Public tenders for tradespeople

Building and trade work counts as works (Bauleistungen), and in Germany its procedures follow the VOB/A, the rules for awarding construction contracts (Federal Ministry for Housing, Urban Development and Building). Section 1 covers national procedures below the EU threshold; Section 2, the VOB/A EU, covers EU-wide ones and applies through § 2 VgV.

In the Common Procurement Vocabulary, construction work is division 45 (Regulation (EC) No 213/2008). It has five groups:

• 45100000 Site preparation work
• 45200000 Works for complete or part construction and civil engineering work
• 45300000 Building installation work
• 45400000 Building completion work
• 45500000 Hire of construction and civil engineering machinery and equipment with operator

Most trades sit in the classes below them. A notice may carry such a code as its main code or on a lot, or a more specific code beneath it.

Trade work also appears under repair and maintenance services (division 50) and installation services (division 51); CPV codes explained shows how the codes nest.

Whether a procedure runs nationally or EU-wide depends on its estimated value without VAT. For works contracts, the EU threshold for 2026 and 2027 is €5,404,000, for central and other public buyers alike (European Commission: thresholds); § 106 GWB takes the thresholds from the EU directive. Above it, the procedure follows VOB/A EU and the notice is also published on TED.

The value of the whole project counts, not that of one lot: once all lots together reach the threshold, the EU rules apply to every lot (§ 3(7) VgV). A buyer may still award small lots nationally: works lots under €1 million, as long as together they make up no more than 20 percent of the total value (§ 3(9) VgV).

Below the threshold, Section 1 of the VOB/A applies through federal and Länder budget law, which also sets the values up to which a buyer may limit the competition to firms it selects. These values differ between the Federation and the Länder and change over time; check the notice and the buyer’s rules.

German procurement law asks buyers to take the interests of small and medium-sized businesses into account first and foremost (§ 97(4) GWB). The principle of lots in § 97a GWB makes this concrete: contracts are divided by quantity (Teillose) and by type or trade (Fachlose). Buyers may combine lots only where economic or technical reasons require it.

For infrastructure projects worth at least twice the EU threshold that are financed from the special fund for infrastructure and climate neutrality or concern transport infrastructure, § 97a(3) also allows combining lots for reasons of time. The buyer may then require the main contractor to consider small and medium-sized businesses when it subcontracts (§ 97a(5)).

On a building project, each trade can be a lot of its own: shell construction, roofing, windows, electrics, heating and plumbing, drywall, painting, flooring. The notice says whether you may bid for one, several or all lots, and whether one bidder can win only a limited number of them (§ 30 VgV). Read the lot for your trade, not only the summary. The Federal Procurement Office puts the purpose plainly: lots give smaller and specialised companies a better chance to take part (Beschaffungs-ABC).

Contracts go only to suitable companies: those qualified and authorised to practise the trade, with sufficient economic and financial standing and the technical and professional ability for the job (§ 122 GWB). The criteria must be proportionate to the subject and value of the contract. Proof comes first as self-declarations, and further documents should be requested only from bidders with a real prospect of the contract.

Prequalification moves the check of standard documents ahead of any single contract. For construction, the official list of prequalified companies, PQ-VOB, is kept by the Verein für die Präqualifikation von Bauunternehmen e.V., as the Federal Ministry for Housing, Urban Development and Building explains, and the PQ-VOB list can be searched. Under § 122(3) GWB, suitability can be proven wholly or partly through such a prequalification system.

Prequalification is one way to give the proof; the notice and the documents say which proof a buyer asks for. Inteliwert does not check whether a company is suitable or prequalified; it shows the notice and links to the documents that set out the criteria.

In Germany, the Bekanntmachungsservice brings together national and EU-wide notices from the Federation, the Länder and municipalities, and searching it needs no registration. EU-wide notices from every member state are on TED. The procedure itself, with the documents and questions to the buyer, often runs on the buyer’s e-procurement platform (Where German and EU tenders are published).

On Inteliwert, the category page for construction work lists the open tenders in CPV division 45 by deadline, each linked to its official notice. Every Land has a region page too, such as Bayern or Nordrhein-Westfalen; the guide NUTS regions in Germany links all sixteen.

To combine trade and place, use the search: construction work in Bayern, or the German name of your trade, such as Dachdeckerarbeiten. Counts on these pages cover the sources Inteliwert imports, not the whole market; the coverage page shows each source and its status.

The guide How to read a tender notice explains the fields one by one. For trade work, these matter most:

• The lot for your trade, with its description and codes.
• The place of performance (a NUTS 3 code), which can differ from the buyer’s address.
• The time limit for tenders with its time zone, and the last date for questions.
• The execution period of the work.
• The suitability criteria and the proof asked for.
• The award criteria: price alone, or price and quality.
• The procurement documents, with the bill of quantities (Leistungsverzeichnis).

1. Find the lot for your trade and check whether you may bid for it alone.
2. Note the time limit, its time zone and the last date for questions.
3. Compare the suitability criteria with your proof: registration, references, insurance, a PQ-VOB entry.
4. Check the place and the execution period against your team and your other jobs.
5. Download the documents from the address in the notice and price the bill of quantities.
6. If a lot is larger than your firm, consider a joint bid or a subcontractor (Public tenders for startups and small companies).
7. Check for change notices before you submit.

Inteliwert shows each opportunity on one page, with its lots and a link to the official notice and the time it was last checked. Search construction tenders. The official notice remains the version that counts.