Economic Bulletin No. 1 | 2019
Purchaser principle when buying residential property
One reason for the stagnating homeownership rate in Germany for years is often cited as the high ancillary acquisition costs, which discourage households with low equity in particular from buying property. In addition to land transfer tax, notary and land registry fees, the brokerage commission is also a significant factor. However, there is no uniform and cross-national regulation on the amount and distribution of the broker’s commission. For this reason, the introduction of a nationwide buyer’s principle for the purchase of residential property is being discussed to prevent a possible predicament of buyers. Who is protected from whom by the buyer principle and what the typical buyer and seller household looks like is examined in this Economic Bulletin “Who meets whom when buying property”.
The introduction of a nationwide buyer principle for the purchase of residential property is currently being discussed (draft law BMJV, 2019). In the future, the clients of the estate agents – mainly the sellers – would pay for the agent’s commission, so that the ancillary acquisition costs for buyers should decrease.
Whether this can be achieved with the buyer principle depends to a large extent on the probability of the sellers passing on the brokerage costs to the purchase prices. This study, commissioned by leading brokerage firms, therefore examines the potential effects of introducing the buyer-principle on a scientific and empirical basis.
Huawei commissioned DIW Econ to determine the economic significance of the company for Germany. This study aimed to describe the economic footprint of Huawei for Germany as a business location in qualitative and quantitative terms.
Huawei Technologies is a global leader in the digital economy with headquarters in Shenzhen (China) and is active in over 170 countries. The largest locations in Germany are the Western European headquarters in Düsseldorf and the site in Munich, where the company operates a major research centre.
Report in Wirtschaftsdienst 97th volume, 2017, issue 3, pp. 157-158
German companies present themselves at CeBIT
as a technology leader on the way to the gigabit society. But when it comes to broadband, Germany is lagging: in terms of download speed, it is ranked 26th in the world, behind most industrialised nations and even behind Bulgaria and Romania. Although DSL availability is excellent, only 7.1% of German households have access to genuine fibre optic connections (FTTH/B: Fibre to the Home/Building).
A study commissioned by Ørsted Offshore Wind, published as DIW Berlin -Politikberatung kompakt 136.
The expansion of offshore wind energy is a strategic component of Germany’s energy and climate policy. Therefore, according to the targets of the German government, 15,000 MW of offshore wind energy capacity should be available in Germany by 2030. Suppose offshore wind energy is to make a successful contribution to the transformation of energy systems. In that case, it will be necessary not only to build offshore wind farms but also to transport the electricity produced efficiently on land.