What to check before buying a property in Spain

What charges are on the property, and who can sell it?

Start with a nota simple from the Land Registry. It shows the registered owner and current rights and charges, including:

• Registered mortgages.
• Embargoes and other provisional entries (anotaciones preventivas).
• Easements: rights of way, of views or of light.
• Usufructs and rights of habitation.
• Leases, if they were registered.

Ordering directly from the Spanish Association of Registrars costs €9.02 plus VAT per property; its published average turnaround is under two hours. Our nota simple guide explains how to order and read it. The extract provides information. Ordering one does not itself give you the protection of art. 34 of the Mortgage Act: that requires, among other conditions, buying in good faith and for value from the person registered as entitled to sell, and registering your purchase.

The extract only shows what is registered. Ask the seller about any tenancy too: a tenant can have rights that affect your purchase even if the lease does not appear in the Registry.

Does the advertised floor area match the Land Registry and the Catastro?

Not always. The same home can come with four different sizes: the one in the listing, the one in the nota simple (the Land Registry extract), the one in the Catastro and the one the valuer checks if you take out a mortgage. A mismatch does not mean anyone is acting in bad faith. A terrace enclosed twenty years ago, a loft added to the flat or a different way of measuring is enough.

For the mortgage, what counts is the valuer’s visit: art. 7 of Order ECO/805/2003 requires an on-site inspection in which the valuer checks whether the floor area and other features match the paperwork. Between the Catastro and the Land Registry, the law presumes the cadastral data to be correct, but “sin perjuicio del Registro de la Propiedad, cuyos pronunciamientos jurídicos prevalecerán”: without prejudice to the Land Registry, whose legal statements prevail (art. 3.3 of the consolidated Cadastre Act).

If the listing says 82 m² and the nota simple says 71, ask where the difference comes from, and only then talk about price. The owner has a way to complete the registered description, boundaries and floor area included, with the cadastral certificate: the procedure in art. 199 of the Mortgage Act (Ley Hipotecaria), which requires the neighbours on adjoining plots to be notified.

Where exactly does the plot end?

Boundaries matter most when you buy a house with land, such as a villa with a garden. The fence may have stood in the same place for decades without anyone measuring it, the neighbour’s garage may have crept half a metre over the line, and the access track may belong to neither of you.

The graphic basis of the Land Registry is the cadastral map, and every nota simple must state whether the property is graphically coordinated with the Catastro, and since what date (art. 10 of the Mortgage Act). If it is, the law presumes the property has the location and boundaries of the cadastral plan entered in the Registry. If it is not, that plan is a guide, not proof of where the property ends.

You can look at the plan yourself on the Catastro’s e-office (Sede Electrónica del Catastro); our guide to finding a plot in the Spanish Catastro shows you how. And if you plan to extend or build, read why the cadastral use is not the planning zoning as well: the use recorded in the Catastro does not tell you what the local plan allows you to build.

What happens if you buy a property with a tenant or registered as a holiday let?

With a tenant

Under art. 14 of the Urban Leases Act (Ley de Arrendamientos Urbanos, LAU), the buyer of a let home steps into the landlord’s rights and obligations for the first five years of the lease, or seven if the previous landlord was a company, “aun cuando concurran en él los requisitos del artículo 34 de la Ley Hipotecaria”: even if the buyer is protected by art. 34 of the Mortgage Act. Not even the Registry protection described above frees you from those years. If a longer term was agreed, a buyer protected by the Registry only has to honour the lease until those five or seven years are up, and the seller compensates the tenant for the rest.

That rule applies to leases signed on or after 6 March 2019. Older ones keep the rules in force when they were signed (first transitional provision of Royal Decree-law 7/2019), so ask for the lease and check its date.

Check whether the tenant has a preferential right to buy. Art. 25 of the Urban Leases Act governs first refusal and the right to claim the property after a sale, with thirty calendar days for first refusal from the day after formal notification of the price and essential terms. Ask for the lease and any required notices before paying a deposit. As with the protected years above, the version of the law that applies depends on when the lease was signed: the document to read here is the lease, not the nota simple.

Registered as a holiday let

If the home is already let to tourists in Andalusia, check in the Junta de Andalucía’s search tool, filtering by “viviendas de uso turístico” (VUT), that it is registered. The procedure for the responsible declaration (declaración responsable) includes an option to change the holder; ask the Junta what documents it requires for that change. Since 3 April 2025, tourist use also needs the express approval of the owners’ association (art. 7.3 of the Horizontal Property Act): ask for the statutes and, if the activity started after that date, the minutes of the meeting that approved it.

What happened to the national registration number struck down by the Supreme Court, and what is still compulsory, is explained in our article on Spain’s annulled rental registration number.

Are the building works and extensions legal?

An enclosed porch, a pool, a mezzanine or a renovation that added square metres. If they are not legal, the problem passes to the buyer: transferring a property does not change the owner’s planning duties, and the new owner takes over the rights and duties of the previous one (art. 27.1 of the consolidated Land and Urban Regeneration Act).

Compare what you see on the viewing with the building declared in the nota simple and with the floor area in the Catastro. To authorise a deed declaring a new building, the notary asks for the administrative permit the work requires and a certificate from a qualified technician (art. 28 of the same Act), so a structure that appears on no document at all deserves a question. Permits are granted by the mayor, unless a sector-specific law gives that power to the full council or the local government board (art. 21.1.q of the Local Government Act), so the town hall is where you ask whether there were any.

Do the seller’s debts to the owners’ association pass to the buyer?

Yes, up to a limit. Under art. 9.1.e of the Horizontal Property Act (Ley de Propiedad Horizontal), the buyer of a flat or commercial unit is liable, with the property itself and even after registering the purchase, for what previous owners owe in general service charges for the elapsed part of the year of purchase and the three previous calendar years. In the deed, the seller must state that they are up to date or what they owe, and provide the association’s certificate of debts; without it, the notary will not authorise the deed unless the buyer expressly waives it. We would not waive it.

The certificate tells you what is owed today; what is coming shows up in the minutes. Ask for these too:

• The minutes of the last owners’ meetings.
• Any special levies (derramas) approved or planned, for the façade or the lift, for example.
• The condition and age of the shared installations.

If a levy has been approved but not yet collected, put in writing who pays it in the same document in which you hand over the deposit.

In what order, and who can request each document?

You can order the nota simple and consult the Catastro online. When you first speak to the seller, also ask for building permits, the community debt certificate and any lease. There is no need to finish one check before requesting the other documents, especially if you are arranging the purchase from abroad.

Land Registries are public for anyone with a “known interest in finding out the state of the property” (art. 221 of the Mortgage Act). In the Catastro, anyone can consult the non-protected data, such as floor area or use; the owner’s name and the cadastral value are protected (arts. 51 and 52 of the consolidated Cadastre Act). The association’s certificate and, if there is one, the lease are supplied by the seller.

With all of that in hand, it makes sense to talk about a deposit: here is how the arras contract works and what happens if either side pulls out.

What can the estate agency check before showing you the home?

A good deal of the above, and it is reasonable to ask. In Andalusia it is also a legal duty: an agent who shows you a resale home must give you a fact sheet in which the owner, the charges, any easements and the floor area are backed by a nota simple no more than three months old (art. 10.1 d) of the Regulation of Decree 218/2005).

Domuspace’s cadastral map helps an agent prepare those checks. Available from the Basic plan, it covers Málaga province and all of Estonia. Tapping a plot shows its official area, cadastral use and postcode; in a block of flats, the agent can select the home by floor and door and check its recorded built area. The property record is linked to that reference, and adding a property requires a nota simple, with or without an exclusive mandate.

The agent still has to read the extract, request the community certificate and check permits: Domuspace does not query the Land Registry or the town hall. See Domuspace for Costa del Sol agencies or book a demo of the map.

This article is for information only and is not a substitute for advice from a lawyer. The legislation cited was checked on 3 November 2026 in the BOE, Spain’s official gazette, and in the official sources linked above.