Legal advice in Spain, based in Mallorca

The NIE is Spain’s identity number for foreigners. There are two types of NIE, for non-residents or for residents. It is not itself a visa and it is not residency, but it will be attached to your residency permit. You need one to buy or sell property, inherit here, open most Spanish bank accounts, appear on a deed, and in general operate in the market. I recommend obtaining a NIE as soon as possible as it can delay a closing.

In Spain the sale of a property is not finished until you sign the public deed (escritura) before a notary. The notary is a public officer, not your lawyer. They check identity, read the deed, and send notice to the Land Registry. They do not do your due diligence and they do not take your side. That is still the lawyer’s work. The buyer typically chooses the notary, if the seller’s agent is recommending a notary it will likely side with the agent/seller. I always recommend working with your own notary. I can help with that.

Arras are the deposit that locks a Spanish sale before the notary, the earnest money. This is a very important document because it will bind you to buy or sale, unless you agree a way out (for example, a financing contingency or clean title). The usual form is arras penitenciales: if the buyer walks away they lose the deposit; if the seller walks away they return double. Ten percent is common, not mandatory. If you are really interested in the home, you want to increase the arras. Agents and sellers request to be paid the deposit to their bank account -not an escrow or neutral party. Depending on the amount and the contingencies of the property, you may want to request a notary to hold the deposit, acting as a neutral party, instead of handing the deposit to the seller. If there is no closing, the notary has a public obligation to return the deposit to the buyer. The wording of the arras agreement is very important. Read it and negotiate it before you transfer anything.

Often yes. A power of attorney signed before a notary in your country, then apostilled, lets someone here obtain the NIE, deal with the bank, and sign the deed. Heirs and buyers who do not live in Spain do this all the time. I will liaise all paper work with a reputable notary in your country nearby you.

Not always as a matter of law. In practice, yes for most purchases, community fees, IBI and utilities. Banks will ask for a NIE. Open it before you are against a completion date.

The agent with the listing works for the owner. That is the job: get the deal done, keep the seller happy, move to signing. Many are not lawyers and are not trained to read charges, planning, the community, or the type of arras they want you to sign this week. Spain does not require training to agents and, literally, anyone can wake up and be an agent that day. Due diligence belongs before the deposit leaves your account, not the week of the notary. Get your own counsel at the start. It’s important that your counsel moves swiftly in order to pace a competitive market. The agent can still show the house. They should not be the only person reading the papers.

Three moments, three bills. When you buy a resale you pay transfer tax (ITP). The rate is set by the region, typically between 8-10% of the price. In the Balearics it is a scale, not one number. A new-build is a 10% VAT (IGIC in Canary Islands) plus stamp duty instead. Add notary and land registry around 2% of the price. While you own: property tax (IBI) every year to the town hall. If you do not permanently reside in your house and do not rent it, you may have to pay a yearly income tax on an empty house. If you let it, the rent is taxed as income tax. When you sell: capital gains on the profit, plus plusvalía municipal on the land. What usually comes off the gain is what you paid to buy (price, taxes, notary, registry, agent costs) and documented improvements (not painting and maintenance, or mere renewals). Agency fees on the sale and the plusvalía itself also come off. The buyer of a non-resident’s seller home withholds 3% of the price as a down payment on that gain, which then will need to be paid to the tax authority on behalf of the seller. As a seller, you want to make sure this is paid by the buyer. Structure who buys, and from where, before the arras. Afterwards you may be too late to modify an agreement already signed and a decision already made.

Spanish residential leases have rules on how a deposit is held and returned. However, owners tend to make up ways to not return the rental. A known practice in the market is that owners pay the agent fee who procured the tenant, with the tenant’s deposit. Many disputes are about condition reports, unpaid rent or an owner who has gone silent. Plan your termination of the lease with as much time as possible and reach out. I will help you strategize your exit and recovery.

Only with a tourist licence (ETV). New licences have been tightly rationed for years. Palma does not issue new ones. Flats in multi-family buildings are, as a rule, closed to new places. The usual path is to buy a house that already has a valid, transferable licence, and to check the transfer, not the listing text. Letting without one without licenses will be fined with +€60,000.

It can be, if the money is protected. Payments towards an unfinished home must sit in a special account and be backed by a bank guarantee or surety in your name, for what you have paid plus legal interest. Paying before there is a building licence is not recommended at all.

A company can ring-fence risk and help if several people own, or if the house is part of a business. It also costs more to run, and banks and tax offices treat it as a different animal. Buying in your own name is cleaner for a home you will actually use. Who buys changes tax on the way in, while you hold it, and when you sell. Decide that before the arras. Changing it later can trigger a second purchase with all the taxes again.

The category of the land will decide if and what you can build. On ordinary rustic land in Mallorca a new house usually needs a large minimum plot, often around 14,000 m², and even then the footprint is capped. On protected land (ANEI, ARIP and other special-interest ground) a new house is generally not possible, whatever the seller or agent says. An existing house can be legal depending on the time it was built. Past clients have received demolition orders on a purchased home, and I would not want that for you!

Two clocks, often mixed up. The fine for the planning offence can time-bar. The duty to put the land back, which can mean demolition, is a different action. On protected rustic land and spaces of special interest, that second clock often never runs out. The town can still order the wing down twenty years later. On ordinary rustic land the restoration action may now be time-limited again. Please be careful with statements like “eight years and nobody knocked”. Time-barred does not mean it is legal.

Yes, some banks will lend. Expect a larger deposit than a resident, a NIE, a Spanish valuation, and more paper from your home country. Do not sign arras that assume a mortgage you do not yet have. If the loan is a condition of the deal, it has to be in the contract, in words that actually let you walk away.

The rule is more than 183 calendar days living in Spain. Days do not have to be consecutive, and short trips out usually still count unless you can show tax residence somewhere else. There is a second test people miss: if your main economic life is here (work, business, the centre of your interests), Spain can treat you as resident even below 183 days. Same if your spouse and dependent children live here. Resident means Spain taxes worldwide income, not only the house.

Yes. Non-resident heirs are normal here. The file usually needs NIEs, powers of attorney, consular papers and a different route from a local family succession. If the file has been sitting still, it can often be started again.

The usual ones are the digital nomad visa, if you work remotely for someone outside Spain; the non-lucrative visa, if you live on a pension, savings or other passive income and will not work here; a work visa, if a Spanish employer hires you; and family reunion if you are joining someone who already has a card. The golden visa is closed for real estate purchases. However, you may still obtain it with large investments in Spanish assets. Buying a house does not give you residency.

Beckham is a special tax regime for people who become tax resident because they come to work, including, in many cases, the digital nomad route. For up to six years Spanish employment income can be taxed at a flat 24% up to a high cap, and foreign assets are generally kept out of Spanish wealth tax. You must not have been tax resident here in the previous five years, and you have to apply within months of arriving. It is not automatic and it is not for everyone on a non-lucrative visa. There is also a narrower path for certain innovative projects.

No. Living here, registering to the city townhouse (padrón), a NIE, even a residency card, is not the same thing as tax residence. Tax residence is a separate test: usually more than 183 days in the calendar year, or your main economic life here. You can spend long stretches in Spain and remain tax resident somewhere else, or the other way around.

Yes. My wife and I live here. We are happy to talk through neighbourhoods, schools, cars, insurance, gyms and where to buy food, the ordinary things that make a move work. We will be happy to guide you through it!