Legal checks before buying a country house or urbanisation home on the Costa del Sol
In most of Spain the legal checks on a resale home are routine. On the Costa del Sol three kinds of property deserve far more care: the country house on rural land, the home in an urbanisation whose roads and services were never handed over to the town hall, and homes in Marbella built under its old planning licences. Everything below should be checked before you sign the private contract and pay the main deposit.
Start with the Land Registry and the Catastro
A nota simple from the Land Registry shows the registered owner and every charge on the property. Compare it with the Catastro record and with what you see on site: a pool, annex or extra floor that appears in one but not the other is a warning sign. Ask too for the building licence and the first-occupation licence or declaration, the energy certificate, a town hall planning certificate and, for a country house built without a licence, the AFO declaration described below.
Country houses: the rural land trap
The Junta de Andalucía has estimated that around 300,000 buildings in the Andalusian countryside were put up irregularly, many of them homes in the hills behind the coast and in the Axarquía. Andalusia's planning law of 2021, the LISTA, gives the authorities six years from completion of unlicensed work to act against it. On some land that period never runs:
| Land and situation | Time limit for the authorities to act |
|---|---|
| Urban land and other rural land | Six years from completion of the work |
| Public land and its protection strips (coast, rivers, roads), rural land at risk of flooding or landslides while the risk lasts, the coastal influence zone, individually listed heritage, green zones and open spaces, illegal subdivisions of rural land | None |
Illegal subdivisions of rural land into building plots are a particular problem around Alhaurín, Coín, Mijas and in the Axarquía. The authorities can act against the subdivision itself at any time, although a house whose own six years have passed is normally protected.
The AFO declaration
A house built without a licence, on land where the time limit has run out, does not become legal. Instead the town hall can declare it asimilado a fuera de ordenación (AFO): a recognised building that can be kept and used, registered at the Land Registry and connected to water and electricity, but normally only repaired and maintained, not enlarged. A house on land where the time limit never runs cannot get one.
The practical rule: a country house should have either a building licence and occupation licence that match what you see, or an AFO declaration. If it has neither, make the private contract conditional on the seller obtaining the AFO declaration before completion, at their cost, or walk away. Without one, banks rarely lend, utilities may be hard to contract and you will face the same problem when you sell.
Urbanisations: who maintains the roads?
Much of the coast was built as private urbanisations from the 1960s onwards, and many were never formally handed over to the town hall. Ask three questions:
- Has the urbanisation been handed over (recepción)? Until it is, the owners may have to maintain its roads, lighting, gardens or water network.
- Is there a conservation body (entidad urbanística de conservación)? Where the town plan requires one, membership and its fees are compulsory, on top of community fees, and the fees can be collected like a tax.
- Are there development charges recorded at the Land Registry? Whoever owns the plot when the bill arrives pays it.
None of this rules out urbanisations, which hold most of the homes on the coast. It means asking before you sign, and making the contract conditional on the seller paying anything already due.
Marbella's planning legacy
From the early 1990s to the mid-2000s Marbella granted thousands of licences that did not match its 1986 town plan. The 2010 plan meant to regularise them was annulled by the Supreme Court in 2015, leaving around 18,000 homes in an uncertain position. A new general plan, the first in Andalusia adapted to the LISTA, received final approval on 18 September 2026. It takes effect once its rules are published in the provincial gazette, and the detailed planning for each area is still being prepared. Ask your lawyer whether the home is affected and what the new plan says about its area, and be wary of anyone who says the problem is solved.
Floods, the coast, water and drainage
Rivers and dry riverbeds can flood in autumn storms, as the Guadalhorce valley saw in October 2024. Look the address up in the national flood map (SNCZI) and ask whether the home has flooded before. Within the Coastal Law's protection zone, normally 100 metres from the shoreline and 20 metres in some areas already urban in 1988, existing buildings can be repaired but not enlarged.
On rural land, ask where the water comes from (mains, an authorised well, an irrigation community or a tank filled by lorry) and how reliable it was in the 2022 to 2025 drought, which hit the Axarquía hardest. A septic tank or treatment plant needs its own authorisation, and the electricity supply must be a legal, metered connection.
Debts that come with the house
Unpaid IBI stays with the property, and in most towns of the province it is collected by the provincial tax office, the Patronato de Recaudación. Ask for the last paid receipt, a certificate that community fees for the current year and the three previous years are paid, and the same from any conservation body.
More detail in the book. Chapter 4 of Buying a Home on the Costa del Sol as a Non-Resident cover this with worked examples, deadlines and the risks behind the figures.
General information based on the rules in force in October 2026, not legal or tax advice. Rules change often: check your own case with an independent Spanish lawyer or tax adviser before you act.
Related: What does a non-resident pay each year on a Costa del Sol home? · Can I let my Costa del Sol home to holidaymakers?