Since the start of the crisis, legislators have been attempting to counteract the spread of COVID-19 with a wide array of measures. One of these measures is the amendment of the Notarial Code (Notariatsordnung), with which a new paragraph also became effective on 5 April 2020 (§ 90a of the Notarial Code).

And what does this have to do with real estate? For processing real estate transactions, such as the purchase of land or apartments, this represents a genuine alternative to physical signatures and an enormous advance in digitisation.