Only if You're a Farmer

Disclaimer: I don't know the actual farmland laws here, but this is based on what my farming German friends have explained to me.

The housing outside the big cities is separated into small villages where all the houses are clumped together. While some people have a very small front or back yard, many don't have anything but a little landscaping with a sidewalk.

In between each of the villages is typically farmland. The only houses you can find between villages are farmhouses with a barn. That's because people are not allowed to purchase farmland to build a house with a big yard. In order to purchase farmland or a farmhouse in Germany, you must prove you are a farmer. You have to go in front of a judge and discuss your farming experience, which for most people comes from growing up in a farming family. Typically when those children grow up, they rent a few acres from farmers to grow their own fruits and vegetables to get more experience and practice before owning their own large farms.

(Forgive the fogginess in this picture, but it offers a good example of the village/farmland layout in our area. You can click to enlarge it.)

Both agriculture and the beauty that nature brings to Germany are very important to the people here. While some villagers would like to own a small piece of land for a horse or large garden, it is more important to them to preserve the landscape and beauty of this country. So those folks are left with only the option of renting an acre or two from a farmer down the road.

Since only farmers can purchase the large properties, someone who owns a farmhouse with land cannot sell it to just anybody. Even if a family with a lot of money wants to buy the property, the farmer typically cannot sell it to them if they cannot prove they have farming experience and plan to use the land for agricultural purposes. In rare cases, a judge can determine that the property in question doesn't need to be farmed anymore and someone else can have it, such as if a village wants to purchase a portion of a farmer's property to expand its size. That doesn't happen very often though, because most villages want to stay small and quaint.