Lo que preguntan propietarios y compradores
Comprar y tener una casa en otro país es sobre todo papeleo que nunca ha visto antes. Estas son las preguntas que más nos hacen, contestadas como las contestaríamos al otro lado de la mesa.
Buying here
What the process actually looks like from the outside, and where the money goes that is not the asking price.
What does buying a house in Spain cost on top of the price?Conviene planificarlo
More than most buyers budget for, and the largest part of it is tax. On a resale you pay a transfer tax to the Catalan government. On a new build you pay VAT plus a stamp duty instead. On top of that sit the notary, the land registry, your lawyer, and a gestor if you use one.
We do not print a percentage here on purpose. Catalonia has changed its transfer tax more than once, and the rate depends on the price band and sometimes on the buyer. Tell us the property and we will give you the figure that applies today, in writing, before you commit to anything.
- 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.
Con franqueza
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.
Do I need an NIE before I can buy?Urge
Yes, and it is the thing most likely to hold up your purchase. The NIE is your foreigner identification number in Spain and nothing can be signed at the notary without it. You can apply in Spain or through a Spanish consulate in your own country.
Start it the moment you are seriously looking, not when you have found a house. Appointments come and go, and a purchase timetable does not wait for one.
Con franqueza
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?Urge
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.
Con franqueza
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.
Who looks after the house when I am not there?
We do, if you would like us to. We hold a set of keys at the office in Sant Antoni de Calonge, walk the house on a rhythm you set, and deal with what we find using our own team rather than sending you a list of numbers to ring from another country.
You are told what was done and what it cost, and anything beyond a small job is quoted and approved before it starts.
Con franqueza
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?Conviene planificarlo
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.
Con franqueza
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?Conviene planificarlo
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.
Con franqueza
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?Urge
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.
Con franqueza
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?Conviene planificarlo
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.
Con franqueza
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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