City of Cologne reintroduces municipal right of first refusal

Housing to be created through more effective development of building sites

The City of Cologne has revoked its waiver of the exercise of the municipal right of first refusal with effect from 1 February 2018 and announced it in the Official Gazette of the City of Cologne. At the same time, the City of Cologne informed the Cologne Land Registry, the Cologne Chamber of Notaries and the Federal Chamber of Notaries of the revocation of its general waiver. The City of Cologne has thus cleared the way for an important legal instrument to secure its urban planning. The aim of the municipal right of first refusal is the more effective development of building areas, which in particular serves the creation of affordable housing in the still tight housing market in Cologne.

The right of first refusal is available to the city according to the legal requirements, for example, for the purchase of land

• in the area of application of a development plan, insofar as it concerns areas for which a use for public purposes has been determined in accordance with the development plan,
• in a reallocation area,
• in a formally designated redevelopment area,
• in the area of application of a land use plan, insofar as it concerns undeveloped areas in the outer area, for which a use as residential building land or residential area is shown according to the land use plan, or
• in planned or unplanned areas that can be built on primarily with residential buildings, insofar as the properties are undeveloped.

The City of Cologne can thus designate by statute areas in which it has a right of first refusal in areas where it is considering urban development measures in order to ensure orderly urban development.

Insofar as the legal requirements for exercising the municipal right of first refusal are not met or the city does not intend to exercise its right of first refusal, it will issue corresponding certificates to the parties involved. Fees ranging from 61.69 euros to 89.11 euros will be charged for this. The contracting parties or notaries are now required to submit purchase agreements on real estate transactions in the Cologne city area to the responsible Office for Real Estate, Cadastre and Surveying for examination of the right of first refusal. The City of Cologne has a period of two months from the submission of complete documents in which to check the existence of the pre-emptive right and to execute its possible exercise.

On 18 May 2017, the Council of the City of Cologne decided by a majority to reintroduce the right of first refusal after the city had waived it since 1995.

Source: PM from 17.1.2018
www.stadt-koeln.de/...stadt-fuehrt-kommunales-vorkaufrecht-wieder-ein