What should you check before buying land or a rural house in Spain?

What should happen before you pay a reservation fee?

Describe your plans and give the same marked plan to your lawyer and technical adviser. A registered agricultural building is not necessarily suitable for conversion into a home; ask about the change of use you need.

The diagram recommends a sequence; reservation and arras contracts are optional. Under Civil Code article 1450, agreement on the property and price can make the sale binding before either property or money is handed over.

Have your own abogado, a lawyer acting for you, read the document before paying. Identify the recipient and their authority, whether the money counts towards the price, the seller's obligations and refund terms. Address any agency fee separately. The heading reserva does not determine the contract's effect.

Are you buying the property you viewed, from someone entitled to sell it?

Start with the Registro de la Propiedad, Spain's Land Registry. Obtain a nota simple and have your lawyer explain the owners, their shares, any usufruct, mortgages, seizure orders (embargos) and restrictions. Usufruct is a separate right to use and enjoy property; do not treat it as an irrelevant name on the extract.

Check the seller's title and authority, including inheritance, joint ownership and powers of attorney. For a family home, the other spouse's consent may be required even if only one spouse owns it (Civil Code article 1320, where applicable). Check the marital-property regime too. Authority to market the property does not necessarily permit selling it or receiving the owner's money.

A nota simple is an informational extract, rather than a formal registry certificate (Land Registration Act, Ley Hipotecaria, article 222.5). Match the registry finca, the registered property unit, to the site and Catastro, the cadastral description and mapping system. One cadastral reference need not correspond to one registered property.

Mark the house, outbuildings, approach and land included on a common plan. If boundaries or area affect your decision, commission a survey and resolve discrepancies before committing without protection. A cadastral outline cannot settle a neighbour's boundary objection.

Be particularly careful with a fenced portion sold as a share of a larger property. An undivided share is not automatically an independent plot. Ask for the division documents and applicable administrative consent. The state Land and Urban Rehabilitation Act (TRLSRU), article 26.2, also covers certain share sales carrying exclusive use of a defined portion. Agricultural minimum-plot rules add restrictions, subject to statutory exceptions; meeting that minimum does not establish a right to build.

What should the town hall confirm about your plans?

Ask the ayuntamiento, the town hall, for a written planning response tied to the exact land and proposed activity. A practical request is:

“Please identify the planning instruments, land classification and zoning applying to the attached property plan. I intend to [describe use and works]. Please specify whether this is permitted, the approvals needed, outstanding development obligations and any planning enforcement proceedings or orders. For the existing house, please identify its planning status and applicable occupation or habitability documentation.”

Have your adviser submit a Spanish version suited to the local procedure. The TRLSRU provides for written planning information (article 5.d). This is not project permission (article 11.3); distinguish the two in your purchase conditions.

An urbano entry in the Catastro is a cadastral classification, not approval for your home. A road beside the property does not answer whether development obligations remain. Ask about unfinished roads, services and urbanisation charges: selling the land does not remove the owner's planning duties (article 27).

For an existing home, obtain the works licence, approved plans and completion documents, together with the occupation instrument required in that location. Compare the pool and extensions as well as the main building. If the seller relies on obra nueva por antigüedad, registration based on the building's age, ask how planning legality was established. The registration route in article 28.4 is not itself a legalisation decision. Get the town hall's answer on enforcement, outstanding orders and the works now allowed. Read buying a house without planning permission.

Identify the regional and municipal rules applying to your property, whether in Andalucía, Comunitat Valenciana, Región de Murcia, Cataluña, Illes Balears or Canarias. See rustic versus urban land for regional building rules.

Can you reach the house and obtain lawful services?

Walk the entire approach to a public road. If it crosses private land, inspect the title establishing the servidumbre de paso, a right of way, and its route and scope. Check vehicle access and whether it serves your intended works and use. If described as a public track, ask the town hall to confirm that status.

Civil Code article 564 provides for demanding access for enclosed land, with compensation. That is different from having a documented, usable right over the track you saw. Resolve the route before the purchase depends on a neighbour's future cooperation.

Get written connection terms from the water and electricity providers. Ask about capacity, required works, permissions and cost. A supply line nearby is not an offer to connect your project. Have the wastewater arrangement inspected and ask which approvals it requires.

For a well, ask the water authority to confirm the title, holder, permitted use and transfer requirements. For a concession, obtain a certificate from the Registro de Aguas, the water-rights register (Water Act articles 63 and 80). Check yield, seasonal availability and drinking-water quality: a concession does not guarantee the permitted flow (article 59.2). Having a pump does not establish a right to use the water.

If supplied through a comunidad de regantes, an irrigation community, ask it to confirm the water entitlement, outstanding dues and approved charges. Certain debts burden the property and can lead to water being withheld even after a sale (article 83.4). Canarias retains its special water regime; consult the competent authority there.

Before committing without conditions, have the technician inspect the structure, roof, damp, retaining walls and installations, and price repairs affecting your offer. For an empty plot, check that the project fits. Agree the inspection's scope in writing.

Which hazards and third-party rights need separate checks?

Check the house and approach in the official National Flood Zone Mapping System (SNCZI). Ask about unstudied channels; unshaded land is not certified safe. Request past damage, repair and insurance-claim records. Have the technician assess drainage and emergency access, and obtain an insurance quote for this house before the deposit, checking exclusions. Water restrictions also apply alongside planning rules; see flood zones in Spain.

Near the coast, ask for the approved deslinde, the public-domain boundary determination, and any concession. Coastal public-domain land cannot be sold as private freehold (Coastal Law, article 7). Check vías pecuarias, public livestock routes, and environmental protections with the regional authority. Natura 2000 may require an assessment of a project likely to affect a protected site significantly. Separate permissions may still be needed after the town hall's planning response.

Ask about previous activities on the land and contamination records held by the regional environment authority. The owner must state in the transfer document whether a potentially soil-polluting activity took place (Law 7/2022, article 98.3). If the polluters do not meet their clean-up obligations, an owner may become liable even without causing the pollution (article 100.1). Investigate concerns before the deposit.

Find out who lives in the house and who farms the land; obtain their contracts. Rural leases can survive a sale, and qualifying tenants may have acquisition rights (Rural Leases Act, article 22). Buying a tenanted home can also make you the landlord under Urban Leases Act article 14. Sale does not automatically end the tenancy. If you need an empty home, have your lawyer check the tenancy date and applicable regime and document its lawful termination and handover. Separately check tenant, co-owner and adjoining-owner acquisition rights and necessary notices. A clean registry extract does not resolve occupation.

What should a foreign buyer organise and budget for?

Start obtaining your NIE, the foreigner's identification number, early. Confirm identification requirements with the notary. Applications abroad can go through Spanish consular offices. Have the notary check any power of attorney in advance. Arrange interpretation or translation where needed.

If you are not an EU national, ask whether the exact property lies in a zone where foreign ownership needs military authorisation. Permission may be needed before the deed; the legislation contains geographical exclusions and exceptions (Law 8/1975, articles 16, 18 and 20 and additional provision). Have the lawyer check your case before agreeing an unconditional completion date.

Budget for tax, works and transaction expenses as well as the price. Get notary and registration estimates and agree who pays each item. Request a tax calculation for this seller and property, with regional reliefs and filing dates. For TPO, the property-transfer branch commonly called ITP, the buyer is the taxpayer (transfer-tax act, article 8.a). Other transactions may involve IVA, VAT, and AJD, stamp duty on the deed (transfer-tax act, article 31.2). A company seller does not automatically mean non-exempt VAT. Canarias has IGIC, its own indirect tax.

For TPO, the valor de referencia, the reference value, differs from the ordinary cadastral value used for local property tax. It sets the taxable base unless the declared value or agreed price is higher. Without a certifiable reference value, the base is the highest of declared value, price or market value (article 10). Obtain the applicable regional calculation rather than assuming tax on the purchase price alone.

What must the arras agreement protect before you sign it?

For a house subject to energy certification, obtain the registered certificate copy and label before a binding private sale contract and have them annexed to it (RD 390/2021 articles 3 and 17.2). Have any claimed exemption checked.

Arras penitenciales are deposits carrying an agreed right to withdraw: under Civil Code article 1454, the buyer loses the deposit when withdrawing and the seller returns double when withdrawing. A payment on account without that expressly agreed withdrawal right should not be treated as a fixed-price exit. Breach can bring claims for performance or termination and damages under article 1124.

For outstanding checks, define the required evidence, who obtains it, the deadline, extensions and refund terms. Address silence and ambiguous replies. Include finance, lawful division and military authorisation where needed. A favourable planning report offers less protection than the permission your project depends on.

Under Catalan civil law, penitential arras must be expressly agreed (article 621-8). Article 621-49 permits withdrawal unless agreed otherwise when the contract provides for lender finance and the buyer documents the designated lender's refusal within the agreed period, without buyer negligence. Refusal to accept a mortgage takeover is also covered. The seller returns payments, including arras where applicable; the buyer must restore the seller to the position they would have been in without the contract. Ask your lawyer what you must restore. This protection does not apply nationwide.

Do not pay the deposit yet if…

• The land included or the seller's authority remains uncertain.
• The purchase needs an unconfirmed use or project without an adequate refund condition.
• Legal access, lawful water or a public-domain boundary is unresolved.
• Occupation, debts or enforcement orders lack a documented solution.
• You must complete even if essential finance or authorisation fails.
• You cannot identify who returns each payment and on what terms.

What needs checking again before the public deed?

Send the notary the evidence that conditions have been met and request the draft in advance. Update registry information and ask about outstanding IBI, the local property tax. Property can remain affected by IBI liability after transfer (Local Finances Act, article 64); the latest receipt alone is not the whole debt check.

For a comunidad de propietarios, a community of owners, obtain the debt certificate and minutes of approved expenses. Avoid waiving the certificate. The property can answer for previous owners' unpaid dues; Catalonia has its own regime. Check any separate conservation body's obligations too.

For a mortgage, agree the bank-confirmed balance, recipient of payment and arrangements and costs for cancellation. A bank balance statement does not establish registered discharge. Recheck that the required energy certificate and label are included.

Obtain evidence of each seller's tax residence. For a non-resident acting without a permanent establishment, check your duty to withhold 3% of the consideration attributable to their transfer. Deduct it from that seller's proceeds. Pay through Modelo 211, the withholding return, within one month of transfer and give the seller their copy. Residence, not passport, matters.

Check plusvalía municipal, the municipal urban-land value-increase tax, separately. In a taxable sale the seller is the taxpayer, but the buyer becomes the substitute taxpayer if the seller is a non-resident individual (Local Finances Act, article 106.2). Land classed as rustic for IBI purposes is excluded; proven absence of a value increase also avoids liability under article 104.5. Get a calculation and arrange funding before paying the seller the balance. The declaration, or self-assessment under the local ordinance, and the buyer's communication have a deadline of 30 working days after the sale (article 110). These are separate from Modelo 211.

The notary provides impartial advice and legal and documentary checks; the site inspection remains separate. Agree possession, keys, payment details and meter readings. After signing, keep tax and registry receipts and check the final registration, including agreed cancellation of charges.