Rental or speculative investment, expatriation, retirement… There are many reasons to choose Spain for your next real estate investment. They depend on the objective you have set yourself and the purpose you wish to give to your property. From a strictly financial point of view, the Spanish real estate market is dynamic and solid. It offers high rental and resale potential, thanks to a steadily growing tourist industry and a rapid increase in the number of people of retirement age.

We’ve listed the 10 major advantages of choosing new-build property, which you can discover by downloading our exclusive guide.
To sum up, buying new property offers simplicity and security. First of all, the process is simple: the seller is a company with legal obligations for transparency. There’s no need for the tedious documentary research that would be required in the case of a resale, since all the documents relating to the property are created for the occasion. Financial security on the one hand, since the sums paid must be blocked and insured. Material security too, since your property is subject to 3 types of compulsory warranty provided by the builder.

Once you’ve found the property that’s right for you, the next steps are as follows:

• Reservation contract with a deposit of 5 to 10% of the sale price. The purpose of this contract is to take the property off the market, to ensure that you don’t miss out.
• One or more meetings may be organized with the developer to make modifications to the chosen property, choose finishing options and clearly define the characteristics of the property that will be delivered to you on completion.
• Signature of the deed of sale, a private contract between you and the property developer, which takes place approximately one month after the reservation and is designed to agree the terms of the transaction, 
• Unfolding of the payment plan on the dates set out in the deed of sale, 
• Delivery and inspection of the finished work, 
• Signature of the public deed of ownership before a notary.

There are 2 types of warranty for new-build property purchases in Spain. Enshrined in Law 38/1999, de 5 de noviembre, de Ordenación de la Edificación, they are legal obligations for the developer:
1. Financial guarantees on the sums paid, to protect you against any default by the developer by depositing the sums in a blocked account and guaranteeing them by means of bond insurance.
2. Material warranties: 10, 3 and 1 year respectively on structure, habitability and materials and finishes.

• VAT is added to the sale price of the property. In the case of a new, ready-to-live-in property, the applicable VAT rate is 10%.

• Notary fees: set by the government and applicable nationwide, these range from 0.5% to 1% of the purchase price. 

• Documented legal act fees: these are intended to elevate legal acts to the status of public records, and range from 1 to 1.5% depending on the Autonomous Community.

• Property registration fees: these depend on a legal scale and are calculated according to the value of the property acquired. You should expect to pay between €250 and €500.

Optional: Although not compulsory, we always strongly advise buyers to be assisted by a lawyer during the process. The lawyer’s role will be to verify the legality and completeness of the documents provided by the developer, to intervene on your behalf in the event of disagreement, and even to sign certain documents when you are not on site, if you give him or her the authority to do so. The agent’s fees are generally in the region of 0.7 to 1% of the value of the property purchased.

Payment terms are a key factor in buying a property, and can make a big difference to your financing plan. There are two possible scenarios:

1. You’re buying off-plan or under construction,
2. You buy once construction is complete.

In the first case, each developer has its own payment plan. After payment of the reservation, some require monthly payments, with the balance due on delivery. Others require 2, 3 or 4 larger payments, with the bulk of the price due on delivery. In the latter case, the first payment corresponds to the reservation and, generally one month later, the balance is due after signature of the deed of sale.

This is a difficult question to answer, because it all depends on when you buy your property during the development of the project.
When a project is launched, the first arrivals have a very wide choice, but have to anticipate a longer delivery time. Generally speaking, an apartment building will take between 2 and 4 years to complete. This will obviously depend on the size and number of units to be built. For a single-family home, you’ll need between 14 and 22 months.

Of course, if you’re not on site, we’ll send you regular progress reports with photos of the work in progress. In all cases, we remain your intermediary and advisor until you receive the keys to your new home.

In principle, all new homes can be customized in terms of layout, finishes and equipment. However, 2 elements must be taken into account to make this possible:

1. The stage of construction. After a certain stage of construction, certain things can no longer be modified.
2. The project architect’s approval. All structural modifications must be approved by the architect, for obvious reasons of feasibility and safety.

A new-build property is one that has been purchased directly from a developer or builder, and has therefore never previously been owned. This includes off-plan purchases, properties under construction or those that have just been built.
Note that even if a property has been built for several years already, it is still considered new until it has been acquired by a first owner.

To be sure of finding what you’re looking for, you first need to know what to look for. That’s why we take a methodical, step-by-step approach. The aim is to prepare your on-site visit as well as possible and avoid wasting your time.

Step 1: When we first make contact, we define your specifications together. Your needs, your desires, your budget, the location, the delivery time…
Step 2: We study the available properties that might match your criteria and send you a first selection of properties that might correspond to your search.
Step 3: We listen to your comments and start eliminating the properties you don’t like, then repeat step 2 until we have a list of properties that really grab your attention and match your criteria.
Step 4: Once we have a clear list of properties that interest you, we arrange visits according to your availability on site.
Step 5: After the visits, it’s up to you. At this stage, you’ll have all the information you need to make a decision and start visualizing your new life on the Mediterranean coast.