Property

Buying a home in Spain in 2026: the taxes and costs your mortgage won't cover

September 12, 2026

The sum almost everyone does before buying goes like this: the bank lends 80%, so a €200,000 flat needs €20,000… sorry, €40,000. It’s the wrong sum, and not by a little.

What the mortgage doesn’t cover isn’t just the 20% of the price. It’s also the purchase taxes and fees, paid in cash on signing day, which depending on where you buy can add up to as much as half a deposit again. And there’s one piece that surprises even repeat buyers: the most expensive tax of all is not calculated on what you pay for the property, but on a value set by the Land Registry (Catastro) that you can look up before you sign.

If I rent out my flat in Spain, how much tax do I pay? What's really taxed, and the expenses almost nobody claims

August 13, 2026

Renting out a flat looks like the easy part: you sign the contract, you collect every month, and that’s it. The complicated bit shows up in the tax return, and almost always for two opposite reasons: many people assume that money is taxed lightly (it’s taxed at their highest rate) while at the same time leaving out expenses the law grants them, starting with the biggest one of all, which doesn’t cost them a euro a year.