appraised values at German foreclosure auctions in 2026: medians by federal state, property type and square metre from 2,780 current proceedings, with method.
Building defects in foreclosure appraisal reports: which damage experts list most often, how large the deductions are and how to check them before bidding.
Undeveloped land at a German foreclosure auction: what 394 current cases show, how farmland and building plots are valued, and the seven points to check first.