Find a Spanish cadastral reference by address and apartment

To find a Spanish cadastral reference by address, use the official Catastro property search and choose the search by location. You can inspect non-protected information without electronic identification. A street number can return several apartments or other units, so recognising the building is only the beginning. The official search instructions describe how to narrow and select the result.

This guide is for a buyer who has an address in a sales listing but has not yet received the property's reference. It covers the national Catastro service; the official information service has a separate territorial scope from the foral cadastral systems in Navarra and the Basque Country s2. Sources checked on 2 November 2026.

Ask for the address as it appears in the paperwork

Request the municipality, street name and street number. For an apartment, add the block, staircase, floor and door designation. In Spanish forms these can appear as bloque, escalera, planta and puerta. The Catastro help page lists them as optional search refinements.

Do not translate a street name into English before searching. Keep the original spelling and choose the matching entry proposed by the service. A listing's resort name may help you orient yourself, but ask the seller for the administrative address used on the property documents.

The property tax bill, or recibo del IBI, is one of the official Catastro's suggested places to find a reference, alongside deeds and registry information s5. Ask for the identifier rather than an unnecessary unredacted copy of the seller's tax paperwork.

For a house or apartment advertised with parking and storage, request a list of the elements included in the sale. You need to establish whether the seller is offering one documented unit or several. An English listing's phrase “garage included” does not supply their identifiers.

Use the official location search

Open the Sede Electrónica del Catastro and select the public property search or consultation of non-protected data. Look for the search by localización. The portal's appearance can change; the official help page explains the underlying fields.

1. Choose the province and municipality.
2. For an urban address, use the urban property search and select the street type and name from the suggested matches.
3. Enter the street number. Where relevant, the official instructions also allow a kilometre-based location.
4. Add the staircase, floor and door if known. If an abbreviation produces no result, search the building first and examine the returned units.
5. Open the candidate record and compare its location and use with the seller's description.
6. Copy the complete cadastral reference and save the consultation with its download date.

Keep the number as text when putting it into a spreadsheet. It is an alphanumeric identifier, not an amount. The official definition specifies twenty characters s3.

A public example explains why the apartment selection matters

Catastro publishes the urban example `9872023VH5797S0001WX` in its explanation of the reference structure. This is an official teaching example, not a property checked for sale.

Its components are seven characters for the property or parcel, seven for the map sheet, four for the individual property within the parcel and two check characters. In this example they are `9872023`, `VH5797S`, `0001` and `WX`: 7 + 7 + 4 + 2 = 20.

That distinction matters when the search shows several units at one address. The building-level information does not, by itself, settle which apartment is included. Nor should you read `0001` as an instruction to select the first floor; compare the record's actual location fields.

To compare the identified parcel with available territorial map layers, open the TerrenoCheck map. A report costs €29 in one language or €39 in two; read the sample report first.

Build a property list before you ask for legal checks

Create one row for each element the seller says is included. Record its reference, cadastral address, the document supplied by the seller and any unresolved difference. This is a working comparison, not a substitute for the deed.

For an apartment, parking space and storage room, three rows make it easier to notice that only the apartment has been documented. The number of rows is your organisational choice; it does not imply that every parking space must have a separate cadastral identity.

If the seller uses a different floor numbering convention from the listing, ask them to identify the exact document and entry. Do not “correct” the record yourself because the translation seems obvious. Send the original Spanish designation to the professional checking the sale.

You can also ask that professional to confirm the relationship between the cadastral identity and the finca registral, the registered property described in the land register. The registry number and cadastral reference have different functions; our land registry extract guide covers the next document.

If the address returns nothing or the wrong unit

First verify the municipality and street using the portal's suggested names. The official instructions include street matching and searches over a range of street numbers. This is preferable to guessing a new house number.

Next ask for a reference already shown on an official document. The information access page also describes searching by reference and locating properties on the map. A map selection is a candidate until it has been matched to the seller's documents.

For land without an urban address, change to the appropriate rural or map-based search. An estate-agent map pin is useful for orientation; it does not justify assigning the reference of the nearest house to the land you intend to buy.

If a record is found but its door or use conflicts with the sale description, keep the discrepancy visible. Ask the seller to explain it with documents and have the explanation checked before committing funds. A search returning a plausible property does not resolve a competing identification.

What the public result tells you

The public information includes the property's reference, location, surface, use and mapping, as described by the official FAQ. The identity of the cadastral holder and cadastral values are protected information under arts. 51–53 of the cadastral law. Knowing an address does not open a public owner search.

There is a further legal boundary. Article 3.3 of that law preserves the priority of the legal findings of the Property Registry s4. A Catastro match is therefore useful identification evidence, while ownership and charges still require the appropriate registry review.

Once you have the correct parcel, select it on the TerrenoCheck map for an initial review of available territorial information. The sample report shows its scope. This is preliminary screening and does not replace legal advice or a survey.