The Gesellschaft bürgerlichen Rechts is the default vehicle of a Baugemeinschaft (Bauherrengemeinschaft, Baugruppe) from first meeting to completion. Hamburg’s Agentur für Baugemeinschaften describes the sequence: Planungs-GbR → Bau-GbR → dissolution on completion → WEG (owner-occupiers) or transfer to an eG (rental co-op).
- Founding: Gesellschaftsvertrag, no form, no capital, no register — but from 2024 land can only be booked to a GbR that is entered in the Gesellschaftsregister as eGbR (§ 47 Abs. 2 GBO; see mopeg-egbr).
- Cost / time: a lawyer-drafted Planungs-/Bau-GbR-Vertrag plus notarised eGbR filing; days to weeks. The expensive part is the land deed (§ 311b BGB).
- Liability: every partner is personally and jointly liable for all GbR debts (§ 721 BGB) — including the whole construction loan — and for five years after leaving. This is why the GbR is a phase, not a home.
- Decisions: unanimity by default (§ 715 BGB); the Vertrag should set majorities, cost keys, exit and replacement rules.
- Exit: Kündigung/Ausschluss (§ 723 BGB); the leaver gets an Abfindung at share value (§ 728 BGB) — the group must find a replacement or refinance.
- Bauträger vs Bauherrengemeinschaft: with a Bauträger the buyer acquires finished Wohnungseigentum and pays Grunderwerbsteuer on land and building; as Bauherren the group buys bare land and contracts architects itself — tax only on land if the contracts are genuinely independent (see grunderwerbsteuer-baugemeinschaft).
- Money: the GbR is rarely the applicant — each household borrows in its own name (kfw-124, kfw-300). Group-level lines are rare; see Programme map.
Related
- mopeg-egbr — eGbR registration is now mandatory before any Grundbuch entry
- weg-baugruppe — where an owner-occupier GbR ends up
- eg-cooperative — where a rental-oriented group ends up
- grunderwerbsteuer-baugemeinschaft — the tax trap that decides Bauträger vs Bauherren
- kfw-124, kfw-300, saxony-frl-familienwohnen, hamburg-agentur-fuer-baugemeinschaften — programme notes
- konzeptvergabe, erbbaurecht — municipal land routes that often require a named entity early
- gls-bank-financing — banks lend to the GbR only against all partners’ personal credit
Detail
Interim financing is the pain point: banks price the Bau-GbR on the weakest partner, so groups usually sign individual loan tranches secured on their future unit (Teilungserklärung recorded early, § 8 WEG) rather than one group loan. Where a municipality sells via konzeptvergabe, the Planungs-GbR is often the only entity that exists at bid time; check that the Konzeptvergabe terms allow later transfer to WEG/eG without triggering repurchase clauses or a second Grunderwerbsteuer.
Programme map
Which money this form actually reaches. Terms live in the linked programme notes.
- Funding — household level (the normal case): the GbR itself is rarely the applicant; each household applies in its own name for kfw-124, kfw-300, kfw-308 and a state Eigenheim line (hamburg-ifb-baugemeinschaften-individuelles-eigentum, nrw-wohnraumfoerderung-eigentum, nrw-bank-wohneigentum, bayern-wohnungsbauprogramm-eigenwohnraum, bayern-zinsverbilligungsprogramm, rheinland-pfalz-isb-darlehen-wohneigentum, saarland-wohnraumfoerderung-eigentum, brandenburg-ilb-wohneigentum, hessen-hessengeld). Most of these disburse only against a Wohnungsgrundbuch, i.e. after the WEG split.
- Funding — group level (the rare case): lines that name a GbR as recipient are saxony-frl-familienwohnen Ziffer III Nr. 2 (eingetragene GbR; interim land-acquisition loan ≤ €500,000), hessen-darlehen-gemeinschaftliches-wohnen, brandenburg-ilb-wohneigentum-innenstaedte-anschubfinanzierung, rheinland-pfalz-anschubfoerderung-wohnprojekte, nrw-gruppenwohnungen and the Hamburg co-op route hamburg-ifb-baugemeinschaften-genossenschaftlich. Land access via berlin-konzeptverfahren-erbbaurecht and hamburg-agentur-fuer-baugemeinschaften is also group-level. Free advice: berlin-netzwerkagentur-generationenwohnen. Energy money (kfw-297-298, kfw-261, bafa-beg-em) follows whoever is Bauherr.