Buying a House in Spain? Start With These First Steps

So you want to buy a house in Spain and you do not know where to start. Here is the honest answer: you do not start with viewings, and you do not start with an estate agent. You start with four boring things. Your NIE number, a Spanish bank account, a power of attorney if you live abroad, and a budget that includes the taxes, not just the price. Get those four moving early and the rest of the purchase becomes a process instead of a panic.

My name is Daniel Bertomeu and I work alongside my father Juan Bertomeu, a lawyer with offices in Moraira and Dénia, here on the Costa Blanca, with over 30 years of experience. We are not an estate agency. We are independent lawyers and tax advisors. My father Juan is the lawyer of the family, ICALI number 4643, and he has been guiding foreign buyers through Spanish purchases since 1991. We do this for international clients basically every week.

This article is the bird's eye view, the checklist you read before anything else. Each step has its own deeper guide, and I will point you to them as we go. If you want the full process from first offer to keys, that lives in our complete guide to buying property in Spain as a non-resident.

Where to actually look for the house

Let me start where most people actually start, which is the search itself. Number one is Idealista. People sometimes talk badly about the big portals, but the reality is that the biggest part of the Spanish market is there. What I personally like about Idealista is that you can draw the exact area you want on the map, save the search, and get a notification the moment something new comes online. In a market like the Costa Blanca, where the good properties move fast, that alert is worth a lot.

Number two is Fotocasa. Very similar, and useful to compare, because sometimes a property appears there that you did not see on Idealista. Number three is Habitaclia, which is especially strong in Catalonia and the Valencia region. Number four is pisos.com, good for comparing prices and finding a few more options. There are a couple of smaller portals too, and sometimes the less known ones have interesting listings with less competition.

I recorded a short video walking through exactly this, where to start your search and why. It is in German, for our German-speaking clients, and you can watch it here. The advice is the same in any language.

Now, one warning before you fall in love with a listing. A portal shows you the photos and the price. It does not show you whether the extension was ever legalised, whether the seller actually owns what he is selling, or what debts are attached to the property. That check comes later, and it is not the portal's job. Keep that in mind and keep scrolling with a cool head.

Step one: the NIE, your Spanish ID number

The NIE, Número de Identidad de Extranjero, is your foreigner identification number in Spain. It is mandatory for buying property. It goes on the deed, on the tax forms, on everything with your name on it. No NIE, no purchase. It does not matter if you are from the UK, Germany, the Netherlands or the US, everybody needs one.

You can apply at a Spanish consulate in your country, or at a police station here in Spain. Or, and this is what most of our clients do, your lawyer gets it for you with a power of attorney, so you do not have to fly over and queue. The one mistake I see again and again is leaving the NIE to the last week. Appointments can be slow, and a whole purchase can end up waiting for one piece of paper.

I am keeping this short on purpose, because we have a full guide on how to get your NIE in the Alicante and Valencia area, with the routes, the paperwork and the traps. Read that one when you are ready to apply. For now, just put it at the top of your list.

Step two: a Spanish bank account

A Spanish bank account is not strictly required by law, but in practice you need one. Utilities, community fees, the IBI local tax, they all get paid by direct debit from a Spanish account. And when the purchase money moves, the notary wants to see it move cleanly.

Many banks now let you open a non-resident account with a video identification from home, without flying over. They will ask you for proof of where your money comes from. Do not take it personally. That is the anti money laundering rules, everybody goes through it, it is completely normal. Bring payslips, a sale contract from your home country, whatever documents show the origin of the funds, and the process is usually straightforward.

Step three: the power of attorney, if you are buying from abroad

Okay, Daniel, but I work full time. I cannot fly to Spain every time something needs a signature. Well, this is exactly what the power of attorney solves. In Spanish it is called poder notarial, and it is the document that lets your lawyer act for you in Spain.

You sign a special power of attorney for the property purchase in front of a notary, often in your own country with an apostille. This is the document that lets you buy without setting foot in Spain: from that moment your lawyer can get your NIE, open the bank account and sign the deed for you. So if distance is your worry, stop worrying. Do not let distance stop you.

Step four: the real budget, with the taxes on top

Now the part that decides everything else, the money. The price on the portal is not what the purchase costs you. On top of the price there are taxes and fees, and that money does not come out of a mortgage. It comes out of your account, in cash, around the time you sign. So let me build the number with you instead of throwing a percentage at you.

Take a 300,000 euro resale property in the Alicante or Valencia area, an apartment or a small villa. The big line is the transfer tax, the ITP. For purchases completed, meaning the deed signed at the notary, from the 1st of June 2026 the general rate in the Valencian Community is 9 percent, so on this example that is 27,000 euros. Two caveats. If the property's value goes over one million euros, the whole purchase is taxed at 11 percent, not just the part above the million. And the tax is calculated on the official reference value from the Catastro if that is higher than your price, so on some properties the bill is bigger than price times 9 percent. Your lawyer checks that number before you commit, not after.

Then the smaller lines. Notary fees follow a state tariff, so on a purchase like this expect several hundred euros, say 900 euros for the example once copies and paperwork are on the bill, and by law the notary may even apply a discount of up to 10 percent, which almost nobody asks for because almost nobody knows it exists. The Land Registry fee is also set by a state tariff, around 200 to 250 euros on a purchase like this. And your independent lawyer's fee, which in Spain is not fixed by any official scale, so ask for it in writing before you start; say 4,000 euros for the example. Add it up, 27,000 plus 900 plus 250 plus 4,000, and you land at about 32,150 euros on top of the 300,000, which in this case is around 10.7 percent of the price. But build your own number from the lines, on your property, at your price. Do not borrow a percentage from the internet, including this one.

One more thing, because it changes the maths. If you buy a brand new property from a developer instead of a resale, there is no ITP. You pay 10 percent IVA, Spanish VAT, plus a stamp duty called AJD at 1.4 percent in the Valencian Community. On resale purchases you do not pay AJD at all, so do not let anyone add both taxes to the same bill.

The step that protects all the others: your own lawyer

And here is the point of that video, and honestly the point of this whole article. Before you sign anything, and I mean anything, including the reservation contract the agent slides across the table, get an independent lawyer. Independent means the lawyer works for you and only you. Not the agency's recommended lawyer, not the developer's in-house one. The agent is paid when the sale closes. Your lawyer is paid to tell you the truth, even when the truth is walk away.

What does that lawyer actually do? The due diligence. Checking in the Land Registry who owns the property and what charges sit on it, checking the town hall side, checking that what was built matches what was legalised, reading the contracts before your money moves. On this coast, where a lot of villas have a story, this check is not a formality. It is the difference between buying a home and buying a problem.

One last thing on this. Juan makes me say it, because this is a law firm: nothing on this page is legal or tax advice for your specific case, it is general orientation. Every purchase has its own details, and the numbers above are worked examples, not quotes.

Your first steps, in order

So, let me leave you the checklist version, the one to keep. First, set the real budget, price plus taxes and fees, using the lines above. Second, start the NIE early, it is slow and everything waits for it. Third, open the Spanish bank account. Fourth, if you live abroad, sign a power of attorney so the distance stops being a problem. Fifth, search with saved alerts on the big portals. And sixth, before you sign a single paper, put an independent lawyer between you and the seller.

We built a free property purchase checklist that walks you through these steps one by one, so nothing gets forgotten between the excitement and the signing. And when you have found the place, or even before, if you want us to handle the legal side, come to us. In person in Moraira or Dénia, or fully remotely with a power of attorney. I will tell you what it costs, and if you are happy with it, we do it.

Daniel Bertomeu, tax advisor, AEDAF #06838. The legal side of our work is led by my father, Juan Antonio Bertomeu Vallés, abogado, ICALI #4643, in practice on the Costa Blanca since 1991. This article is general orientation, not legal or tax advice for your specific situation.