Buying property in Spain feels, to most UK buyers, more familiar than it is. The process has a similar shape to a UK purchase. You find a property, agree a price, sign contracts, then complete. The legal framework underneath that shape, however, is different in ways that matter, and the points at which things go wrong are rarely the obvious ones. They tend to be structural issues that were not identified before commitment was made, and that become significantly harder to resolve once they have arisen.
This piece is intended to set out where those issues lie, and how to approach the purchase in a way that addresses them before they become problems. The legal content covers the transaction itself, the tax position during ownership, the residency dimension, and the succession question that first-time buyers in Spain consistently underestimate. All of it is better considered before exchange than after.
The notary is not your solicitor
The first and most consequential misunderstanding concerns the role of the notary. UK buyers tend to assume that the notary performs a function similar to a conveyancing solicitor (eg, checking the property, advising on risk, protecting the buyer’s position, etc). That assumption is wrong, and acting on it can be costly.
The Spanish notary is a public official. Their role is to authenticate the transaction, verify the identities of the parties, and ensure the deed is legally executed. They do not carry out due diligence on the property. They do not investigate its financial history, review its planning status, or advise on whether the buyer is taking on liabilities they are not aware of. That responsibility falls entirely on the buyer’s own legal representative, and there is no equivalent of the notary’s role to fall back on if an independent lawyer has not been appointed.
Appointing an independent Spanish lawyer, entirely separate from the seller, the estate agent, and the developer in a new-build transaction, is not an optional precaution. It is the mechanism through which the buyer’s interests are protected, and the due diligence that should precede any commitment to purchase is the lawyer’s core function.
Debts follow the property
In England, when a property changes hands, the seller’s debts remain the seller’s problem. Spanish law works differently. Outstanding mortgage debt, unpaid local property tax, community fees in arrears, and utility liabilities can all attach to the property rather than to its owner, and they transfer to the buyer on completion. A buyer who completes without checking can find themselves legally responsible for someone else’s financial obligations from the moment they take ownership, with no straightforward mechanism for recovery.
The primary document for verifying the property’s legal and financial position is the Nota Simple, an official extract from the Spanish Land Registry. It records who owns the property, how it is described, and whether any charges, mortgages, liens, or restrictions are attached to it. A Nota Simple should be obtained and reviewed by a lawyer before any deposit is paid. A seller’s verbal assurance that the property is debt-free carries no legal weight and provides no protection if the position turns out to be otherwise.
The Nota Simple does not tell the whole story. Community of owners fees, local property tax arrears, and utility accounts require separate verification. For rural properties and older villas, building licences and habitation certificates also need to be checked. Extensions or structures built without planning permission are not uncommon in parts of Spain, and an unauthorised structure can affect insurability, the ability to obtain a mortgage, and the ability to sell. These are not issues that resolve themselves after purchase.
The buying process and where legal commitment arises
The purchase process follows a recognisable sequence, but the point at which legal commitment arises is earlier, and more consequential, than many UK buyers expect. Before any of it begins, a buyer will need to obtain a Numero de Identificacion de Extranjero, the NIE. This is the tax identification number issued to foreign nationals and is required for every significant legal and financial transaction in Spain, including signing contracts, registering the property, paying taxes, and opening a Spanish bank account. The NIE should be applied for early, as processing times can run to several weeks. A lawyer can apply on a buyer’s behalf through a power of attorney, which avoids the need to be present in Spain during what can be an administrative process.
The transaction itself typically begins with a reservation contract and a small initial deposit to take the property off the market. This is followed by the contrato de arras, the private purchase contract, at which point a further deposit of typically ten per cent of the purchase price is paid. It is at this stage that the risk crystallises. The arras contract is legally binding on both sides: a buyer who withdraws without good cause forfeits the deposit; a seller who withdraws must return double what has been received. The financial exposure is material, and the terms of the arras contract, including representations about the property’s condition, debts, and legal status, are the mechanism through which a buyer is protected if problems emerge before completion.
Legal advice must come before the arras contract is signed, not after. By the point of completion before the notary, when the balance is paid and the escritura, the public deed of sale, is executed, the opportunity to renegotiate or withdraw without cost has passed.
Purchase costs and the ongoing tax position
The costs of acquiring a Spanish property extend well beyond the purchase price. Buyers should budget for an additional ten to fifteen per cent to cover taxes, legal fees, notary charges, and land registry registration. For a resale property, transfer tax applies at rates that vary by autonomous community and generally fall between seven and ten per cent of the purchase price. For a new-build purchased from a developer, VAT at ten per cent applies instead, together with stamp duty of between one and one and a half per cent.
The ongoing tax position after purchase is an area where the post-Brexit change in status for UK nationals has a direct financial effect. Non-resident owners are subject to an annual imputed income tax charge even where the property is not let, calculated by reference to the property’s cadastral value. This is charged at twenty-four per cent for UK nationals, compared to nineteen per cent for EU and EEA residents, a disparity that flows directly from the United Kingdom’s reclassification as a third country from 1 January 2021.
Where the property is let, the position has historically been more pronounced still. UK nationals have been taxed at twenty-four per cent on gross rental income with no permitted deduction for expenses, while EU and EEA residents pay nineteen per cent on net income after allowable costs such as mortgage interest, insurance, maintenance, and management fees.
That distinction, however, is now the subject of active litigation. On 28 July 2025, the Spanish National High Court (Audiencia Nacional) ruled in SAN 3630/2025 that denying expense deductions to non-EU residents is incompatible with the principle of free movement of capital under Article 63 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and with the non-discrimination provisions of the relevant double taxation treaty. The ruling was analysed by both EY and KPMG in September 2025 as potentially significant for all non-EU property owners, including UK nationals. The State Attorney has since appealed to the Supreme Court (Tribunal Supremo), and the Agencia Tributaria continues to apply the existing rules — taxing gross rental income at twenty-four per cent — until a final determination is made. The statutory position therefore remains unchanged for the time being.
For anyone intending to generate rental income from a Spanish property, several practical points follow from this. The twenty-four per cent gross charge remains operative and must be budgeted for. Expenses should be carefully documented from the outset, both to support any future deduction claim if the Supreme Court upholds the lower court’s ruling, and to avoid losing the benefit of the four-year reclaim window that would apply to earlier years. The interaction between the tax rate, the inability to deduct costs, and the potential for that position to shift judicially or legislatively is not a detail to be resolved after the first Spanish tax return is filed — it is central to the financial case for purchase.
Residency, the 90-day rule, and how the property is held
Property ownership in Spain does not confer any right to live there. Since Brexit, UK nationals are subject to the same rules as other non-EU visitors: a stay of no more than ninety days in any one hundred and eighty-day period without a visa. This applies regardless of whether a property is owned, and the limit applies across the entire Schengen area, not just to time spent in Spain. Buyers who purchase with the intention of spending extended periods there should take advice on the appropriate visa or residency route before committing to the purchase, not once they are already owners.
The Spanish Golden Visa, which previously offered a residency route for buyers investing above a threshold in Spanish property, closed to new real estate applications in April 2025. The options that remain available, including the Non-Lucrative Visa for those with sufficient passive income and the Digital Nomad Visa for remote workers, have their own requirements and are not straightforwardly obtained. Understanding the residency position before purchase removes the risk of completing on a property only to find that the intended use of it is not legally available.
The structure in which the property is held is also a decision that is much easier to make correctly at the outset than to revisit afterwards. Joint ownership between spouses operates differently under Spanish law than it does under English law, and the ownership structure affects both the tax position during ownership and the succession position on death. Decisions that feel administrative at the point of purchase have legal and financial consequences that extend well beyond the transaction itself.
Succession planning as part of the purchase decision
Succession is consistently the aspect of Spanish property ownership that first-time buyers give least thought to at the point of purchase, and it is one of the areas where the gap between English and Spanish law is most significant. An English Will, however carefully drafted, may not be sufficient to govern what happens to a Spanish property on death.
Under EU Regulation 650/2012 (Brussels IV), which continues to bind Spanish courts regardless of Brexit, the law of the deceased’s habitual residence at the time of death governs the succession as a whole. For a UK national who is clearly and unambiguously based in the United Kingdom, English law will apply and Spanish forced heirship rules will not arise. However, forced heirship can apply in a broader range of circumstances than many buyers appreciate. Where a UK national has retired to Spain permanently, or has spent enough time there that habitual residence in Spain could be established, Spanish succession law governs the entire estate and children acquire automatic legal rights over fixed portions of it that no Will can override. The same risk arises where habitual residence is genuinely ambiguous — a common position for those who divide their time between the two countries — or where a UK Will has inadvertently revoked a Spanish Will that contained a protective choice of law election, leaving the estate exposed if habitual residence is later found to be in Spain. In each of those situations, the forced heirship regime applies regardless of what any English Will says.
Brussels IV allows a British national to address this directly by making an express election for English law to govern their succession, regardless of where they are habitually resident at death. That election must be made in a Spanish notarial Will and is the most effective protection available, particularly for buyers who may spend increasing periods in Spain over time. Without it, the applicable law is determined by habitual residence at the date of death — a fact that may be very different from the position at the date of purchase. A Spanish Will also needs to be carefully coordinated with any English Will: a revocation clause in a new or updated English Will can inadvertently revoke an existing Spanish Will if the two documents have not been prepared with each other in mind.
Addressing succession at the point of purchase is not premature. It is the moment at which the ownership structure is being decided, the relevant assets are being identified, and the legal framework is already being engaged. Building the succession position into that process, rather than treating it as something to return to, means the property is held from the outset in a way that reflects what the buyer intends to happen both during their lifetime and after it
Taking advice
The issues described in this piece are not uncommon, and they are not inevitable. What they have in common is that they are all significantly more straightforward to address before commitment than after. The buyer who understands the legal landscape before signing anything is in a materially different position from the buyer who encounters these questions for the first time once a deposit has been paid or a contract has been signed.
The Spain teams at Buckles advise UK clients buying property overseas, covering the legal and tax aspects of the purchase itself, the succession planning that should accompany it, and the structuring questions that are best answered before contracts are exchanged rather than long afterwards.
