Countries · Spain
What to check in Spain before you sign.
Households renting at market rates here spend over 40 percent of income on housing more often than the EU average. Buying prices rise by double digits, widening the gap.
What costs the most money in Spain
28.1 percent of tenants paying market rents were overburdened by housing costs in 2024, against an EU average of 19.2 percent. House prices rose by 12.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2025, year on year. And 67.2 percent of unsuccessful home seekers name the price as the main reason.
Purchase costs
6 to 13%
of the purchase price, on top of the price in the listing.
- Madrid6 %
- Andalusia7 %
- Catalonia, banded10 to 13%
- Balearic Islands, banded8 to 13%
- Catalonia, large owners and whole buildings20 %
- Notary and registersliding scale, official tariff
Source: Tax authorities of Madrid, Andalusia, Catalonia and the Balearic Islands, as at 2026. Transfer tax is a matter for the regions and therefore differs considerably. Several regions reduce the rate for buyers under 35.
The trap for tenants
Since the housing reform of 2023 the annual rent increase is no longer tied to the consumer price index but to a dedicated rent index. Accepting the wrong index when signing means overpaying for good, because the error burns itself into the basis for every following year.
Worth knowing: for a tenancy, the cost of the agent and of drawing up the contract falls on the landlord by law.
Source: Law 12/2023 and Urban Tenancies Act (LAU), Article 20.1
Energy and the duty to renovate
The energy certificate is compulsory for sale and letting, and the class has to appear in every listing. It is valid for ten years at most, and for only five in the worst class G.
Source: Royal Decree 390/2021
Certificate validity: 10 years (class G: 5 years)
What to watch for in Spain in particular
Three traps. Anyone who declares too low a purchase price has been taxed on the official reference value regardless since 2021. That value can be looked up publicly. The buyer is liable for outstanding debts of the owners' association from the current year and the three preceding ones. The flat itself stands as security for them.
Near the beach, a plot can also be largely unbuildable because of the 100 metre coastal protection strip. None of that has to appear in the listing.
Source: Law 11/2021, Horizontal Property Act, Article 9.1.e, and Coastal Law 22/1988
Official maps in Spain
5 map layers lie directly over your property.
Not as an average for the district, but at your exact address, with a legend and a visible source. Every layer can be switched on separately.
Check it yourself
The official bodies in Spain.
These bodies are grouped by category: property and encumbrances, energy, natural hazards and more. The report on your property names the responsible bodies, with the date checked and a link. A figure you cannot verify is not a figure, it is a claim.
over 800
official data sources
4
categories
What this costs
28.1%
of tenants paying a market rent spend more than 40 percent of their income on housing. The EU average is 19.2 percent.
Source: Eurostat, Survey on Income and Living Conditions, 2024
12.9%
is how much home prices rose in the last quarter of 2025 against the year before. Anyone working from last year's price is working from the wrong number.
Source: INE, the Spanish statistics office, house price index, fourth quarter of 2025
These numbers arise after the signature. The report does the maths before it.
The market in Spain
714,237 homes sold in 2025, up 11.5 percent. The average price stood at €2,284 per square metre and the share of foreign buyers at 13.8 percent. That is the highest level since 2007.
Source: INE statistics office and Colegio de Registradores, 2025
A real dossier from this country
See what the analysis found on an actual listing in Spain — every figure with its source.
Open the example dossierOther countries