Buying an apartment on the Costa del Sol — the 2026 guide

If you've decided to buy an apartment on the Costa del Sol — or you're seriously considering it — this guide is the document we wish someone had given us when we started. It covers the legal process, the costs, the timing, and the recurring traps that foreign buyers fall into. Where rules are specific (Andalucía taxes, mortgage caps for non-residents) we cite the current 2026 detail and date-stamp it.

Important upfront: this is general information, not legal or tax advice. Spanish property law sits in the overlap of national legislation, autonomous-community taxation (Andalucía in our case), and municipal bylaws — and the detail changes. Always confirm specifics with a qualified Spanish abogado (lawyer) and asesor fiscal (tax advisor) before acting on anything below.

The five-step process, in order

Most successful purchases follow the same sequence. Doing them out of order is the most common reason a transaction takes twice as long as it should.

NIE number — your Spanish tax ID for foreigners
Engage a Spanish lawyer — independent of the seller and agent
Open a Spanish bank account — required for the closing transfer
Reservation and due diligence — typically a small reservation fee, then a 10% deposit (contrato de arras)
Completion at the notary — the escritura pública signing, registration, and key handover

Step 1: the NIE

The Número de Identidad de Extranjero is the Spanish tax ID issued to foreigners. You cannot complete a property purchase in Spain without one. It can be obtained:

In Spain at a National Police station (Comisaría de Policía) — typically issued within a few working days of the appointment
Abroad at a Spanish consulate — generally slower (often several weeks)
Via your lawyer with a power of attorney (poder notarial) — if you can't travel

Apply for the NIE early. It is not the bottleneck people expect it to be when done locally with an appointment, but it is the bottleneck if left to the last minute or routed through a consulate abroad.

Step 2: choosing a lawyer

This is the single most important decision in the entire transaction. Your lawyer must be independent of the seller and the agent. If the agent recommends "their" lawyer who handles a lot of foreign-buyer deals, that lawyer may have a working relationship with the agent that biases their advice. We hard-decline to recommend a specific lawyer to our buyers for exactly this reason — but if you ask, we'll happily give you three or four firm names we know our buyers have been well-served by.

Typical legal fees run around 1% of purchase price plus 21% IVA, with minimums commonly in the €1,500–€3,000 range. Complex deals (off-plan, title cleanup, plot-related issues) cost more.

Step 3: opening a Spanish bank account

Required for the funds transfer on completion day. Spanish banks now apply meaningful KYC documentation — passport, NIE, proof of address, proof of income — and the account-opening process can take two to four weeks. Open it before you make a reservation, not after.

For foreign-currency transfers (sterling, dollars, kroner) we strongly recommend using a specialist FX broker rather than a high-street bank-to-bank wire. The savings on a typical Costa del Sol apartment purchase are commonly 1–2% of the transfer amount, which on a €500,000 purchase is €5,000–€10,000. Several reputable specialists serve the British and Dutch buyer market — your lawyer can introduce.

Step 4: reservation, arras, and due diligence

Once you've identified the apartment and agreed a price, the typical sequence is:

Reservation — a small holding fee (€3,000–€10,000 is common) to take the property off the market while due diligence runs. This is paid into the agent's or lawyer's escrow. Refundable in some scenarios, not in others — read the reservation document carefully.
Due diligence — your lawyer obtains the nota simple from the Registro de la Propiedad (proving ownership and any charges on the property), the certificado de comunidad showing the apartment is current on comunidad fees, the IBI receipt, energy certificate, and (for off-plan) building licences. This is the lawyer's main work between reservation and arras.
Contrato de arras — typically a 10% deposit, with a contract structure that's penal (if the buyer pulls out, they lose the deposit; if the seller pulls out, they pay double). Standard practice.

Step 5: completion at the notary

The escritura pública is signed in front of a Spanish notary (notario) — a public official whose role is to witness and authenticate the transaction. The notary verifies identities, reads through the deed, and registers the deal. Your lawyer files the deed with the Registro de la Propiedad within the following weeks, completing the legal transfer.

You receive the keys at the notary, on the day. Payment of the remaining 90% happens at this stage via a banker's draft or wire confirmation.

Taxes and closing costs — Andalucía, 2026

This is the section most foreign buyers underestimate. Total all-in costs typically run 10–12% of purchase price for a resale apartment and 12–14% for a new-build. Below is what makes up that total.

ITP — Impuesto de Transmisiones Patrimoniales (resale only)

Andalucía simplified its ITP structure in recent years. As of 2026, the standard ITP rate for resale property in Andalucía is a flat 7%, applied to the higher of the declared price or the cadastral reference value (valor de referencia — set by the Catastro).

Reduced rates may apply in specific cases:

6% when the property value does not exceed €150,000 and the apartment will be the buyer's habitual residence
3.5% in specific cases (buyers under 35, large families, certain disability cases), within defined value caps (€150,000 / €250,000)

Confirm the rate that applies to your specific situation with your lawyer at the lawyer-engagement stage. The cadastral reference value vs declared price comparison is also a recent change — your lawyer will calculate which applies to your transaction.

IVA + AJD (new-build only)

If you're buying a new-build directly from a developer (a first transmission), you pay 10% IVA (Spanish VAT) instead of ITP, plus 1.2% AJD (Actos Jurídicos Documentados — stamp duty on the deed). Total 11.2% on the purchase price before other costs.

Notary, registry, lawyer, gestoría

Item	Typical cost
Notary fee	0.1–0.5% of purchase price
Land registry fee	0.1–0.3%
Lawyer (1% + 21% IVA)	~1.21% plus IVA — minimum ~€1,500
Gestoría (paperwork agent)	€300–€600
Mortgage costs (if applicable)	~0.5–1% (valuation, bank fees, AJD on the mortgage)

Plusvalía municipal

The plusvalía (a municipal tax on the increase in urban-land value) is paid by the seller, not the buyer on a standard resale. Make sure this is explicitly stated in the contract. Some sellers will try to push it onto the buyer; the standard market practice is seller-paid.

Realistic timelines

From offer-accepted to keys-in-hand, expect:

Cash purchase, resale, paperwork in order: 6–10 weeks
Cash purchase with minor title cleanup: 10–14 weeks
Mortgaged purchase: 12–16 weeks
Off-plan completion (from construction): wildly variable; 6–18 months past the developer's contracted handover is common, not exceptional

If you have a hard deadline (a UK house sale, a job move, kids starting school), build a six-to-eight-week buffer between expected and required keys date. Spanish property timelines slip more often than they hold.

Where most foreign buyers go wrong

After several hundred buyer-side transactions, the same five mistakes keep showing up. We wrote a separate piece on them — five expensive mistakes British buyers keep making — but the short version:

Skipping comunidad due diligence. Read the last two AGM minutes. Confirm the reserve fund. Check for derramas (special levies) voted in the previous 24 months. A €30,000 derrama for a roof repair, disclosed late, will sour an otherwise-perfect purchase.
Underestimating ITP. 7% on €500,000 is €35,000 of tax on top of the price. Many buyers budget the headline figure and find themselves €40,000 short at closing.
Believing the off-plan completion date. See above. Build a buffer.
Banking last instead of first. Account opening takes 2–4 weeks. Don't compress this to the final fortnight.
Picking the agent's recommended lawyer. Independence matters. Find your own.

What we'd actually recommend you do next

If you've read this far you're either at the start of a serious search or you're close to deciding. In either case:

Get the NIE process started now. It's the longest-lead-time non-negotiable.
Shortlist your lawyer. Talk to two or three independent firms. Pick the one whose responses feel like the way you think.
Open the bank account next. Two to four weeks, ideally finished before you sign any reservation.
Brief someone you trust on the search. If that's us, we'd start with a free 30-minute call to understand budget, town preferences, and use case. We then send three or four apartments hand-picked from our 487 — with a note on each — and the discovery call goes from there.

A note on this site specifically

esteponaapartmentforsale.com is the English-language apartment storefront for Glaser Real Estate — family-run from Arroyo de la Miel, Benalmádena, GIPE and CEPI accredited, in the Costa del Sol apartment market every working day since 2019. We curate apartments only, across eight coastal towns from Málaga to Estepona. The team behind the site is the team you talk to from first email through to keys.

Buying an apartment on the Costa del Sol: the 2026 guide.

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