Things to know before buying a house in Spain

Buying a resale home in Spain is not like buying in the UK. The transfer tax rate depends on the region and is charged on an official reference value when that exceeds your price. A signed deposit contract can bind you before any survey, and the bank's valuation is not one. Unpaid community fees and property tax can follow the flat to you. The notary checks title and charges, not the walls.

What is different about buying a house in Spain if you have bought in the UK?

In Spain the buyer pays the transfer tax, a signed deposit contract can bind you, the seller's unpaid community fees and IBI can stay with the flat, the notary checks title rather than the building, and a non-resident seller means you withhold 3% of the price. The table below gives nine such rules and the law behind each.

Topic	What Spanish law says	Where it is written
Transfer tax on a resale home	The buyer pays it. The rate is the one approved by the autonomous community; 6% applies where the community has approved none. The taxable base is the price or the Catastro reference value, whichever is higher.	Royal Legislative Decree 1/1993, articles 8, 10 and 11
When the deal binds	A sale binds both sides once they agree on the property and the price. Where there are arras, the buyer can withdraw by losing them and the seller by returning them doubled.	Civil Code, articles 1450 and 1454
Hidden defects	Where the Spanish Civil Code governs the sale, the seller answers for hidden defects, not for visible ones, and the claim expires six months after handover. Catalonia and Navarre have their own rules.	Civil Code, articles 1484 and 1490
Seller's unpaid community fees	The flat answers for the part of the year of the sale already due and the three previous calendar years.	Horizontal Property Act, article 9.1.e
Seller's unpaid IBI (property tax)	The property stays liable for the full tax charge when ownership changes.	Local Finance Act, article 64.1
Energy certificate	The rating must appear in every advert; the registered certificate is attached to the sale contract; valid for up to ten years, five if rated G.	Royal Decree 390/2021, articles 13, 15 and 17
Tourist lets in a block of flats	Outside Catalonia, since 3 April 2025 a new tourist let needs the community's prior express approval; a three-fifths vote can approve, limit, condition or ban them.	Horizontal Property Act, articles 7.3 and 17.12
Tax number	The Land Registry will not register the purchase unless every party's tax number appears; for a foreigner, that number is the NIE.	Mortgage Act, article 254.2; Royal Decree 1065/2007, article 20
Seller not resident in Spain	Outside the Basque Country and Navarre, the buyer withholds 3% of the agreed price and pays it in with Form 211 within one month of the sale.	Non-Residents' Income Tax Act, article 25.2; Agencia Tributaria; Basque and Navarre Economic Agreements

Source: Royal Legislative Decree 1/1993, Civil Code, Horizontal Property Act, Local Finance Act, Royal Decree 390/2021, Mortgage Act, Royal Decree 1065/2007 and Non-Residents' Income Tax Act (BOE consolidated texts); Agencia Tributaria, Form 211.

Who pays the transfer tax when you buy a resale home in Spain?

The buyer pays the tax on a resale home in Spain, the Impuesto sobre Transmisiones Patrimoniales (ITP, transfer tax), and the law says so whatever the contract states. The rate is the one approved by the autonomous community where the property is, not where you live, so the same price can carry a different tax bill in different regions.

The consolidated ITP law names the person who acquires the property as the taxpayer, and adds that any agreement between the parties to the contrary does not change that. Its article 11 leaves the rate to each region and only falls back on a flat 6% where a region has approved no rate of its own. The Basque Country and Navarre are the exception: the state law applies without prejudice to their own foral tax regimes, and the Catastro does not operate there, so check the rate and the taxable base with a tax adviser in those regions. Compare that with Stamp Duty Land Tax, where at current rates you pay nothing on the first £125,000 of a home that will be the only one you own, and rising rates on the portions above.

The figure the tax is charged on is not simply what you pay. The base for a property is its valor de referencia where it has one, a reference value the Catastro (Spain's tax cadastre) sets every year, unless the declared value or the agreed price is higher, in which case the higher figure is the base. The Catastro's own FAQ calls the reference value the minimum taxable base. It is published on the Catastro's Sede Electrónica, but the lookup asks you to identify yourself with Spanish ID details, a digital certificate or Cl@ve. If you have none of those yet, ask the seller or your lawyer for the figure before you agree a price.

Regional rates, reduced rates and the other costs of a purchase (notary, registry, stamp duty on a mortgage deed) are in our guide to buying costs in Spain for foreigners. Ask a tax adviser (asesor fiscal) in that region to confirm the rate that applies to you before you sign anything.

Is a bank valuation the same as a survey in Spain?

A Spanish bank valuation, the tasación, is not a survey. Ministerial Order ECO/805/2003 governs it, its purpose is to value the home as mortgage security, and the valuer's minimum checks include the property's identity, area and apparent state of construction or repair. Apparent means visible, not a test of the wiring, roof or pipes.

The valuation order sets those minimum checks in its article 7, and its article 2 lists mortgage security as the first purpose it covers. UK guidance draws the same line: the gov.uk buying guide describes the lender's valuation and a homebuyer survey to check the condition of the property as two separate things.

What changes in Spain is your position after the sale. Where the Spanish Civil Code governs the sale, the seller answers for hidden defects (vicios ocultos) that make the home unfit for its use, or so much less usable that you would have paid less, but not for defects that were visible, and your claim expires six months after the property is handed over. A contract clause can remove that protection for defects the seller did not know about. Catalonia and Navarre have their own rules on hidden defects, in the Catalan Civil Code and in law 567 of Navarre's Fuero Nuevo. A survey before you commit can turn hidden defects into known ones you can negotiate over.

For the building as a whole, ask the community for its latest technical inspection report (ITE or IEE) if there is one. There is no national age at which a block must be inspected: the Constitutional Court's ruling STC 143/2017 annulled the national calendar, which sat in the second transitional provision of Royal Legislative Decree 7/2015, so each autonomous community or town hall sets it.

Commission your own survey from an arquitecto técnico (also known as an aparejador, a qualified building professional) or an architect who works for you, not for the seller or the agent. Our guide on whether you need a survey to buy a property in Spain covers what one includes and how to make your offer depend on it.

Can you pull out after paying a deposit on a Spanish property?

Walking away after signing a Spanish deposit contract can cost you the deposit. In England and Wales an offer is not legally binding until contracts are exchanged. Under Spain's Civil Code, a sale binds both sides once they agree on the property and the price.

The deposit is called arras or señal. Article 1454 of the Civil Code says that where a sale was made with arras, the buyer can withdraw by forfeiting them and the seller by returning them doubled. Outside that rule, article 1124 lets the party who kept its side of a contract choose between demanding performance or termination, with damages in both cases. Which of the two applies to your deposit depends on how the contract is worded, so have a lawyer read it before you sign.

If an agent asks for a reservation fee before the arras contract, read what that document says about refunds before you pay, and pay only to an account in the name of the company or person named in it.

Before you sign, have an independent lawyer (abogado) add the conditions you need: mortgage approval, a clean nota simple (the land registry extract), the community debt certificate and, if you want one, a satisfactory survey. Our guide to the arras contract and what you lose if you pull out explains the types of arras and the clauses to ask for.

Can the seller's debts become yours when you buy a flat in Spain?

Two of the seller's debts can stay with a Spanish property after the sale: unpaid community fees and unpaid IBI, the annual municipal property tax. Neither depends on what the seller promises. The law ties both to the property itself, so if they are left unpaid, the home you now own answers for them, whoever ran them up.

For community fees, the Horizontal Property Act (Ley de Propiedad Horizontal) makes the buyer answer, with the flat, for the previous owner's unpaid contributions for the part of the year of the sale that has already fallen due and the three previous calendar years. In the deed, the seller must declare that they are up to date or state what they owe, and must provide a certificate of debts issued by whoever acts as the community's secretary, with the president's approval. The certificate has to be issued within seven calendar days of the request. Without it the notary cannot authorise the deed, unless you expressly release the seller from providing it. Do not.

For IBI, the Local Finance Act says that when ownership changes, the property remains bound to pay the full tax charge, and it requires the notary to request information on pending IBI debts and warn you about them in the deed. Ask the seller for the last IBI receipts well before the signing.

Unpaid fees are only part of the picture. Ask for the minutes (actas) of recent community meetings to see works already agreed and special levies (derramas). Our guide to community fees, derramas and the certificate of debts explains what to read and who pays for what.

Is the floor area in a Spanish listing the real size of the home?

The floor area in a Spanish listing may not be the space you can live in, because Spanish rules define several areas. The order regulating bank valuations distinguishes useful area (superficie útil), built area without common parts and built area with a share of the common parts, and each one adds something to the one before.

In the definitions of Order ECO/805/2003, useful area is the floor inside the external walls, leaving out fixed internal partitions, structural columns, ducts with a horizontal cross-section above 100 cm² and any floor with less than 1.5 metres of headroom; exterior spaces do not count. Built area adds back those partitions, columns and ducts, plus the outer walls: façade and party walls in full, walls shared with other parts of the same building at half. The version with common parts then adds the home's share of the building's common elements, according to its ownership quota.

The Catastro measures in its own way. Under Royal Decree 1020/1993, built area runs to the outer line of the perimeter walls, minus light wells, and covered balconies and terraces count at 50%, or at 100% if they are closed on three of their four sides. The Catastro's FAQ says anyone can look up a property's location, cadastral reference, surface area and use.

Ask the agent which measure the listing quotes, compare it with the Catastro and the nota simple, and measure the main rooms yourself on the viewing. If your bank orders a valuation, its certificate states the useful area when the valuer can check it. Where the figures disagree by more than wall thickness, an extension or a closed-in terrace may never have been declared: see illegal extensions and closed-in terraces.

What does the notary check when you buy a property in Spain?

A Spanish notary (notario) is a public official who certifies the legal side of the sale, not the building. Before authorising a deed of purchase, the notary must check who owns the property and what charges are registered against it, online with the Land Registry, and look again as close to the signing as possible.

That duty is in article 175 of the Notarial Regulations. At the same signing, the notary asks about pending IBI and warns you of any, refuses the deed without the community debt certificate unless you waive it, and identifies in the deed how the price was paid, under article 24 of the Notaries Act. Afterwards, the Mortgage Act stops the Land Registry from registering a deed that lacks any party's tax number or records that the parties refused to identify the means of payment.

None of those duties takes the notary into the property. Its planning status, the state of the roof, whether the terrace closure had a licence and whether the size matches the listing are yours to check, with an independent lawyer for the papers and a surveyor for the building.

Order a nota simple yourself before paying any deposit. Under article 222 of the Mortgage Act it is purely informative and does not certify the register's contents, but it must show at least the property, who holds rights over it and the extent, nature and limits of those rights. Our guide on how to read a nota simple walks through each section.

What does the energy certificate tell you about a Spanish home?

A Spanish energy performance certificate (certificado de eficiencia energética) is required when an existing home is sold. Its rating must appear in every sale advert, and a copy of the registered certificate and label must be attached to the contract. It is valid for up to ten years, or five if the rating is G.

Under Royal Decree 390/2021, it is signed by a competent technician, who must visit the property at least once within the three months before issuing it, and it only has legal validity once registered with the autonomous community. Ask for the registered certificate, not just the label in the advert.

Then read past the letter. The certificate must state which energy-saving rules applied when the building was built, describe its thermal envelope and installations, and recommend improvements where there is room for them. According to the Technical Building Code's guidance page, the rating simulates the same operating conditions for every building rather than reflecting how it is actually used, so it compares buildings, not bills. Ask the seller for a year of electricity and gas bills as well.

Why can a Spanish home be cold in winter?

A Spanish home can be cold in winter because the insulation a building had to have depends on the rules in force when it was licensed, and those rules have changed. The basic building standard on thermal conditions, NBE-CT-79, dates from 1979, and the Technical Building Code that replaced it from 2006. The energy certificate states which applied.

The NBE-CT-79 decree was published in the BOE on 22 October 1979, came into force three months later and did not apply to buildings already under construction or already licensed. Its preamble says it covered aspects not regulated until then, such as condensation on external walls. The Technical Building Code (Código Técnico de la Edificación), approved in March 2006, repealed it, although the old standard could still be applied for six months afterwards.

On a viewing in the cold months, look for black mould in the corners of external walls and around window frames, feel for draughts at the windows, and ask what heats the home and what it cost last winter. If the certificate and your visit both point to a cold flat, an arquitecto técnico can tell you what insulating it would involve. Our guide on why Spanish flats are cold in winter goes through it by building era.

Can the neighbours stop you renting your Spanish flat to tourists?

Outside Catalonia, the neighbours in a Spanish block of flats can stop a new tourist let. Since 3 April 2025 an owner who wants to start one needs the owners' community's prior express approval, and a vote of three-fifths of the owners, who must also hold three-fifths of the ownership shares, can approve, limit, condition or ban tourist lets.

Both rules are in the Horizontal Property Act, articles 7.3 and 17.12. Those agreements do not apply retroactively, and the Act's second additional provision lets an owner who was already letting to tourists before the change, under the tourism rules that applied, carry on under those rules. That protection is worded around the owner who was already letting. If you are buying a flat for its existing tourist licence, ask a lawyer whether it survives the sale in that region. In Catalonia, owners' communities follow the Catalan Civil Code, so ask a lawyer whether the national rules apply.

Before you buy with holiday lets in mind, read the community's statutes and the minutes of recent meetings for any agreement on tourist lets, and check the tourism rules of the region. Our guide to tourist licences and community bans covers both.

Do you need an NIE before buying a house in Spain?

You need an NIE (número de identidad de extranjero, the foreigner's identity number) for your purchase to be registered in Spain. The Mortgage Act bars the Land Registry from registering a purchase unless every party's tax identification number appears in the deed, and for a person without Spanish nationality that tax number is the NIE.

The link between the two is article 20 of Royal Decree 1065/2007. The rules for getting one are in article 205 of the immigration regulation (Royal Decree 1155/2024, in force since 20 May 2025). A foreigner with economic interests in Spain applies to the police, directly or through a foreigners' office or police station, or, if abroad, through a Spanish consulate. You must state why you need the number and must not be in Spain irregularly.

The decision is due within five days of the application entering the register of the office handling it, which is not the same as five days from when you start looking for an appointment. If you hear nothing within that time, the application counts as refused. Apply as soon as you decide to buy, so the number is ready before the deed. The whole sequence is in our guide to the steps to buy a house in Spain as a foreigner, from NIE to notary.

What do you need to do if the seller is not resident in Spain?

Outside the Basque Country and Navarre, if the seller of a Spanish property is not resident in Spain, you must withhold 3% of the agreed price and pay it to the Agencia Tributaria with Form 211 within one month of the sale. It counts towards the seller's tax on the sale, so the seller receives the price minus that 3%.

The obligation is in article 25.2 of the Non-Residents' Income Tax Act, and the one-month deadline is on the Agencia Tributaria's page on Form 211. If the 3% is not paid in, the property itself stays bound to pay the lower of that withholding and the seller's tax, on top of any penalties. In the Basque Country and Navarre, that territory's own tax authority collects the withholding under its own rules (Basque Economic Agreement; Navarre Economic Agreement).

Ask at the start whether the seller is resident in Spain for tax purposes, and have your lawyer prepare Form 211 for the signing. Our guide on buying from a non-resident seller and the 3% withholding covers how to check residency and how the seller reclaims any excess.

How can AskPancho help before you buy a house in Spain?

AskPancho is an AI assistant you talk to in a chat, and it works in English. Paste the link to a Spanish listing and Pancho tells you what to check for that property and which papers to ask the seller or agent for, from the nota simple to the community debt certificate. It can also research the neighbourhood.

When you visit, its guided review walks you through the home room by room with questions and photos, and ends with a report of what you found and how serious each point is. It does not replace an independent lawyer, a valuation or a technical survey: it helps you reach them knowing what to ask. Start a conversation with Pancho before you sign anything.