Fragen von Eigentümern und Käufern
Ein Haus im Ausland zu kaufen und zu halten ist vor allem Papierkram, den Sie noch nie gesehen haben. Das sind die Fragen, die uns am häufigsten gestellt werden, beantwortet so, wie wir sie am Schreibtisch beantworten würden.
Buying here
What the process actually looks like from the outside, and where the money goes that is not the asking price.
Was kostet ein Hauskauf in Spanien zusätzlich zum Kaufpreis?Rechtzeitig planen
Mehr, als die meisten Käufer einplanen, und der größte Teil davon ist Steuer. Beim Wiederverkauf zahlen Sie eine Übertragungssteuer an die katalanische Regierung, beim Neubau stattdessen Mehrwertsteuer plus eine Beurkundungssteuer. Dazu kommen Notar, Grundbuch, Ihr Anwalt und, wenn Sie einen einsetzen, ein Gestor.
Wir nennen hier bewusst keinen Prozentsatz. Katalonien hat die Übertragungssteuer mehr als einmal geändert, und der Satz hängt von der Preisstufe und mitunter vom Käufer ab. Nennen Sie uns die Immobilie, dann bekommen Sie schriftlich die Zahl, die heute gilt, bevor Sie sich zu irgendetwas verpflichten.
- Get an NIE. Nothing else can be signed without one.
- Agree the price and sign a reservation, which takes the house off the market.
- Your lawyer checks the title, the debts, the licence and what is actually built.
- Sign the deposit contract and pay the deposit. This is the point of no return.
- Sign at the notary, pay the balance and the taxes, and take the keys.
Ehrlich gesagt
The deposit contract is where people lose money, not the notary. Under the usual arras penitenciales, if you pull out you lose the deposit and if the seller pulls out they owe you double. Buyers sign it in a good mood a few days after seeing a house they like, sometimes before the survey and before the mortgage is agreed.
Do not sign it until your lawyer has seen the title and you know the money is there. A week of patience at that stage costs nothing. Signing early can cost you the whole deposit.
Brauche ich eine NIE, bevor ich kaufen kann?Zeitkritisch
Ja, und genau daran hängt der Kauf am häufigsten. Die NIE ist Ihre Ausländeridentifikationsnummer in Spanien, und ohne sie kann beim Notar nichts unterschrieben werden. Beantragen können Sie sie in Spanien oder über ein spanisches Konsulat in Ihrem Heimatland.
Fangen Sie damit an, sobald Sie ernsthaft suchen, und nicht erst, wenn Sie ein Haus gefunden haben. Termine sind mal da und mal nicht, und ein Kaufzeitplan wartet nicht darauf.
Ehrlich gesagt
Every buyer on the deed needs their own, including a spouse who is not paying for any of it. That catches people out and it is not something anyone can waive on the day.
At what point am I actually committed?Zeitkritisch
At the deposit contract, not at the notary. A reservation takes the house off the market and is usually recoverable. The deposit contract that follows it is a binding agreement with a penalty written into it: pull out and you normally lose what you paid, and if the seller pulls out they normally owe you double.
Completion at the notary is the formal transfer, but by then the decision was made weeks earlier.
Ehrlich gesagt
Do not sign the deposit contract to hold a house while you think about it. That is what the reservation is for. We have watched buyers treat the deposit as a placeholder and then discover it is the only document in the process with real teeth.
Can I get a Spanish mortgage if I do not live here?
Usually yes, and on different terms from a resident. Spanish banks lend to non-residents against Spanish property, but typically a smaller share of the price, and they will want to see your income and your existing borrowing wherever in the world it is.
Allow more time than you would at home. The bank will value the property itself, and that valuation, not the agreed price, is what it lends against.
Owning and upkeep
What a house on this coast needs when you are not in it, and what it costs to keep somebody looking after it.
Wer kümmert sich um das Haus, wenn ich nicht da bin?
Wir, wenn Sie möchten. Wir verwahren einen Schlüsselsatz im Büro in Sant Antoni de Calonge, gehen das Haus in einem von Ihnen bestimmten Rhythmus ab und kümmern uns mit dem eigenen Team um das, was wir vorfinden, statt Ihnen eine Liste mit Nummern zu schicken, die Sie aus dem Ausland abtelefonieren.
Sie erfahren, was gemacht wurde und was es gekostet hat, und alles über eine Kleinigkeit hinaus wird vorher angeboten und freigegeben.
Ehrlich gesagt
Plenty of owners rely on a neighbour, and for a fortnight that is fine. It stops working the day something happens that needs a decision, a tradesman and somebody to be there on a Tuesday. That is usually the phone call we get.
What happens to a pool left alone over the winter?Rechtzeitig planen
It goes green, and on the wooded plots here it fills with pine needles while it does. A pool left untreated from October does not need cleaning in May, it needs emptying and refilling, and that is a far larger bill than the winter treatment would have been.
Emptying a pool is also not risk free. In the wrong ground conditions an empty pool can lift. It is not a job to do casually.
Ehrlich gesagt
This is the single most common expensive surprise we see on a second home here, and it is entirely avoidable for the price of a few visits over the winter.
How quickly can someone actually get to the house?
From our office in Sant Antoni de Calonge, most of the houses we look after are within a short drive. Because we hold the keys ourselves and use our own people, a burst pipe on a Tuesday morning is dealt with that morning rather than after a day of arranging.
In an emergency we stop the damage first and reach you afterwards. Turning off the water and making a property secure does not wait for an email reply. Everything beyond making it safe does wait for your decision.
Do I pay Spanish tax on a house I never let out?Rechtzeitig planen
Yes. Two separate things, and owners are regularly surprised by the second one. The first is IBI, the local property tax, billed by the town hall. The second is non-resident income tax: Spain taxes a non-resident owner on an imputed income from a second home even when it earns nothing and stands empty all year.
Both are ordinary, both are manageable, and both need somebody to actually file them. The penalty for not knowing is the same as the penalty for not bothering.
Ehrlich gesagt
The imputed income tax is the one nobody mentions during a viewing. It is not large for most houses, but it is annual, it is your responsibility to declare rather than something you get billed for, and it accumulates quietly if it is never filed. If you have owned here for years and have never heard of it, that is worth a conversation now rather than later.
Letting it out
Licences, seasons and what is realistic, for owners thinking about renting the house when they are not using it.
Do I need a tourist licence to let the house out?Zeitkritisch
For short holiday lets in Catalonia, yes. The licence attaches to the specific property, not to you as the owner, and it has to be in place before the house is advertised anywhere. The platforms ask for the number.
The important part: a licence is not something you can assume you will get. Municipalities on this coast control how many they issue, and some have stopped issuing new ones altogether. Whether a given house can be licensed is a question to answer before you buy it, not after.
- Check whether the property already holds a licence. Ask for the number, not for a reassurance.
- Check what the municipality is currently doing about new ones.
- Check the community of owners rules, which can forbid holiday letting whatever the town hall says.
- Only then plan around the letting income.
Ehrlich gesagt
If you are buying partly on the basis of letting income, make the licence a condition of the purchase. We have seen buyers pay for a house on a rental projection and then find the licence cannot be transferred or cannot be obtained. An agent who waves that question away is not doing you a favour.
Can I use the house myself and still let it out?
Yes, and it is what most owners here do. You block the weeks you want, and the house is let around them. The practical tension is that the weeks you most want are usually the weeks that earn most, so the honest conversation is about which ones you are willing to give up.
Owners who take the shoulder seasons for themselves and let the peak generally end up happiest, and they get the better weather anyway.
What does it cost to have the letting managed?Rechtzeitig planen
It is a share of what the house earns, plus the actual costs of running a let: changeover cleaning, laundry, consumables and any repairs between guests. Our sister company Quality Renting handles the letting side, and we handle the house.
What that share is depends on how much of it you want to hand over, from listing and bookings only through to a house you never think about. Tell us which of those you want and you get a number.
Ehrlich gesagt
Be careful comparing a gross yield from a portal with what actually reaches you. Cleaning, laundry, the licence, the tax on the income, the wear on a house used by strangers and the weeks that do not book are all real. A house that lets well is still a good thing to own. It is just not the number on the advert.
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