What it really costs to buy a house in Spain

Taxes, notary, lawyer and the fees nobody mentions. A plain list with numbers.

What you will learn

• Every cost on top of the price, in order
• What a lawyer does and why we include one
• Where buyers from abroad usually lose money

The price on the listing is the start of the sum, not the end of it. On top of it come the transfer tax or VAT, the notary, the land registry, and the lawyer who checks that what you are buying is what you think it is. Together they add a meaningful percentage to the price, and they are due at completion, so they belong in the budget from the first viewing.

The lawyer is the part people are tempted to skip, and the part we never do. An independent lawyer reviews the contracts and the paperwork of the property at every stage, from the first agreement to the deed. We include one in our fees because the problems a lawyer catches are the expensive ones.

If you are buying from abroad, the other cost is time: flights for viewings that turn out to be wrong. We pre-check and visit properties for you and report back with photographs and an honest view, so you fly out only for the ones worth seeing, whether you are looking at villas for sale in Moraira or property in Calpe.

Written by Nicolas Strebel.