German Village With 15 Homes Costs Less Than City Flat

For the price of a cramped flat in Berlin or Munich, you could own 15 buildings, sprawling grounds, and your own dining hall in the German countryside.

Franz Eberitsch is selling his property in Kamsdorf, Thuringia for €390,000. The site includes 15 single-story buildings with about 100 square meters each, plus a central building with a 300-square-meter dining hall. The entire complex sits on 24,000 square meters near the Hohenwarte reservoir, surrounded by meadows and woodland.

The buildings date back to 1954, when they served as dormitories for steel apprentices in East Germany. After reunification in 1990, the site sat empty for a decade before being used as residential housing again from 2000 onward.

Eberitsch bought the property in 2014 after returning from New Zealand with his family. His dream was to create a community where people could live close to nature and build something meaningful together.

But German planning law has other ideas. Because the buildings weren't used between 1990 and 2000, authorities say the site lost its legal residential status. The property sits in the "Außenbereich," land outside designated development zones, making permanent housing legally questionable without new permits.

The buildings are already stripped to their shells with electricity and water connected. Eberitsch envisions transforming the space into a holistic health village with therapy centers, yoga studios, and guest accommodations.

The Ripple Effect

This quirky listing highlights a real tension in Germany between housing shortages and bureaucratic obstacles. Thousands of existing structures across the country sit unused while cities face accommodation crises.

Eberitsch argues that in a country desperate for housing, it should be easier to revive existing buildings with clear infrastructure already in place. He's calling on politicians to adapt legal frameworks that prevent sustainable reuse of functional spaces.

In a bold move, he's even appealing directly to Elon Musk for seed funding of one million euros. In exchange, the Tesla boss would get retreats at Eberitsch's alpaca farm nearby.

Whether or not a tech billionaire swoops in, the listing represents something hopeful: creative Germans finding innovative solutions to housing challenges, one unusual property at a time.