Selling Your Spanish Property From Abroad: Power of Attorney, Apostille and Remote Signing (2026)

You own a 78 m² apartment in Los Boliches, Fuengirola. You bought it in 2012 and you have not set foot in it for four years. You now live in Hamburg, you decide to sell, and you find a buyer in six weeks. Then the awkward part begins: the notary proposes completing on a Tuesday, the buyer needs to close before his mortgage offer expires, and you cannot get to Málaga on nine days’ notice.

The problem is not that selling from abroad is difficult. It is that you do not choose the completion date. It is set by the notary’s diary, the buyer’s bank and the discharge of your mortgage, and it moves two or three times before it settles. Nobody books flights against a calendar like that.

The answer is a power of attorney — in Spanish, a poder. You sign a deed before a notary authorising someone, usually your Spanish lawyer, to sign the sale deed on your behalf. But a Spanish power of attorney is not a form. It is a document that lists specific powers, and your attorney can only do what that list says. If one power is missing, completion collapses on the day and you start again from your own country.

This guide covers the mechanism: which powers the Spanish notary will look for, where you sign and what each route costs, when you need a sworn translation, whether you really need a fiscal representative, how you get paid into a non-Spanish account, and who can request the paperwork for you. The tax side — the 3% retention, capital gains, municipal land tax — is covered in selling a property on the Costa del Sol as a non-resident. For the reverse transaction, see buying property in Spain without travelling.

What you can do from abroad and what needs a physical presence

Almost the whole process is paperwork, and paperwork travels well. The only act requiring somebody physically in front of a Spanish notary is signing the escritura, the public deed of sale — and that somebody can be your attorney.

Step	From abroad?	How it works
Listing and showing the property	Yes	Agency agreement signed electronically; the agency views with a set of keys
Ordering the nota simple	Through a representative only	Requires proof of legitimate interest (arts. 221 and 222, Mortgage Act)
Energy performance certificate	Yes	The assessor visits with keys; registration is electronic
Community of owners debt certificate	Yes	Requested from the administrator; seven calendar days by law
Zero-balance mortgage certificate	Yes	Online banking or your attorney; it is free
Signing the deposit contract	Yes	Electronic signature or attorney; it is a private contract
Granting the power of attorney	Yes	Spanish consulate or local notary with apostille
Signing the sale deed	Not remotely	You or your attorney, physically present
Discharging the mortgage	Yes	The bank’s representative attends; you bear the cost
Receiving the price	Yes	Euro transfer to your foreign account
Taxes and form 210	Yes	Your lawyer, gestor or fiscal representative

The power of attorney: the powers the notary will look for

Anything not written into the power of attorney is not authorised. That single sentence accounts for ninety per cent of the problems we see.

The notary handling the sale will do two things with your document. First, check that it reaches Spain in valid form. Second, and more delicate, issue a juicio de suficiencia — a formal declaration, on his own professional responsibility, that the powers granted are sufficient for the specific act being signed. This is his duty under article 98 of Law 24/2001. If he concludes the document falls short, he does not sign, and there is no arguing on the day.

Two articles of the Spanish Civil Code explain why the wording matters so much. Article 1280.5 requires that a power of attorney for an act which must be recorded in a public deed be itself a public document. And article 1713 is blunt: to sell, mortgage or otherwise dispose of property, express authority is required. Selling is disposal: the power must be written out, not inferred from context.

Minimum contents of a selling power of attorney

• Sell the identified property, with its land registry number, the registry it belongs to, the cadastral reference and the address.
• Set the price and terms, or a floor price below which your attorney cannot sell. This is what protects you.
• Receive the price and give valid receipt. Without this, your attorney can sign the sale but cannot acknowledge payment.
• Sign the deposit contract (arras) and take payments on account.
• Discharge the mortgage and request the outstanding balance certificate from the bank.
• Request the property paperwork: nota simple, community certificate, cadastral certificate, council tax receipts and the energy certificate.
• Appear before the tax office and the town hall to file form 210 and the municipal land tax.
• Apply for and collect tax refunds.
• Close the utility accounts and cancel or transfer the water, electricity and refuse contracts.
• Delegate the power, so your lawyer can substitute a colleague if she is away on the day of completion.

The four that are almost always missing

1. Collecting the 3% refund. When a non-resident sells, the buyer withholds 3% of the price and pays it to the tax office on form 211, as a payment on account of your capital gains tax. If your actual tax is lower, you reclaim the difference on form 210. Here is the detail nobody anticipates: Order EHA/3316/2010 allows the refund to be paid into an account outside Spain only if you are the account holder. If the refund is claimed in your representative’s name, the account must be in Spain — and the power of attorney must expressly include authority to collect refunds.
2. Discharging the mortgage at the Land Registry. Having finished paying the loan does not remove the charge from the register. It stays recorded until formally cancelled, and no buyer will accept an encumbered property.
3. Acting before the town hall on the plusvalía municipal. This is the municipal tax on the increase in land value, and it carries a twist that surprises almost every foreign seller: where the seller is a non-resident individual, article 106.2 of the Local Finances Act makes the buyer the substitute taxpayer. The buyer files and pays it, though he will normally deduct it from the price. Even so your attorney must be able to act, because the Land Registry will not register the deed without evidence that the tax was filed (article 254.5, Mortgage Act).
4. Signing a deed of rectification. If an error appears in the floor area or in the recorded means of payment, it is corrected by a later deed. Without this power, correcting it needs your signature again — another apostille, another translation.

Special or general

For a sale the answer is almost always a special power, limited to that one transaction: it exposes you less, it is easier to revoke, and — the point that usually decides it — powers granted for specific acts are on the list of deeds that can be signed by video call under article 17 ter, whereas general powers are expressly excluded.

That remote route has a practical limit. It requires you to identify yourself on the Spanish notarial electronic portal using a system accepted by article 9 of Law 39/2015 — a qualified electronic certificate or the Spanish government’s Cl@ve system. If you live abroad and have neither, the door is shut in practice even though the law leaves it open.

A specific warning for British owners, of whom there are many on this coast: a Lasting Power of Attorney is not the equivalent of a Spanish poder. It may be accepted if apostilled, translated and judged functionally equivalent by the notary, but acceptance is not guaranteed and also depends on the Land Registry and the bank. Grant a power drafted under Spanish law instead. The wider post-Brexit picture is in our post-Brexit guide for British citizens.

Where to sign: consulate or local notary with an apostille

There are exactly two routes, and they are not equivalent in cost or in time.

At a Spanish consulate, the consular officer acts as a Spanish notary. The deed is issued in Spanish and arrives with no further formality. It carries no apostille, and not by oversight: article 1(3) of the 1961 Hague Convention expressly excludes documents executed by consular agents — Spanish missions abroad are Spanish administration. The price is fixed by statute, since article 25 of Law 9/2011 refers to the notarial tariff: €30.05 plus €3.01 per page for the certified copy, published as £26.40 in London. The obstacle is never the money: it is the appointment.

Before a local notary you sign in your own country and then legalise the document with a Hague Apostille, available if your country is one of the 130 states party to the Convention; if not, you need diplomatic legalisation. This is where the risk lies. In common-law countries a notary public often does no more than witness a signature, whereas a Spanish notary drafts, verifies identity and capacity, and advises on content. The Spanish notary must therefore form a judgment of functional equivalence under articles 56.2 and 60 of Law 29/2015. A certificate saying only «I saw this person sign» stands a fair chance of rejection.

Item	Spanish consulate	Local notary + apostille
Language	Spanish	Local language; needs translation
Signing fee	€30.05 (£26.40 in London)	Set freely, not published
Certified copy	€3.01 per page	Per local tariff
Legalisation	Not applicable	Apostille: €10–45 depending on country
Sworn translation	No	Almost always; €30–120 per page
Indicative total	€35–60	€150–400
Timescale	2–4 weeks for an appointment in London	1–3 weeks
Risk of rejection	Practically nil	Real, if only the signature is witnessed

The apostille itself does have an official price in most countries, and it varies more than you would expect for a stamp:

Country	Fee	Published turnaround
United Kingdom	£45 on paper; £35 e-Apostille	15–25 working days; 2 days electronically
Germany	€25	Two to four working days plus post
Netherlands	€27	Same visit if you attend in person
Ireland	€40	Three to seven working days
Belgium	€25 from August 2026	Five working days, via eLegalisation
France	€10 per deed; €20 expedited	24 hours on the expedited service
Sweden	No statutory fee; typically SEK 300–600	Not published
United States	$10 in Florida and New York; $20 in California	Same day in New York

On sworn translation: it must be done by a Traductor-Intérprete Jurado, a translator appointed by the Spanish foreign ministry, whose certification gives the translation official status. Fees have been unregulated since Royal Decree 2002/2009, with the market between €30 and €120 per page. One nuance rarely mentioned that may save you the step: article 37 of the Mortgage Regulations allows a notary to do the translation, taking responsibility for its accuracy, and even permits the registrar to dispense with an official translation if he knows the language. Ask before commissioning one.

And one option nobody mentions, because it assumes you are already abroad: if you have a trip to Spain planned before listing, sign the power of attorney while you are there. A special power before a Spanish notary runs to about €75–140 including VAT depending on length and copies, under the tariff set by Royal Decree 1426/1989. Signed during a trip you were making anyway, it costs less than the sworn translation alone on the foreign route.

The fiscal representative: when you actually need one

Here we have to say something that does not suit much of the industry. Foreign sellers are routinely told that appointing a representante fiscal is an unavoidable legal requirement, with a fee attached. The law says considerably less than that.

Article 10 of the consolidated Non-Resident Income Tax Act, as worded by Law 11/2021, requires a representative only from taxpayers «not resident in another Member State of the European Union», and paragraph 2 extends the exemption to Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein.

• Resident in the EU, Iceland, Norway or Liechtenstein: you are not obliged. You may appoint one for convenience, but it is not a requirement.
• Resident outside that area — the United Kingdom, Switzerland, the United States: the obligation does not arise automatically merely because you own property. It is triggered «when the tax authorities so require». Until they ask, you are not in breach.
• Resident in a non-cooperative jurisdiction: there it is mandatory from the outset.

Where the obligation does exist and is ignored, paragraph 4 classifies it as a serious tax infringement with a fixed penalty of €2,000, rising to €6,000 for residents of non-cooperative jurisdictions, and the appointment must be notified to the tax authorities within two months. For most European sellers, what you actually need is somebody who files your returns properly — and a lawyer holding your power of attorney does that without the formal article 10 status. There is no official tariff, so ask for a fixed written quote and be wary of anyone presenting it as an obligation it is not always.

Getting paid when your account is outside Spain

A second myth: you do not need a Spanish bank account. Article 9 of Regulation (EU) 260/2012 prohibits so-called IBAN discrimination, so for a euro transfer within the SEPA area nobody may insist that your account be held in a particular country.

Completion day has a choreography worth understanding. The notary must identify the means of payment: article 24 of the Notaries Act, implemented by Royal Decree 1804/2008, requires him to record whether the price was paid before or at the signing, how much and by what instrument. This is not harmless paperwork. If the means of payment are not properly identified the deed is defective and the Land Registry may refuse registration under article 254 of the Mortgage Act. Fixing it takes another deed, which is precisely what you do not want from 2,400 kilometres away.

• Direct transfer to your foreign euro account. The clean route. Since October 2025 euro-area banks must offer instant euro transfers under Regulation (EU) 2024/886, and the SEPA scheme’s €100,000 cap was removed. Banks still set their own ceilings, so confirm yours: discovering on completion day that your bank will not accept €289,000 in one movement is avoidable.
• Banker’s draft. The classic instrument in Spanish notaries’ offices, and buyers like its certainty. It complicates your life without a Spanish account: a draft paid into a foreign account can take weeks to clear and attract charges. Negotiate a transfer instead.
• Payment through your lawyer’s account. Used where charges must be discharged at the signing, but it puts an intermediary between you and your money. If you take this route, have the power of attorney provide for it and get the final destination and timing in writing.

On cash, to close the subject: article 7 of Law 7/2012, as amended by Law 11/2021, caps cash payments at €1,000 where one party acts as a business or professional, and at €10,000 where the payer is a non-resident individual. And if you physically carry means of payment, form S-1 requires a declaration from €10,000 when crossing the border and from €100,000 for movements within Spain.

That leaves the 3% refund, which is your money and arrives months later. The tax office will pay it into an account outside Spain on two conditions set by Order EHA/3316/2010: that you are the account holder, and that you provide evidence of ownership of the account. If the account has no IBAN, the SWIFT-BIC code is compulsory. The statutory deadline for payment is six months from the end of the filing period, after which late-payment interest accrues automatically without you having to claim it. The tax office publishes no real average, so anyone quoting you a specific figure is inventing it.

The paperwork and who requests it for you

Document	Issued by	Who requests it for you	Cost	Time
Nota simple (land registry extract)	Land Registry	Lawyer or attorney, with legitimate interest	€9.02 plus VAT	Under two hours
Community debt certificate	Secretary, countersigned by the president	You or your attorney	No official tariff	Seven calendar days
Energy performance certificate	Qualified assessor	The agency or your attorney	€60–150 plus €15.28 fee	Three to ten days
Zero-balance mortgage certificate	Your bank	You or your attorney	Free	Three to ten days
Council tax (IBI) receipts	Town hall or provincial collection body	Attorney with a digital certificate	Varies by town hall	Immediate
Cadastral certificate	Directorate-General of the Cadastre	Representative using the standard form	Check on the Cadastre portal	Immediate
Copy of your purchase deed	The notary who authorised it	You or your attorney	Per page, per tariff	Two to five days

A nota simple is not public information. It is the Land Registry’s summary of ownership and charges — the document that shows whether your mortgage is still recorded. Many people assume you can simply pay €9.02 on the registrars’ website, but articles 221 and 222 of the Mortgage Act require proof of legitimate interest and the registrar assesses it. An owner or their lawyer has it beyond argument, but the purpose must be stated. It is the first document worth delegating.

The community certificate has a statutory deadline and a responsible signatory. Article 9.1.e of the Horizontal Property Act obliges the seller to produce it at the deed, and the notary cannot authorise the sale without it unless the buyer expressly waives it. The law allows seven calendar days and makes the signatory liable for the accuracy of the figures and for loss caused by delay. If your administrator drags his feet, that article is what you quote.

The energy certificate expires sooner than you think. Article 13 of Royal Decree 390/2021 sets ten years, except where the rating is class G, which is five. Many 1970s and 1980s apartments on this coast rate exactly class G, so a 2019 certificate you assume is valid may have lapsed. Article 15 also requires the label to appear in all sales advertising, and penalties run from €300 to €6,000. In Andalusia it is entered on the regional register at €15.28 up to 250 m² and €58.59 above. Full cost breakdown in the cost of selling a property on the Costa del Sol.

The zero-balance certificate is free. That is not an opinion but a published criterion of the Bank of Spain, which states that the lender must supply it free of charge and must not charge for attending the signing or for sending its representative to the notary. The deed of discharge is also exempt from stamp duty. There is no official tariff for the total cost of removing the charge from the register, which between notary, registry and gestoría runs €400–1,000.

A little-known shortcut: a non-resident can obtain a Spanish FNMT digital certificate without travelling, applying online and proving identity at a Spanish consulate, as the tax office itself confirms. With it you reach the tax office, the Cadastre and your town hall’s online services directly. Do not confuse it with the «consular certificate», reserved for Spanish nationals living abroad. If you are already granting a power of attorney, it is a luxury rather than a necessity.

The full worked example: Hamburg to Fuengirola

A 78 m² apartment in Los Boliches, bought in 2012 for €158,000 and sold in 2026 for €289,000, with a mortgage still to discharge. The owner lives in Hamburg, is tax-resident in Germany and does not intend to travel. The dimensions match the typical Fuengirola apartment in our own area index: 78 m² and an average price of €286,000.

Week	What happens	Blocks completion?
1	Agency agreement, photography and nota simple	No
1–2	Assessor’s visit and energy certificate	Yes, required to advertise
2	The lawyer drafts the power and sends it to Hamburg	Yes
3	Signing before a German notary	Yes
4	Apostille at the Landgericht	Yes
5	Sworn translation and courier to Spain	Yes
4–9	Marketing, viewings and negotiation	No
9	Offer accepted, deposit contract signed by the attorney	No
10	Community and zero-balance certificates requested	Yes
10–13	The buyer finalises his mortgage; notary date fixed	Yes
13	Completion, mortgage discharge and payment	—

Notice where the critical path lies: marketing and the power of attorney run in parallel. That is the one scheduling decision that genuinely matters. If you wait until you have a buyer to start the power, you add three to five weeks exactly when the buyer is in a hurry — and that is where sales fall through.

After completion three deadlines remain: the buyer pays the retention on form 211 within one month, the municipal land tax is declared within thirty working days, and your form 210 is filed roughly four months after the deed.

Item	Amount
Sale price	€289,000.00
Power of attorney before a Hamburg notary	€120.00
Apostille	€25.00
Sworn translation	€85.00
Courier to Spain	€55.00
Attorney’s professional fees	€1,400.00
Subtotal specific to selling remotely	€1,685.00
Agency commission, 4% plus VAT	€13,987.60
Energy certificate and registration fee	€110.00
Notary	€620.00
Mortgage discharge at the registry	€780.00
Community certificate and nota simple	€55.91
Municipal land tax passed on	€992.00
Subtotal, ordinary selling costs	€16,545.51
Acquisition value, with 2012 transfer tax and costs	€172,740.00
Capital gain	€100,494.49
Non-resident income tax at 19%	€19,093.95
Less the 3% already withheld	−€8,670.00
Payable with form 210	€10,423.95
Net proceeds	€251,685.54

Is signing remotely cheaper than flying over?

Item	By power of attorney	Flying over to sign
Signing, apostille and translation	€230	€0
Courier	€55	€0
Lawyer’s fees	€1,400	€900
Flights, two trips from Hamburg	€0	€320
Accommodation and transport	€0	€520
Total	€1,685	€1,740
Your time	Half a morning	Four to six days
Main risk	An insufficient power of attorney	The date moving

The uncomfortable conclusion is that selling by power of attorney is not cheaper. It costs almost exactly the same. What you buy is not money but independence from a calendar you do not control. And that reframes the comparison, because the real cost of flying over is not the €1,740 in the table — it is the wasted trip when the notary moves the date nine days beforehand.

That said, and at the risk of losing an instruction: if you live two hours away by air, your diary is flexible and you do not mind travelling, coming in person is simpler and removes the only serious risk in the whole operation. The power of attorney wins clearly in three situations: a long or expensive journey, an uncertain completion date, and multiple sellers — siblings who inherited, a separated couple — spread across countries. In that last case, coordinating four diaries at a Fuengirola notary is impossible, and the power becomes the only way.

The seven costliest mistakes

1. Leaving the power of attorney until a buyer appears. Appointment, signing, apostille, translation and courier consume three to five weeks. A buyer with approved financing does not wait: he buys another property.
2. Reusing an old power or a downloaded template. The one you signed in 2015 to buy will not serve to sell, and a generic form does not contain the express authority article 1713 of the Civil Code demands.
3. Signing before a notary public who only witnesses the signature. This is the commonest rejection and the most expensive, because it surfaces on completion day.
4. Pricing without data. Selling remotely magnifies this, because you neither see the viewings nor hear the feedback. Read how your home’s value is actually calculated and be clear that a market valuation is not a regulated appraisal.
5. Forgetting the registered mortgage. Finishing the payments does not remove the charge. Ask for the zero-balance certificate, which is free, as soon as you have a buyer.
6. Unfiled form 210 returns. Every year as a non-resident owner carried an obligation on deemed income, and another on rent if you let the property. Order HAC/623/2026 moved deemed income to 1 April–31 December of the following year, and rental income to the first twenty days of April, for income arising from 2026. If you let it, the long-term rental rules and the tourist licence regime both matter.
7. Not revoking the power once it is done. It stays alive until revoked, and Spain has no central register of revoked powers.

How to organise it, step by step

1. Instruct an independent Spanish lawyer, separate from the buyer and, it is worth saying, from the agency too.
2. Ask for the draft power of attorney first, tailored to your case: mortgage, joint owners, floor price.
3. Choose the route and book the appointment the same day. Consulate if you have three weeks; local notary with apostille if time is short.
4. Order the energy certificate in parallel, and check whether the one you hold is still valid and whether your property rates class G.
5. Gather the old paperwork: your purchase deed, renovation invoices with VAT in your name, and the costs of the original purchase. All of it reduces the taxable gain, and nobody will find it for you.
6. Price with data from your own town, not the coast as a whole: selling times vary a great deal, as where property sells fastest on the Costa del Sol shows. Our interactive price map and area guides break it down further.
7. Prepare the property from a distance. A flat shut up for four years photographs badly; home staging is carried out without you being there.
8. Send the power to Spain as soon as you have it and have your lawyer check it before there is a buyer. A defective power found in week 5 is an inconvenience; in week 12 it is a lost sale.
9. Confirm your bank’s incoming limit and keep proof of account ownership ready for the 3% refund.
10. Diarise the post-completion deadlines and revoke the power once the deed is registered.

Unfamiliar terms like arras, escritura and gestoría are explained in our Spanish property glossary, and our Marbella versus Fuengirola comparison sets the local market in context.

Frequently asked questions

Can I sell my Spanish property without travelling?

Yes, and it is common. You grant a special power of attorney to someone you trust in Spain, usually your lawyer, who signs the deed before the notary on your behalf. Everything else is handled remotely. The one thing that does not exist is remote signing of the deed itself: somebody must be physically present at the notary’s office.

What powers must the power of attorney include to sell?

At minimum: selling the identified property with its land registry details, setting the price, receiving the price and giving valid receipt, signing the deposit contract, discharging the mortgage, requesting the paperwork, appearing before the tax office and town hall, collecting refunds and signing deeds of rectification. Article 1713 of the Civil Code requires express authority to dispose of property, so the power to sell must be stated in those terms.

How much does a power of attorney cost from abroad?

By the consular route, €35–60: the fee is €30.05 plus €3.01 per page for the certified copy. By local notary with apostille and sworn translation, €150–400, depending on your notary’s own fee, which is unregulated, plus the apostille — from €10 in France to £45 in the United Kingdom. Signed at a Spanish notary’s office it runs about €75–140 including VAT.

Is a Spanish consulate better than a notary in my country?

The consulate is cheaper and safer, and needs neither apostille nor translation because it issues in Spanish and is Spanish administration. The drawback is the appointment: London publishes a two to four week wait and other consulates publish nothing. A local notary is quicker to book but adds apostille, translation and the risk that the document is not treated as equivalent.

Do I need a sworn translation of the power of attorney?

If it is in another language, almost always, and it must be done by a translator appointed by the Spanish foreign ministry. Fees have been unregulated since Royal Decree 2002/2009, with the market at €30–120 per page. There is a little-known exception: article 37 of the Mortgage Regulations lets a notary translate it, taking responsibility for accuracy, and even lets the registrar dispense with an official translation if he knows the language.

Can the sale be signed by video call?

No. Law 11/2023 permitted remote notarial signing only for the closed list in article 17 ter of the Notaries Act, and property sales do not appear on it. Powers of attorney for specific acts do appear, so in theory you could grant the power by video call; in practice you need a Spanish electronic identification system that a non-resident rarely holds.

Do I need a fiscal representative to sell?

Probably not. Article 10 of the Non-Resident Income Tax Act obliges only those not resident in the European Union, with the exemption extended to Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein. Outside that area, owning property does not trigger the obligation by itself: it arises when the tax authorities require it, or automatically if you live in a non-cooperative jurisdiction. The penalty, where it applies, is €2,000 or €6,000.

Can I be paid into my account abroad?

Yes. Article 9 of Regulation (EU) 260/2012 forbids requiring an account in a particular country for a euro transfer within the SEPA area. Confirm your bank’s incoming limit, because each institution sets its own. Note that the notary must record the means of payment under article 24 of the Notaries Act: if it is not properly identified, the Land Registry may refuse registration.

How long does the 3% refund take?

The statutory deadline is six months from the end of the filing period, after which the authorities owe late-payment interest automatically. The Spanish tax office publishes no real average, so treat specific figures with suspicion. It can be paid into an account outside Spain if you are the account holder; if your representative claims it, the account must be in Spain.

How do I revoke the power of attorney afterwards?

By a deed of revocation before a Spanish or consular notary, which can be granted by video call. The notary annotates the original so no further certified copies issue, and demands the copy back from your attorney. The key point: under articles 1734 and 1738 of the Civil Code revocation does not prejudice third parties in good faith who were unaware of it, and Spain has no central register of revoked powers. Notification is what makes it effective.

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Keep reading

• Selling a property on the Costa del Sol as a non-resident
• The cost of selling a property on the Costa del Sol
• Buying property in Spain without travelling
• Inheritance tax in Andalusia for foreign owners
• Taxes on buying property in Andalusia
• Buying property in Spain as a foreigner

Sources and methodology

Legislation verified in August 2026: article 17 ter of the Notaries Act as introduced by Law 11/2023; article 98 of Law 24/2001; articles 56.2 and 60 of Law 29/2015 on international legal cooperation; articles 1280.5, 1713 and 1732 to 1738 of the Civil Code; articles 221, 222 and 254 of the Mortgage Act and article 37 of the Mortgage Regulations; article 9.1.e of the Horizontal Property Act (Law 49/1960); Royal Decree 390/2021 as amended by Royal Decree 659/2025; articles 10 and 25 of the consolidated Non-Resident Income Tax Act as worded by Law 11/2021; Orders EHA/3316/2010 and HAC/623/2026; articles 106.2 and 110.2.a of the consolidated Local Finances Act; article 24 of the Notaries Act and Royal Decree 1804/2008; article 7 of Law 7/2012 and article 34 of Law 10/2010; Regulations (EU) 260/2012 and 2024/886; Royal Decrees 1426/1989 and 1427/1989; Law 9/2011 on consular fees; and article 205 of Royal Decree 1155/2024.

Fees and timescales: consular fee lists published by the Spanish embassies in Berlin and London with effect from 1 January 2026; apostille fees published by the competent authorities of the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, Ireland, Belgium and France and by the Secretaries of State of Florida, New York, Texas and California; the Hague Convention 1961 status table updated to June 2026; nota simple prices from the Spanish College of Registrars; Andalusian energy certificate fees under Law 8/2025; and Bank of Spain guidance on the zero-balance certificate. Given as ranges, because no official tariff exists: foreign notary fees, sworn translation, community administrator, energy assessor, attorney’s fees and fiscal representation, plus the total cost of removing a mortgage charge. The Swedish figure comes from a 2023 government inquiry, not a tariff. No official statistic measures the interval between accepted offer and deed, so the worked timeline is our own operational estimate.

The floor area and average price for the typical Fuengirola apartment come from the SolProp Costa del Sol Price Index (v2026.3, data to June 2026). This is our own estimate, modelled from asking prices and our own portfolio, and not a record of registered transactions nor an official figure: it is not directly comparable with data from the national statistics institute or the College of Registrars, which come from different sources. The full methodology is published in the interactive map methodology.

This article is general information and does not replace advice from a lawyer or tax adviser for your specific case. Last updated: August 2026.