The single thing that unsettles British buyers about Spain is the vocabulary. You arrive fluent in solicitors, surveys and exchange, and suddenly people are talking about your NIE, your arras, your escritura — in a language you don’t speak, about the biggest cheque you’ll ever write. It sounds daunting. It isn’t. The Spanish process is simply different from the one at home, and once you know the words and the order they come in, it’s actually rather orderly.
So let me walk you through it the way I walk every buyer through it — plainly, in order, with nothing hidden. This is the same path as the six-station journey to keys I take you along: search, view, offer, checks, signing, keys. Here are the terms behind those stations.
First, your NIE
The NIE — Número de Identidad de Extranjero — is your Spanish foreigner’s tax identification number. Think of it as the key that unlocks everything else. You cannot buy a property, open a Spanish bank account, or sign the deed without one, because every one of those things has to be recorded against a tax number.
The good news is it’s a formality, not a hurdle. You can apply in person in Spain or through the Spanish consulate in the UK, and in most cases your lawyer can obtain it on your behalf with a power of attorney — which means you don’t have to fly out just to queue at a police station. I get this moving early, well before you’ve found the right home, so it’s never the thing holding up your purchase. Both routes, the forms each asks for and the published timing are in how to get a NIE number from the UK.
Your own lawyer — not the seller’s
This is the point I’m most insistent about, so forgive me for being blunt: you instruct your own independent Spanish lawyer — an abogado — and never share the seller’s or the agent’s. In Spain there’s no equivalent of the UK’s conveyancing chain where each side has representation as standard; plenty of purchases happen with no lawyer at all. That’s a mistake.
An independent abogado works only for you, and does the checks that protect you:
- Title — that the seller genuinely owns what they’re selling, free and clear.
- Debts — Spanish debt follows the property, not the person, so an unpaid mortgage, tax or community fees can become yours if it isn’t cleared before completion.
- Licences — that the building has its licence of first occupation and any extensions or pools were built legally.
- Community — that service charges are paid up and there are no nasty special levies looming.
I bring an independent lawyer to every purchase as part of the service. It is, without exception, the best money you’ll spend.
The deposits: reserva, then arras
Spain uses two deposits, one small and one serious, and understanding the difference matters.
- Reserva — a holding deposit, usually €3,000–€6,000, that takes the property off the market. Once it’s paid the seller agrees to stop marketing and stop taking viewings while your lawyer does the due-diligence checks. It buys you breathing room to be careful.
- Contrato de arras — the private purchase contract, and the one with teeth. On signing it you pay a 10% deposit, and the contract binds both sides. There are three kinds of arras, and they differ in whether either side can withdraw at all and what that costs them. Which kind you are signing is the thing to establish before you pay, and it is one of the first things your lawyer will check. I have written the three kinds up in full in the arras contract in Spain.
The arras cuts both ways. It commits the seller as firmly as it commits you, and what it says about withdrawing is the part worth reading closely.
The reserva says “I’m serious.” The arras says “we’re both committed, in writing, with money on the line.” Between them, they turn a handshake into a real, enforceable agreement — and your lawyer draws up or reviews that arras contract before you sign a word of it.
Signing the escritura at the notary
The escritura is the title deed, and it’s signed in front of the notario — a public notary who is a neutral state official, not anyone’s advocate. This is the Spanish equivalent of completion. On the day, in the notary’s office, the balance of the price is paid, the keys change hands, and ownership transfers in law there and then. Your lawyer attends with you (or signs under power of attorney if you can’t travel), the notary reads the deed aloud, and you sign. How the balance is converted and handed over on the day, and what a bank’s exchange rate costs on the way, is in getting your money to Spain.
If the seller lives outside Spain, you hold back 3% of the price at the notary, and your lawyer pays it to the tax agency on form 211 within a month. It counts towards the seller’s tax on the sale. If it is not paid, the unpaid amount can be claimed against the home you have just bought, so your lawyer confirms it has gone in. The seller’s side of this is in selling property in Spain as a non-resident.
After signing, the deed goes to the Land Registry to record you as the new legal owner. That’s the sixth station reached — keys in hand, your name on the title.
How long it all takes
Buyers always want a realistic timeline, so here’s an honest one:
- Cash purchase — roughly 6–12 weeks from agreed offer to keys.
- With a Spanish mortgage — roughly 8–16 weeks, because the bank adds its own pace: valuation, underwriting and its own paperwork all take time you don’t control. Mortgages for non-residents sets out what the bank asks for and the steps to signing.
These are guides, not promises — a clean title on a resale moves faster than a new build still chasing its final licence. But knowing the shape of it means you can plan flights, funds and the currency transfer without being rushed into anything. Which stage each new build has reached is shown in new developments on the Costa del Sol.
You won’t do any of it alone
None of these steps is difficult once someone who’s done it a hundred times is standing beside you. That’s my whole job. I walk every station of the journey with you — arranging the NIE, bringing the independent lawyer, explaining each contract before you sign it, and being in the room at the notary. You can see exactly how that works on the buying service page, and it’s worth reading alongside what a purchase actually costs so the money and the process line up in your head.
If you’d like to talk any of this through before you commit to anything, book a call — no pressure, just a proper conversation about where you are.
This is general guidance (2026), not legal advice; always instruct an independent Spanish abogado.
What this relates to
