Buying guide

Buying a property in Spain involves a number of legal and financial processes. These should be handled by a qualified lawyer in order to make sure everything goes smoothly and trouble free.

• Obtain an NIE number. This is will be your Spanish tax number, assigned to you by the government. Your lawyer will require passport photos of all the people who will appear on the deeds and it is wise to travel to Spain with them ready. If not, don’t worry, as there are photo booths available.
• Obtain Power of Attorney: this document gives your lawyer the legal right and responsibility of managing your financial and related affairs. This is useful for the buyer/seller if you are unable to attend to your financial duties on a temporary or permanent basis. This also means that you don’t need fly back over to Spain only to sign more papers.
• Opening of a Spanish bank account.
• Perform searches at the Land Registry to check that the property is free of charges.
• Prepare or check the private contract to protect your rights.
• Perform searches in order to ensure that there are no outstanding debts corresponding to water, electricity, local rates bills and community fees.
• Arrangement of the appointment and the necessary documents to sign the Title Deed of your purchase (the escritura) in front of a public Notary.
• To personally assist the client(s) at the Notary’s office and to translate all relevant information and to assist at the Notary’s office through Power of Attorney.
• Arrangement of payment of the expenditures involved in the completion of the contract (i.e. Notary fees, taxes, registration fees, etc.)
• Change the ownership at the land registry and the local rates office.
• Set up direct debits (electricity, water, gas, council tax and community).

The purchase will have costs associated…

• In the case of second hand property, there is the Property Transfer Tax (IPF). This is 10% in the Community of Valencia (includes Alicante province) or 8% in the province of Murcia.
• In the case of brand new properties, there are two taxes:
• VAT (IVA) of 10% on the price of the property
• Stamp Duty (AJD) of 1.5% of the property value in the Community of Valencia (including Alicante Province) or 2% in the Province of Murcia
• Notary fees and land registry: 1.300€ (estimation based on 100.000€ resale property)
• Solicitor:
• 1.500€ VAT included for properties up to 199.000€
• 1.800€ VAT included for properties 200.000€ - 399.000€
• 2.400€ VAT included for properties over 400.000€
• NIE number/s: 100€ per person
• Supplies changes of contracts for resale’s or New meters for off plan properties
• The changing of contracts for utilities (Water, Electricity, etc) or arrangement of new contracts (for new properties)
• Power of Attorney: 200€

In the event that the buyer will be purchasing with the assistance of a bank (i.e. a mortgage), then the bank will be responsible for informing the client of costs associated with the mortgage (home insurance, valuation, opening commission, etc…)