Buying a property can be a complicated process when you don’t have the right advice and support, so it is important to be well-informed and have good professionals at your side. Raquel Perez at Marbella law firm Perez Legal Group explains the process in an easy to understand English-language guide that summarises the buying of a home.
The free guide contains over 50 pages of information. It starts by explaining the laws that apply to buying a resale property – these are quite different to buying a property that is a new build off plan and hasn’t been occupied before.
The guide does a great job of simplifying the explanations of the various taxes and the rates that apply to home purchases. These include the transfer tax and ‘plusvalia’ tax.
The guide points out that it’s important to have good legal representation and to work with a lawyer who speaks your language and that you feel comfortable with. Perez discusses what the lawyer’s responsibilities are, including checking that utility bills and plusvalia taxes have been paid up to date.
The explanation of the various property values a buyer may see when making a purchase is enlightening. In Spain there are no less than five different values attached to a property: catastral, fiscal, market, sales and valuation. The ‘catastral’ value is used for calculating the local rates on the property; the fiscal value is assigned by the tax office; the market value comes from the estate agent; the valuation is the value for mortgage purposes and finally there’s a sales value, which is the basis of all the costs and taxes you pay on the purchase.
The guide also covers selling, renting, reasons to register on the ‘empadronamiento’ at the town hall –this is similar to being on the electoral roll in the UK—and, very importantly, the tax advantages of being a resident. Inheritance tax, making a Spanish will and managing your Spanish bank account completes this handy pocket guide that’s yours at no cost whatsoever. Just follow the link!