Buying on the Costa Blanca: your checklist
Everything to arrange and check, in the order you will need it. Print it and tick things off as you go.
Before you start
Paperwork that takes time to arrange from abroad.
- Apply for your NIE at your nearest Spanish consulate, or through a lawyer in Spain.
- Open a Spanish non-resident bank account.
- Assemble proof of the source of your funds before transferring money.
- Check whether you, as a non-EU resident, have been asked to appoint a tax representative; consider one anyway.
- If you may not attend the signing, grant a power of attorney at a Spanish consulate, or before a local notary with an apostille and sworn translation.
- Choose an independent Spanish lawyer, not one recommended by the seller's agent.
From offer to keys
The buying process, step by step.
- Reservation deposit small and refundable if the checks fail.
- Independent lawyer instructed before you sign the arras.
- Type of arras stated clearly in the private contract.
- Contract conditional on mortgage, military permit, legalisation or payment of development charges, where relevant.
- Names and shares on the deed agreed with your lawyer, including how your marriage is recorded.
- Deposits paid only to verified accounts.
- Completion statement agreed before the notary appointment.
- Post-completion taxes, registration and utilities assigned to your lawyer or gestoría.
Legal checks before the private contract
What your lawyer should confirm before you pay the main deposit.
- Nota simple from the Land Registry: seller is the owner, charges, including any development charge, identified.
- Catastro record compared with the Land Registry and with what you see on site.
- Building and occupation licences or declarations compared with the actual house, pool and annexes.
- Declaration of occupation and energy certificate available.
- For rural land: classification (protected or ordinary) confirmed, and the date and licence of every structure checked.
- For a villa in a development: whether it has been handed over to the town hall, any conservation body and its fees, any development programme in progress.
- Town hall planning certificate: no open infringement proceedings.
- Flood maps checked; Coastal Law zone checked for seafront homes.
- Military permit applied for, if you are a non-EU buyer of rural land in the four southern municipalities.
- Tourist registration details confirmed, if relevant.
- IBI, community and conservation fees shown to be paid up.
- Reservation deposit refundable if any of these checks fails.
Costs before you sign
Taxes, fees and the money to keep back.
- Check the Catastro reference value against the agreed price.
- If the price is close to €1,000,000, check which side of the line the taxable value falls.
- Confirm whether the seller is resident in Spain for tax purposes.
- If not, write the 3% withholding and the estimated plusvalía into the private contract.
- Get written quotes from your lawyer, gestoría and valuer.
- Make sure your funds cover the price plus around 10%.
- Agree who files form 600 and form 211, and diarise the deadlines.
From the checklists in Buying a Home on the Costa Blanca as a Non-Resident (2026–27 edition), which explains each point. Rules as in force in October 2026. General information, not legal or tax advice.
