Buy a property process in Spain. Learn everything related to buying a spanish property to renovate in Spain.

Buying a property in Spain, an easy process.

The purchasing process is very easy in Spain as this process can be done in one day and one single location:

1. Choosing the right property
You choose properties from our website that match your preference and budget. The next step is to contact us in the UK to ask any questions regarding the property and to then coordinate a visit to the Turia Valley to view properties and the location.

2. Visiting the property
We will accompany with you Spain without additional costs for you (you only pay your own flight ticket , food and accommodation, £150 aprox). Normally we make the trip with a group of people who are interested in other properties in the same area but we can arrange a private trip if it is required. We will fly from London Stantead to Asturias or from Bristol to Madrid and then Asturias, depending where you or the group are based.

Usually we fly on Saturday or Sunday after lunch and back by Monday evening. This is because you need one or two days to visit the properties and surrounding area, and then Monday morning to meet the public administrators involved in the purchasing process (public notary, gestoria or administrator, register, bank, etc).

3. Buying your property
When you have made a decision as to the property you want to buy, you will be asked to make an immediate payment for a reservation deposit, thereby ensuring that the property is not sold to another purchaser.

That means that you will pay a small part of the value of the property in a Spanish contract called “Contrato de Arras”. This is the standard Spanish private contract between you and us where you commit to buying the property. You then have between 1 and 30 days to pay the difference of the money already paid, and we commit to reserving the property of your choice until the end of the contract day.

On a fixed date, you, ourselves and the vendor will meet in the local Public Notary to sign the "Escritura de Compraventa" or title deed. The local public notary will prepare the Escritura de Compraventa, a legal document which precisely lays out:

• What property is changing hands
• The persons involved in this transaction
• The declared purchase price of the Spanish property
• Any other pertinent details related with the property

The Notary will then obtain a report from the land registry to confirm there have been no charges made against the property since the private contract was signed. They will explain the implications of the Escritura to both parties and it may be advisable to have a translator for this stage.

The buyer, vendor and Notary will then sign the document and the outstanding balance will be paid to the vendor who will simultaneously pass over possession of the property to you, handing you the keys in front of the Public Notary as stipulated in Spanish property law. After this the notary will inform the local land registry.

At this stage the sale is completed. Immediately after completion, the notary will inform the local land registry by fax of your purchase of property in Spain (the identity of the new owner), to prevent the property being sold twice. In this way the notary and the Land Registry act together to protect and guarantee your interests. Then the Public Notary will give you a copy of the transaction and send all details about the title deed (hard copy) to the land registry to finalise the process. Shortly afterwards, you, your lawyer or your Gestoria will receive a copy of the deeds and have the property inscribed in the land registry.

You will then have to pay the handling fee to Spanish Country Cottages, the relevant taxes and have the original title deed submitted to the Land Registry for registration of your title. See more details.

This complete process take less than 1 hour and after that the property will be legally yours and you will have a copy of the transaction. A few weeks later you will receive the hard copy of the deeds with a lot of stamps after the property is registered by the Land Registry office. The process doesn’t require a lawyer but we recommend hiring one if you are not familiar with this process or you want to ensure everything is in order. We do this as an intermediary of both sides (vendor and buyer) anyway, but it would be understandable if you’d prefer to contact a local lawyer or Gestoria (administrator, accountants and lawyers) which we can also help you locate if you need.

Normally, a lawyer is required to check the legal status of a Spanish property, ensuring there are no charges or embargos recorded on the property register or any debts on a property in Spain as it would be passed on to you. This is the normal processof buying a property in Spain but our properties in the Turia Valley are renovation projects, that means the properties are not registered so cannot have debts or pending charges. This make the transaction simple and very safe and usually doesn't requiere a lawyer (however, the Gestoria and Public Notary will check the property for you if it is required).

Others
Because most of the properties that we sell are more than a 100 years old and owners tend to have inherited property from previous generations, the property may not be registered, not have a catastral reference or electricity and water (many of these houses were originally used as barns). That means that you will need to do some paper work with the local authorities and private supplier companies to call your renovation project “a house” , because once you renovate your house, you will want to be sure somebody picks-up your rubbish from the door, receive your mail or earn extra income if choosing to rent your property.

So the same day you buy the property we will contact a “gestoria”, a private administrative office to deal with everything related with the property if it is necessary: Register the property, take a catastral reference, deal with the electricity and water companies or other issues related with the property. The gestoria is a professional figure in Spain as they work as both accountants and lawyer at the same time.

Of course, if your Spanish is not good enough yet or you don’t want to deal with this directly, we can process it for you and charge you a small fee for this service. We are very experienced and knowledgeable about this process so will be very happy to help you deal with the purchasing transaction.

Important legal and tax information