The Spanish notary process for buying property — step by step

Yes. The notary is impartial and does not act for you. The notary's role is to give public faith to the signing, verify identities, and check the registry extract on the day. The notary does not carry out due diligence: planning compliance, community of owners debts, outstanding utility bills, structural issues, licences, or whether the price is reasonable. An independent abogado handles those checks, reviews the draft escritura, advises on the tax structure, and often coordinates with the notary's office on your behalf. Skipping legal advice because a notary is present is one of the most common and costly errors foreign buyers make on the Costa del Sol.

Yes, but an official interpreter is required by law under Article 150 of the Notarial Regulation. The notary must be satisfied you understand every clause of the deed being read aloud. Many Costa del Sol notaries have in-house bilingual staff or work with sworn translators. In some cases, your abogado may act as interpreter if appropriately qualified and accepted by the notary. Alternatively, you can grant a poder notarial (power of attorney) to your lawyer to sign on your behalf, which removes the need to attend in person. Confirm the language arrangement with the notary's office at least a week before the signing date.

Ownership passes the moment you sign the escritura before the notary. However, full third-party protection under Article 34 of the Mortgage Law only applies once the deed is inscribed at the . The notary's office typically sends a digital copy to the registry within hours of signing, which provides provisional protection. After transfer tax or IVA/AJD is paid (within 30 working days), the deed is formally lodged for inscription. Final registration usually completes within 15 to 60 days, depending on the registry's workload. Your gestor or abogado will provide the inscribed deed once the process is finished.

The signing procedure is essentially the same, but the tax treatment differs significantly. Resale property in Andalucía attracts ITP (transfer tax) at a flat 7% of the declared price, paid by the buyer to the Junta within 30 working days. New-build property purchased directly from a developer attracts IVA at 10% (paid to the developer at signing) plus AJD stamp duty at 1.2% in Andalucía. New-builds also require the licencia de primera ocupación rather than a cédula de habitabilidad. Total transaction costs typically run 10-12% on resales and 12-14% on new-builds. Tax positions can change; confirm current rates with your abogado before completion.

Yes. You can grant a poder notarial (power of attorney) authorising your abogado or another trusted person to sign the escritura on your behalf. The power of attorney can be executed at a Spanish notary, at a Spanish consulate abroad, or before a notary in your home country with an apostille under the Hague Convention plus a sworn translation into Spanish. The document must specifically authorise property purchase and ideally name the property and price range. Drafting the power of attorney properly takes one to three weeks, so plan ahead. Most Costa del Sol abogados use this routinely for non-resident buyers and provide a model wording.

The standard instrument is a cheque bancario (banker's draft) drawn on a Spanish bank, made payable to the seller. The notary records each cheque in the deed, including issuing bank, number and amount, under the anti-money-laundering provisions of Law 36/2006. Wire transfers are accepted but must be evidenced with a bank confirmation showing the transfer reached the seller before signing. Under Law 7/2012, cash payments above 1,000 euros between professional parties are prohibited, and any cash element must be declared. You'll need a Spanish bank account opened in advance to issue the bank drafts, which typically requires your NIE and proof of address.

Under Article 126 of the Notarial Regulation, the buyer has the legal right to choose the notary, since the buyer bears the larger share of notarial costs. In practice on the Costa del Sol, the choice is usually pragmatic: a notary close to the property, with availability on the agreed completion date, and ideally with English-speaking staff. Your abogado will typically suggest a notary they work with regularly, which speeds up document exchange and reduces the risk of last-minute issues. Notary fees are fixed by official tariff (Real Decreto 1426/1989), so shopping around on price is not worthwhile; choose for service quality and availability.

The notary requests a fresh nota simple (registry extract) on the day of signing, precisely to catch any charges, embargoes or mortgages registered since the draft deed was prepared. If a new charge appears, the notary will flag it before you sign. You then have options: refuse to proceed, require the seller to discharge the charge from sale proceeds at the notary table (common with existing mortgages, which are typically cancelled with funds from your bank cheques), or renegotiate. A well-drafted private purchase contract should include warranties that the property will be delivered free of charges, giving you contractual recourse if the seller fails to clear them.

Yes, in standard transactions. Physical handover of keys takes place at the notary table once cheques have been exchanged and the deed has been signed. The escritura explicitly records that possession (posesión) has been transferred to the buyer. From that moment, the property is legally yours: you bear the risk, the insurance obligation, and the right to occupy. If keys cannot be handed over at signing (for example, where the seller is still occupying and a short hand-back period is agreed), the deed should record the agreed handover date and any retention from the sale price as security. Your abogado should structure this in advance.