Buy & sell a brothel

The value of a brothel property hinges on three things a normal investment property does not need to worry about: planning-law permissibility at the site, structural suitability for the requirements of the Prostitutes Protection Act (Prostituiertenschutzgesetz), and a buyer pool that is small and hard to reach. If any one of these three is missing, a property can sit unsold for years, regardless of how well it is built.

Then there is the Restricted Zone Ordinance (Sperrgebietsverordnung). In municipalities with more than 50,000 residents, prostitution cannot be excluded across the whole area, whereas in smaller municipalities it can. An established site that has been tolerated for years in a commercial zone with no residential neighbours is therefore the real asset, not the price per square metre.

Currently on offer is a detached commercial building in Villingen-Schwenningen: 576 sqm of lettable space on a 1,064 sqm freehold plot, nine rooms, seven of them with en-suite bathroom and WC, plus a Finnish sauna, an XXL whirlpool, a cold-plunge pool, a bar, a club room, a cinema room, a mirror room, a covered inner courtyard, eight parking spaces and two garage spaces. The building has been run continuously since 1991 as a naturist sauna club and prostitution establishment and is free of existing leases or tenancies. Purchase price €848,000.

No signage, no portal listing with a street view, no enquiries from neighbours. We work from a curated list of operators, investors and tenants and approach them directly. The particulars are only handed out after identification.

Preparation includes putting the paperwork in order beforehand: energy performance certificate, land registry and parcel data, building permits and change-of-use applications, fire-safety correspondence, an operating cost breakdown. Properties where this file is complete tend to sell noticeably faster, because the buyer's due diligence does not start from zero.

We do not claim or advertise reliable turnover or visitor figures. Whatever exists is shown to a serious interested party during due diligence, not beforehand and not in a public text.

First, the permit history: which building permit underlies the current condition, were there change-of-use applications, how did the last fire-prevention inspection go and were any objections demonstrably resolved.

Second, one's own eligibility for a permit: the permit under Section 12 ProstSchG does not transfer with the property. Anyone wanting to operate the business themselves needs their own operating concept and their own reliability check with the responsible authority. Anyone wanting to lease it out needs a tenant who passes that check.

Third, alternative use: what happens to the building if the concept does not work out. Buildings with many individual rooms with en-suite bathrooms can in principle also be considered for accommodation use, whether that is approvable is something a preliminary planning enquiry clarifies, not a set of sales particulars.

Anyone wanting to buy a brothel is generally not looking for a return on paper, but for a location where they are allowed to operate. The search reflects that: through personal contacts, through agents with access to this segment, and rarely through public listings. We maintain search profiles and get in touch as soon as a matching property comes to market.

Anyone wanting to sell a brothel has the opposite problem: the pool of people who can and may buy is small, and a publicly circulated listing damages the ongoing business. That is why we approach people directly rather than casting a wide net, and prepare the document file so an interested party can decide quickly.

Commonly searched terms for this type of property include brothel for sale, buy a brothel, brothel property, buy a whorehouse, prostitution establishment for sale, as well as lease a brothel and let a brothel. They all mean the same thing: a commercial property whose use is supported by planning law at that location.