Role model for other federal states.
DIP partner Aengevelt Immobilien assesses the amendment to the North Rhine-Westphalia State Building Code, which will come into force on 1 September 2026, as positive overall. The real estate company sees significant potential for simplifying and accelerating building permit procedures and reducing construction and planning costs. Against the backdrop of serious market changes, Aengevelt particularly welcomes the facilitations for mixed residential and commercial buildings as well as for commercial buildings.
The change that will probably bring the greatest relief is the deletion of the fundamental obligation to observe the generally accepted rules of technology from § 3 of the BauO NRW. Instead, from now on, only directly safety-relevant rules introduced by the Administrative Regulation Technical Building Rules must be observed. This means that the previous obligation to comply with around 90% of the DIN standards and other technical rules no longer applies. Since the standards committees are often dominated by technology manufacturers who also have an economic interest in regulations that drive up sales or costs, the deletion of the obligation to take into account now opens up considerable scope for more cost-effective construction. At the same time, however, Aengevelt points out that there are still civil law claims that buildings must comply with the recognised rules of technology. The deviations that are now possible under building regulations require a comprehensible technical justification, a clear agreement and careful information from builders or purchasers who are not specialists.
Another important change is the introduction of the category “standard building” by § 2 para. 1 BauO NRW. This means that a commercial unit on the ground floor of a residential and commercial building does not automatically lead to a higher risk potential that justifies comprehensive special construction requirements, but that the building is considered a residential building.
The list of construction projects exempt from proceedings pursuant to Section 62 has been expanded. In particular, certain facilities for the generation, storage and distribution of renewable energies, such as solar systems, small wind turbines or plants for the development of the hydrogen network as well as for the transport and storage of carbon dioxide, have been exempted from the obligation to issue a building permit. This is intended to reduce bureaucratic obstacles to the energy transition.
A permit exemption pursuant to Section 63 now also applies to commercial buildings that exceed a height of 7 m, more than two usage units and a usable area of 400 m². In addition, changes of use of attics for residential purposes, including the construction of dormers, as well as the construction and modification of solar systems are exempt from the permit requirement. Since the building supervisory authorities retain their powers of intervention in the case of the exemption from approval, in contrast to the freedom of procedure, a claim can also be associated with risks. Alternatively, a simplified building permit procedure can therefore be applied for in accordance with Section 64.
Another new feature is that conversions and expansions in existing buildings will be made easier. In the case of additions and changes of use (e.g. of attics or the conversion of commercial properties into residential buildings), existing components will no longer have to be fully adapted to today’s new construction standards in the future.
The double measurement of properties, which has often been required up to now, will be abolished because digitally collected building data can be automatically transferred according to the nationwide “XBau” standard. The State Ministry of Construction estimates that this will reduce surveying costs by around 20 percent.
Building applications can (in many places must) now be submitted purely digitally. In order to speed up procedures, the fiction of approval was (finally) introduced, which was recommended by the Commission for the Reduction of Construction Costs as early as the early 1990s. In general, the building permit is considered to have been granted if the building supervisory authority has not decided within three months of the complete building application being submitted. According to Aengevelt Immobilien, the regulation serves in particular to increase the pressure on the approval authorities to act and make decisions in a transparent manner over time, and to accelerate their procedural coordination accordingly.
Dr. Wulff Aengevelt, Managing Partner of DIP partner Aengevelt Immobilien: “Finally, the legislator of Germany’s largest state has succeeded in taking a first relevant, effective step towards reducing bureaucracy in the real estate sector. The amendment to the NRW State Building Code brings planners and builders a number of simplifications and cost reduction potential, especially for residential and commercial buildings and commercial properties. However, supra-regional planners and property developers and the construction industry would like to see analogous nationwide regulations.”
