The buying process

Once you have seen the villas in Chiclana, fincas in Medina, village houses in Vejer and made your choice, you will probably find yourself in unfamiliar territory. The buying process in Spain is actually quite straightforward but, like a lot of things, can become very complicated! The basic steps are as follows:

1. Agree the price with the buyer.
2. Sign the private contract. Typically this happens a day or so after stage 1 and the buyer will not normally take the property off the market until the Private Contract has been signed. You will need to pay a deposit at this stage - the amount will depend on the particular deal but will usually be between 9,000€ and 20,000€. If you do not complete the sale, you will lose this deposit, but if the buyer pulls out of the sale they will have to pay you double the amount.
3. Completion. The final date for completion will have been agreed in the Private Contract. You must have a non-resident bank account and an NIE number before completion but we can help you with this.

There are a number of bits of paperwork that need to be done between these stages but between your Solictors and ourselves we can handle all this.

The whole process can be very quick - a week from agreeing price to completion is possible - or can be as long as you and the seller want.

There will be some differences if you are buying a new property which is not yet built as there may be stage payments to be made, but we will give you full details before you commit to the purchase. By law in Spain these payments have to be ring-fenced and guaranteed by a bank but many developers will not do this unless you (or we!) remind them that it is their legal obligation.