Buying a home in Spain means a lot of paperwork. And paperwork in Spain means old school paperwork, not the digital version I am used to up north. With a little help it all worked out fine, it just took a few hours to handle it all. The essence of this is that quality legal assistance is a necessity and well worth the money.
After thorough research we decided to opt for a local English speaking lawyer. Our pick provided great value for money and we felt safe and secure through the entire process. We found our lawyer, José Sempere Gelardo, whom we can highly recommend, through Advocateabroad.com. The site provides a list of lawyers and it also provide customer reviews.
The lawyer handled and guided us through all the necessary steps in the purchase process and also assisted us in establishing a bank account which is needed. The steps includes getting a Spanish identity number (NIE), producing a purchase contract and finally produce and process the deed.
We purchased our property from eight siblings who did not use a broker. The lack of broker did not create any increased complexity and it seems that the broker has a very limited role in the transactions in Spain compared to at least the Nordics. Also in our purchase process we did not need a Spanish mortgage which I understand will add some complexity and time to the process.
The payment terms appear to be quite standardized. The buyer pays a ten percent deposit when the purchase agreement is signed. The remaining ninety percent is paid when the deed is signed and the transaction is completed. If the buyer pulls out the deposit is lost. If the seller pulls out, the seller needs to pay back the deposit plus an amount equal to the deposit amount. (The seller receives ten percent of the purchase price if the seller pulls out of the deal.)
In addition to the purchase price there are som fees and taxes that need to be paid. For us the totalt sum paid included taxes, public fees, banking fees and cost of lawyer was twelve percent. That means the total amount paid was negotiated price (slightly lower than asking price) plus twelve percent. I understand that there are some minor variations between the different regions.
After the purchase contract was signed it took approximately six week until everything was processed and the property was ours. Not bad at all, and it was time to pop the champagne.
