ᐅ Building a Plot - Is It Still Possible to Build Without a Developer Today?

I also know several people who looked for a very long time in the area. Almost all of them ended up buying farther away (Grimma or even further) because, first, there is hardly anything available in Leipzig, and second, it has become far too expensive. A relative has also been searching for years, but it’s impossible to find anything without using some tricks or having a lot of money by chance. The only ones I know right now who managed to get a vacant, somewhat acceptable plot within Leipzig at a somewhat reasonable price acquired it through their parents’ contacts (a farmer on the city outskirts sold a leftover meadow).

I can only recommend actively reaching out to people—neighbors of vacant lots, staying alert everywhere when it comes to land or house sales. And also deaths, even if it sounds morbid. Most transactions happen informally. Here, mostly within families.

The issue with contractors and such is the next challenge, but when building or renovating, you simply need a lot of patience.

Well, searching for half a year in the immediate vicinity of the booming city of Leipzig is not very long at all.
Knocking on neighbors' doors is certainly worth a try, but you shouldn’t expect too much from it. Maybe you do it together for two weeks, then only one person continues in the third week, and by the fourth week, you give up in frustration. Especially in attractive locations, you are very unlikely to be the first to go door-to-door, and not everyone is happy when strangers suddenly show up at their doorstep. Usually, there is a reason why those building gaps remain undeveloped, assuming you can even get any information.

Online platforms are known to be completely overwhelmed by demand. It’s like throwing a morsel into a piranha tank – private sellers quickly become stressed after just a few hours because their email inbox overflows or their phone doesn’t stop ringing. You can pretty much forget about this approach.

Real estate developers have the right contacts. These are people who spend almost the whole day acquiring plots of land. It’s logical that almost nothing escapes their notice. As an individual buyer, you either need equally good connections or a lot of persistence. As I said, half a year is practically nothing in this context.

I feel the same. Six months is nothing at all. We searched for three years and were open to either an existing property or building land. An old school friend of mine is a real estate agent, but even he didn’t have anything suitable available and now mainly focuses on rentals. In the end, we went with an existing property. We probably wouldn’t have found a building plot anytime soon. People prefer to keep their unused building gaps because they can’t invest their money as well as those plots increase in value.

Alternatively, just buy from the developer

I don’t see anything wrong with that

It’s not wrong either, but very expensive...
The few things that come up here from time to time are actually unaffordable.

I was somewhat surprised during the conversation with our developer that the advisor not only knew the location and planning status of the new development area, which hasn’t even been publicly announced yet and is located 15 km (9 miles) away, but also knew the names of the responsible officers at the relevant building authority by heart.
Of course, they all try to secure plots to offer to their clients. For individual builders working with an architect, usually only the leftovers and less desirable locations remain. In this regard, I would answer the initial question with yes rather than no. However, if you move about 10 km (6 miles) further out into the outskirts, the situation can look very different again.