Curlygirly

Hi all, can anyone please tell us what is the average length of time to complete a house purchase in Spain? (Andalusia area possibly). We will be cash buyers. Wanting an older detached house half hour from sea, not an urbanisation. So no community costs etc. I've read that the buying costs can be up to 10%, is this right? Any words of advice? Thanks for any advice or help.

megmet

We were cash buyers seven years ago, it took only three weeks and yes it was 10% for the costs.
Make sure you get a lawyer who is recommended and not the one suggested by the estate agent.
Also be very sure to check that there are no outstanding debts or charges on the property and that all extensions or pool are totally legal, good luck with that one.
It's a minefield out there so check and double check.

spainrico

Transfer tax on a secondhand property is 10% (IVA on new is also now 10%) but you also need to add notary, land registry, solicitor costs so you need to budget around 12-14% in total.

The legal process can be completed very quickly if the buyer and seller get organised and go to the notary.

Worth downloading this
New Guide to Buying a Property in Spain Available Now | Spanish News in English - On The Pulse of Spain

snikpoh

I used to think that but it was pointed out that transfer tax is only 8% in Andalucia (and Murcia?).

I always tell people to budget on 15% and then be happy when it comes in less.

spainrico

Hi - OK thanks for that, I thought I had read that all provinces had raised it to 10% during the financial crisis - I am in Comm Valencia - definitely 10% here - but obviously best for all purchasers to check locally.

Is IVA standard at 10% across all of Spain on new property purchases?

Curlygirly

OMG, three weeks????? I was expecting two - three months? WOW..... exciting...!Thanks very much guys, very helpful indeed. We're going to take our time, rent a place for a month or two and find the right one for us! Any tips you can give please?

Dick Dasterdly

Visit several times at various times of day to check out for disturbances, especially lots of barking guard dogs which are fairly common in detached places in the campo.
Chat with the future nearest neighbours where possible, very important out in the sticks.
Good neighbours can be your greatest asset ,

......or your worst nightmare ,
in any event once you've decided, try to be friendly and tolerant and not ruffle their feathers over minor issues.

Curlygirly

Thanks Dick for the advice and yes I agree good neighbours are invaluable. But you have us wondering, what did you mean by minor issues?

wilsman77

hang on. I purchased from a bank it took a month...........

costaaz

the tax varies from the area you are purchasing
it is 10% in the Com Valencia

BUT if the value catastral x a factor is higher than the price you pay than there is a new tax bill in the mail up to a year later.
we had that with a house we were interested in.
the house was 135.000 - we agreed to 120.000
the tax would have been 12.000
the catastral value was 65.000 the factor was at the time 3.5 - that makes the "real value" 227.500 and the 2nd tax to pay later 10.750€

this was done to counteract the under declaring of the purchase price as it is so common in Spain.

needless to say we did not buy that house.
the next big fee is the real estate agent depending on the area and the rest is just small change.

if everything is in order, all papers there, the it is just the time to get a date for the notary.
the fastest I know of, was from the first visit, first offer, second visit and agreeing on the final price, having the real estate agent checking that all papers were in order and arranging a time for all acceptable at the notary - 14 days

wilsman77

Costazz you just reminded me of that. My house cost €70k and right at completion my solicitor informed me that it's true value was €80 something so I had to pay an extra €1k or take the risk of being done within a four year period with penalties and interest for the unpaid tax. Very frustrating to get the news when it's almost to late to pull out anyway.

costaaz

I found a copy of my original post a year ago somewhere else:

Warning! much more than 10% ITP (tax) on a property in the Comunidad Valencia!

So you want to buy a nice house in the Provincia Alicante, Valencia or Castellon?
So did we.

You do your homework and figure out all the costs before you buy.
So did we.

Then just before you sign you (we did) stumble over:

Orden 4/2014, de 28 de febrero, de la Consellería de Hacienda y Administración Pública, por la que se establecen los coeficientes aplicables en 2014 al valor catastral a los efectos de los impuestos sobre transmisiones patrimoniales y actos jurídicos documentados y sobre sucesiones y donaciones, así como la metodología empleada para su elaboración y determinadas reglas para su aplicación.

And you read the horror story that somebody who just bought a 99.000 Euro bank bargain house now has to pay not 10% BUT 27% tax (ITP).
What he appealed and guess what - right , lost!
(I saw the bill with my own eyes)


It takes you a while to figure out what this new law, what was passed in spring 2014, does mean for you.
So did it for us.


Here is the quick and dirty explanation and the link for you to check these facts for yourself.

Comunidad Valencia is broke, so where to get more money?

Easy, since we are taking a loss on every house sale since the prices are dropping so much (coming to a more realistic level but that is just the rest of the world thinking) we need to find a way to get more money out of this rich foreigners.
We jacked already the ITP to the max with our 10% but we need much more money.
Why don´t we take the value of the house (VALOR CATASTRAL) and multiply it with a coefficient to make up the the differences when last the value was determined.

If the value is higher we take that, if it is lower than 10% we take the 10%

STANDING OVATIONS
(This will so backfire when the potential buyer learns about that.)


So you can not trust your real estate agent, you lawyer or your notary when they answer you that there is a 10% ITP on your future house, condo, flat etc.


The end of this story is that my house ,would have been not 120.000 Euro plus 12.000 Euro ITP but plus 21.590 Euro.
That is 18% ITP and neither the seller wanted to go 10.000 Euro lower nor we wanted to loose 10.000 Euro more for nothing!
So this is one of the first No sale No money for the clever people who thought of that.



Please educate yourself that this is all true and then help spread the word of this madness over all social media.

Orden 4/2014, de 28 de febrero, de la Consellería de Hacienda y Administración Pública, por la que se establecen los coeficientes aplicables en 2014 al valor catastral a los efectos de los impuestos sobre transmisiones patrimoniales y actos juríd

Oh I forgot, when you buy your house flat etc they charge you the 10% everyone knows about.

... and then they have up to 4 years time to hit you with the rest.
and here comes the nice part, it gets taken out of your account and if you refuse or do not have the funds your new property gets taken away from you auctioned off to pay your debt. NO KIDDING!


Do you get the big picture ?

I did and I am not buying until this is revoked.
Because when they get through with this then the door is wide open to milk the people who have property in Spain.

Keith1963

We had an offer accepted on Sunday.
Solicitor is 1%
Tax 8% ( Andalucia )
Notary 800
Other costs 500
Your agent may charge you up to 3%
Whatever you do convert your money in to euros via a good broker like TorFX.
And look at the market, and get advice on a forward buying contract on your money, you can save a fortune.

Also you may want a survey, many don't but that will be 400 - 900 dependent on the type.

I wholly reccomended you get a solicitor totally unconnected to the seller or agent and who has good local knowledge regards legality of the build and area. ( you can always buy a property that is so say 'illegal' but you need to benchmark the risk which your lawyer will help with ) English speaking will help. And also remember you need an NIE before you do business which can be applied for at your local police station which again your solicitor will help with if they are decent, plus you need a bank account. A few formalities which do take time in Spain. But don't get frustrated.

There's me asking for advice two months ago, now we are going through it well, it's interesting to say the least. We hopefully sign all the papers for our property in Chiclana on the 23rd Nov. That's a 26 day purchase.

Curlygirly

Thank you Costaaz, I agree this seems more than a little short-sighted, ultimately it will surely only cause more people not to buy in those areas. Madness...! Thank you for the heads-up, very worrying.

Curlygirly

Hi Keith1963, thank you for the costs etc useful info indeed. Just the sort of info we needed to hear. We are already signed up to TorFX ready to use their services when we do find the right place. Yes we will use an English speaking solicitor and as we are only looking at older properties we would always get a survey done. I have to say we are now rather worried since reading the post above yours posted by costaaz...? ''Warning! much more than 10% ITP (tax) on a property in the Comunidad Valencia!''He's talking about a particular area, but when I looked at his link it took me to this Warning! much more than 10% ITP (tax) on a property in the Comunidad Valencia! VERY worrying as someone there is saying that it applies to the whole of Spain? Have you been advised about it at all? Is this really true?