Buying In Spain

Once you have made that decision to buy your dream property in Spain you might begin to ask yourself… “what about the legal process?”… “who do I pay my deposit to?, and more importantly “what happens to my deposit if anything happens to the developers during the construction of my property?”, “do I need any formal documents as a UK citizen to proceed?”, “can I open a bank account in Spain?”

These are all normal questions you will ask yourself and there will, probably, be more!

The legal process in Spain is absolutely as safe as it is in the UK, providing you stick to the basic rule, always appoint a Spanish (English speaking) solicitor.
The rules and regulations can vary slightly from one region of Spain to another so we would always recommend that you find a solicitor reasonably local to the area of your purchase.

We would be more than happy to recommend some local solicitors that have represented some of our clients if you wish.

The team at Andalucian Homes are all professionally qualified to advise on all aspects of this process and have purchased several properties over the years in Spain.

We can organise the setting up of your N.I.E number, this is a fiscal number that you will need in Spain for purchasing a property, buying a car, setting up an insurance policy, getting utility connection and so on. The procedure can be done very quickly at the local police station.

Once you have your N.I.E number you can then open a current account at any Spanish high street bank along with your UK passport.

All our developers are reputable construction companies that have full bank guarantees in place. A bank guarantee basically gives you peace of mind that should anything unlikely happen to the developer during construction you will not lose any deposits paid as a consequence.

We would like to stress that this is highly unlikely to happen to well established and reputable builders however, we would warn strongly not to deal with any development that cannot give you written assurance of these guarantees.
A typical example of the payment structure for our new build developments is detailed below.
This can vary slightly from one developer to another but usually takes the form of:

Step 1.       A deposit of 3,000 euros is payable to the developer in Spain once you have decided on the property of your choice. Your solicitor will draw up a reserve contract that is signed by you and this takes the property off the market.

Step 2.       30 days later 15% of purchase price is payable (less your 3,000 deposit) at this stage the purchase contract is signed.

Step 3.       6 months later the remaining 15% is payable, leaving the balance of 70% payable on completion, this time period can vary depending at what stage of construction you enter at but a typical build time can be 18 to 24 months.

On completion of your property you can either transfer funds directly through your solicitor to the developer, for the 70% balance or, arrange for this balance to be mortgaged as you would in the UK.

Please feel free to contact us with any questions you have and we will be more than happy to assist.