Buying a holiday apartment.

Hi Pete,

Thanks so much for the reply.

The non resident tax and council tax,Is there a system that they can remind me,they send me a letter perhaps? because I won't be living in Spain full time..

Hi we bought in Santa Pola, the agent is a very good friend of ours, if you would like his details I'd be happy to recommend him and pass his details on 

Purchase tax is 10% and you are likely to need another €3000  on top.

If you are planning to rent out the property check that the property will comply with requirements for a license.  the licenses at the moment take around 6-7 months to be issued from application date.  There is strict criteria and lots of info elsewhere on the forum.

You can get a Spanish mortgage even when non-resident but there are strict qualifications rules.  They will need proof of income, usually for several years,  bank statements showing details of your outgoings, details of Hp agreements, loans, mortgages etc as well and usually an experian (or similar) credit report.  Obviously proof of who you are and where you live too.

You need an NIE to buy a house so you will need one regardless of whether a bank will allow you to open an account without one.

The 19% tax payable every 3 months is the tax on rental income that would be paid if you are letting the property as a holiday let.  If you are not letting out the property then you will only 2 taxes - annual IBI (Suma) which is the equivalent of Council Tax but much lower (depending on the property it could be €150 to €400 a year) and annual non-residents tax, payable annually by each owner - so you both pay if a property is in joint names.  When you buy the property you can ask the legal team to set up the standing orders for you to cover all bills.

Hi 

My husband and I completed on a house a couple of weeks ago. One bit of advice I got from this forum is that a Spanish bank account isn’t necessary.... we have an Irish account and set up direct debits for our utilities with no trouble. Saves us the quarterly fees and is easier dealing with one less online account. Only the tax can’t be paid by DD, but we will pay that directly when we get a bill. 

All went smoothly with the sale and we can’t wait to spend more time out there!

Gill

Thanks for clarifying that Pete! 

I have just moved into a apartment in santa pola what you been told is correct I paid 14% over all that was for taxes at 10% and lawyers  fee and a will made out as I was advised  by the lawyer as spanish  law takes so long if any thing happened  to me.i used estate agent market in santa pola they were very good Miriam was very good.lawyers was my lawyers in Spain fantastic  service look at both web sites.you do need a nice but the lawyer I used set that up and bank account and water and electricity and searches  on the property  and power  of attorney  so I did not have to keep coming  to Spain to sign PAPERS  hope you have a great time it's a great place to be in.mike 

I just had a meeting with our lawyer & notary in Santa Pola yesterday to purchase our apartment here.  The consul in Sydney were not terribly helpful with trying to get appointments for a POA so I flew to Spain instead.  

More tiresome yet is the palava of trying to get my money moved across from Nat West! 

I have to go out today & fax my request - emails not allowed. Or transfer maximum £10000 at a time at ten pound a go.  

All going well, we complete on the 11th but I won’t be here by then :(  I will have to wait until my next trip in June to get it feeling ng like mine!