Buying a second home in Spain: what actually applies

Two things dominate the current advice on buying in Spain, and both are wrong.

The first is the widely reported plan to tax non-EU buyers at 100 per cent. It exists, but only as a private members' bill registered in the Congress on 22 May 2025. Sixteen months later it has not had the preliminary plenary vote that would allow it to be processed at all. It has not been debated in committee, has not reached the Senate, and is not law. Nobody has paid it.

The second is the opposite error, and it costs people real money. The golden visa is gone. Articles 63 to 67 of Ley 14/2013 were emptied with effect from 3 April 2025, and not just the property route: the entire investor residence chapter. Buying a house in Spain does not lead to residency and has not done so since that date. Anyone still being sold a property on that basis is being sold a story.

What follows is what does apply.

The deposit contract is where people actually get hurt

Almost every purchase starts with a contrato de arras. Buyers sign it believing it works like an option: pay the deposit, and if you change your mind you lose it and walk away.

That is only true if the contract says so. The Civil Code deals with deposits in a single article, 1454, and it gives the buyer the right to withdraw by forfeiting the deposit and the seller the right to withdraw by returning double. But that article applies to arras penitenciales, and the courts read the penitential character restrictively: it has to be agreed, not assumed. A contract headed simply "arras" is treated as confirming the sale, not as buying a way out of it.

The consequence is not academic. Under a confirmatory deposit the seller can sue for performance of the contract and force the purchase through, or claim damages that exceed the deposit. The buyer who assumed a €30,000 deposit was the worst case can find it was the best case.

Read the clause before signing, not after. This is the cheapest hour of legal advice in the whole transaction.

Some debts come with the house

Two of them attach to the property itself, which means they become yours on completion no matter who ran them up.

Community fees. Article 9.1.e of the Ley de Propiedad Horizontal makes the buyer answerable, with the property, for the previous owner's unpaid community charges. The period is precise: the unpaid part of the year in which you buy, plus the three preceding calendar years. The seller has to produce a certificate of the debt position and the notary cannot authorise the deed without it. The buyer can waive that certificate, and should not: the waiver removes the document, not the liability.

IBI, the local property tax. Article 64 of the local finance act attaches the property to payment of the whole tax quota. The statute sets no time limit at all; what bounds it in practice is the four-year limitation period in the general tax act. The notary is obliged to ask about outstanding IBI and to warn the parties.

What the registry does and does not tell you

The nota simple is the standard search, and the Ley Hipotecaria is blunt about its weight: it has purely informative value and does not attest to the content of the entries. Only a certificación proves ownership or the absence of charges against a third party.

It also only shows what is registered. Planning status, building inspection obligations, whether the property matches its description on the ground, whether the community has a debt or a dispute running: none of that is in there. The notary must check title and charges immediately before signing, but that duty is owed as a public official. It is not a survey and it is not advice to you.

What completion costs, and where the guides are out of date

A resale is exempt from VAT and pays regional transfer tax instead. A new build from a developer pays VAT plus stamp duty. Two of the rates in the coastal regions changed recently and most published tables have not caught up.

• Comunitat Valenciana: 9 per cent, and 11 per cent above one million euros. It was cut from 10 per cent with effect from 1 June 2026.
• Región de Murcia: 7.75 per cent, cut from 8 per cent in July 2025.
• Andalucía: 7 per cent.
• Illes Balears: a sliding scale from 8 per cent, reaching 13 per cent above two million euros, applied as an average rate to the whole price rather than bracket by bracket.
• Canarias: 6.5 per cent.

On a new build the rate is 10 per cent VAT plus regional stamp duty on top. The Canary Islands are outside VAT entirely and charge IGIC instead, at 7 per cent, which is the one exception nobody mentions.

If you are buying from a non-resident seller

You are required to withhold 3 per cent of the price and pay it to the tax office within one month, on form 211. It is an advance against the seller's tax, not a cost to you.

Failing to do it is not a paperwork slip. The property itself becomes liable for the amount, and the Land Registry records a marginal note on your own title saying so. Your house secures the seller's tax bill. The other side of this transaction is set out in selling a property in Spain.

If the plan is to rent it out, the ground moved this year

Spain created a national registration number for short-term lets by decree in December 2024, applying from July 2025. On 19 May 2026 the Supreme Court annulled the registration procedure, on the ground that the State had no competence to create it. The digital single window survives; the registration procedure does not.

What governs, therefore, is the regional licence, as it did before. In the Valencian Community that means a municipal urban compatibility report and registration in the regional tourism register, with the entry valid for five years. In Andalucía it means a declaration to the regional tourism register, and municipalities now have express power to cap the number of touristic homes per building or per area.

There is a second layer that catches buyers by surprise. Since 3 April 2025 a community of owners can prohibit touristic letting, not merely limit it, by a three-fifths majority, and a new article 7.3 requires express prior approval from the community before the activity starts. Those decisions are not retroactive, so an established letting is protected. A flat you buy intending to let is not.

Check the community's statutes and minutes before you commit. An older clause restricting the units to residential use can already be enough to block it.

You do not have to be in Spain for any of it

A buyer can complete through a representative under a notarial power of attorney. That is the normal way a purchase from abroad is run, and it is covered in the Spanish power of attorney.

What is unavoidable is the number. Every appearing party's tax number has to be in the deed, or the registry will not complete the registration, and for a foreign individual that number is the NIE. It is the first thing to start: see what a NIE number is and who needs one.

The notary will also record exactly how the price was paid. A deed where the parties refuse to identify the means of payment cannot be registered.

Frequently asked questions

Will I be taxed 100 per cent as a non-EU buyer?
No. That measure is a bill that has not been voted on, let alone passed. It is not in force.

Does buying give me residency?
No, not since 3 April 2025. Existing investor permits remain valid for their term and can be renewed under the old rules, but no new ones are granted.

Can I get out of the purchase by losing my deposit?
Only if the contract expressly gives you that right. Otherwise the seller can require you to complete.

Do I need a Spanish bank account?
In practice yes, for the utilities and the community charges, though the transfer itself can be made from abroad. Cash is not an option: payments in cash are capped far below any purchase price.

What do I owe every year after buying?
IBI to the town hall, community fees, and a non-resident return even if you never rent the place out. That last one surprises people: see non-resident property tax in Spain.

Should I make a Spanish will at the same time?
It is the sensible moment. Why it matters, and what it does and does not change, is in Spanish inheritance tax.

Why Buenaley?

Buenaley is a Spanish law firm working with international clients. On a purchase there are two things we take off your hands, and the first one has to start before anything else.

The first is the NIE. Without it the deed cannot be registered in your name, and it is the step that most often delays a completion. We run that through our NIE service, for every buyer on the deed.

The second is the purchase itself: the registry and planning checks, the deposit contract before you sign it rather than after, the community debt position, the tax on completion, and the deed at the notary. Where letting is part of the plan, the community statutes and the regional licence get checked before the offer, not afterwards.

• NIE applications for every buyer, started on day one
• The arras contract reviewed and negotiated before signature
• Registry, charges, community debts and planning status verified
• Completion handled under power of attorney if you cannot travel
• Fixed price, agreed in advance

Looking at a property, or already holding a draft contract you have been asked to sign this week? Send us the address and the contract and you will hear what stands and what needs changing. Or start with the NIE application, because nothing completes without it.