What buying a home here really costs on top of the price

Buyers tend to budget for the asking price, then meet the rest of the bill a few weeks before signing. On a resale home in Andalusia that rest comes to close to 9% of the price, and most of it is tax. Here is what sits on top, line by line, with a worked example at €300,000.

The transfer tax is the big one

If you buy an existing home, the main cost is the transfer tax, known as ITP. In Andalusia the general rate is 7% with no sliding scale, so a €300,000 resale pays €21,000 whichever town it sits in. You will see lower rates quoted, and they are real, but they are narrow. The 6% rate is for a home you will live in as your main residence and that is valued at €150,000 or less. The 3.5% rate covers buyers under 35 buying a main home up to €150,000, and large families and people with a disability up to €250,000.

New builds are taxed differently

Buy straight from a developer and there is no ITP at all. Instead there is VAT on the price, normally 10%, and the deed pays AJD, the stamp duty on documented legal acts, which in Andalusia is 1.2% in the general case. If a developer quotes €300,000 plus VAT, that is €30,000 of VAT and €3,600 of AJD, which comes to 11.2% of the price, against 7% for a resale. Many developers quote prices that already include VAT, so check which figure you have been given before you compare the two.

The smaller costs at signing

Every purchase is signed before a notary, who checks the title, the debts and the paperwork before the deed is sealed. For a €300,000 home the notary's fee is usually around €1,000, paid on the day. The land registry, where the deed is recorded, is smaller again, usually a few hundred euros. Many buyers also hire their own lawyer, and it is money well spent. Lawyers commonly charge around 1% of the price plus 21% VAT, which is about €3,630 on €300,000, so ask for a fixed fee in writing.

You will also need an NIE, the foreigner's identity number, before you can sign. The official fee is small and the appointment is the real task, so start early. If you borrow, the bank adds a valuation, an arrangement fee and the cost of the mortgage deed, and the AJD applies to the loan at 1.2%, which is €2,400 on a €200,000 mortgage. Allow roughly €1,000 to €2,000 for the bank side. Our mortgage calculator will show the monthly figure before you start talking to banks.

The worked example: a €300,000 resale

Here is the sum for an existing home at €300,000, bought without a mortgage, with the loan cost underneath. The tax lines are fixed by law. The notary, lawyer and admin lines are our working estimates and will move with the professionals you choose.

Plan to pay the cash part from your own savings, because a mortgage is normally sized against the price or the valuation, not the costs.

What it costs to keep the home each year

IBI is the annual property tax, paid to the town hall. It is worked out on the cadastral value, which is often well below the price, and each council sets its own rate. For illustration only, a cadastral value of €150,000 at a rate of 0.6% comes to €900 a year. Ask the seller for the most recent bill, which will show the real figures.

If the home is in a development, there are community fees for the lift, pool and gardens, and they vary a great deal from one complex to the next. Ask the seller for the last twelve months of accounts, and ask whether a large repair is planned, because that is where a surprise usually comes from.

If you are not resident in Spain and do not rent the home out, Spain taxes a notional income from it each year, filed on Modelo 210. The notional income is 1.1% of the cadastral value where that value was updated in the last ten years, and 2% otherwise. EU and EEA residents pay 19% on it, and everyone else pays 24%. On a cadastral value of €120,000 the notional income is €1,320, which is €250.80 at 19% or €316.80 at 24%. It is a small bill, but it arrives every year, so put it in the diary.

None of this should put you off. The costs are known and predictable, which is more than can be said of most things in property. For the market side, read our property prices for 2026 piece, and for the monthly picture, our cost of living on the Costa Tropical article.