Real Estate Commissions Around The World

What is a fair real estate commission? We don’t know, but here’s how some other countries break it down. The data is from a 2002 article in The International Real Estate Review (pdf here). If you know the going rate in other countries, please let us know in the comments.

Hong Kong: 1% (lowest in the world)
United Kingdom: 1-2%. In very competitive areas .5- .75%.
Netherlands: 1.5-2%
Ireland: 1.5-2% in the cities & 2-3% in the small towns
Norway: 2-3%
Denmark: 2-4%
Singapore and Japan: 3%
New Zealand and South Africa: average 3.14%
Malaysia: 3% on the first 100K and 2% on the balance thereafter
Australia also uses a scaled system: 5% on the first 18,000 & 2.5% thereafter
Greece & Israel: 4% split between buyer and seller
Italy: 4-6% split between buyer and seller
Canada: 3-6%
Germany, Spain, Thailand, Indonesia, Sweden, Caribbean, Philippines: 5% or less
Finland is interesting: 5% for condos and 3-4% for single family homes
France: 5-8%. There is no MLS in France, but there is that darn VAT (wonder who pays that?)
Mexico: 5-10%. Mexico has an MLS system.
Russia (hold on to your hat): between 5-15% with the average around 10%. In St. Petersburg and Moscow, the commissions are over 15%. There is no MLS and public information is scarce. It is no surprise that FSBOs are very common. (This might be a good advertising venue for agents whose markets have a high Russian immigrant population.)