A Step-by-Step Guide to Purchasing Property in Spain
When shopping for property in Spain, take your time. Some properties sell within a month, but others can linger on the market for a year—often because owners are seeking unrealistic sums.
Away from the popular Costas, English isn’t as widely spoken as you might expect. Real estate agents will happily give you listings, but with rock solid local interest, they can afford to ignore the language skills needed to attract international clients. Further complicating matters, most people in Catalonia use Catalan rather than standard Spanish. Signs don’t point to la playa (the beach). Here it’s la platja. The same applies to the Basque Country on Spain’s northern Atlantic coast, where many people speak Basque. Otherwise, the purchase process is fairly straightforward.
Step 1: Make an Offer
Once a property has been chosen, the first step is to make a verbal offer. You may wish to make this offer conditional to being able to obtain a mortgage. In a typical transaction for resale property, you put down an initial deposit ($3,600 to $7,200) to reserve a property. Ideally, e-mail or fax the reservation contract to your lawyer to check before signing. This initial deposit is refundable if the vendor changes his mind, but without a clause like “subject to mortgage approval,” you’ll lose your deposit if you cancel because you can’t get a loan.
Step 2: Check Title
Your lawyer ensures that Spanish legal requirements are met and that the property is bought free of encumbrances, charges, liens, or debt. In Spain, any outstanding debts are transferred with the property. Obviously, you don’t want to inherit someone else’s back taxes.
Step 3: Sign a Preliminary Agreement
You then sign a preliminary contract, the compraventa, and pay a portion of the purchase price, normally 10%. This is a legally binding contract that states the date of completion.
Step 4: Sign the Title Deed
On the agreed date of closing, all the parties (or their designated representatives) go to the notario’s office to sign the escritura, the deed of sale. At that point you pay the balance of the purchase price along with all fees and taxes. The entire conveyance process normally takes around eight weeks.