Spain, for foreign property buyers.
Spain has changed a lot in the past year — the Golden Visa is gone, transfer tax now shifts at every regional border, and no buyer signs anything until they get a foreigner tax ID that can take six weeks to come through. Here is what actually moves the math, and the kinds of financing real buyers are using right now.
Mediterranean coast · SpainHow North American buyers fund Spain purchases.
Cash, HELOC against a US or Canadian primary, local non-resident bank, or a cross-border 25-year mortgage that qualifies off North American income. The math, the friction, the honest comparison.
Spain mortgages — read the math →What makes Spain different
The few things that change the buyer math.
- Foreigners can own property in Spain outright, no special structure required. The deal closes at a notary and the title gets recorded at the property registry, same process whether you are buying in Madrid or on the Costa del Sol.
- Before you sign anything, you need a foreigner tax ID (the NIE), and getting one is more of an obstacle than most buyers expect. Consular appointments routinely book six weeks out, and that delay has killed real deals.
- Transfer tax in Spain is set by the region, not by Madrid, so the same listing can cost you four extra points of tax just by sitting on the other side of a regional line. Andalusia is around 7%, Madrid around 6%, and Catalonia closer to 10%. New-builds pay VAT and a stamp duty instead.
- Annual property tax runs 0.4 to 1.1 percent of cadastral value, which is small money compared to a US property tax bill. The catch is that non-residents owe an annual income tax on the imputed rental value of the home, even if you never rent it out.
- Spain wound down the Golden Visa investor program in April 2025, so the live residency paths now are the non-lucrative visa and the digital nomad visa, and both ask for stronger income proof than the program they replaced.
- Spanish banks do lend to American and Canadian buyers, usually 3.5 to 5 percent on Euribor and 60 to 70 percent loan-to-value, but the whole file is in Spanish, the appraiser is local, and exchange rates can move 5 percent between your offer and your closing. The Brief covers when a local mortgage beats cross-border and when it does not — see /newsletter.
What we cover
Topics on Spain for North American buyers.
Buying property in Spain: The complete American's guide
A walkthrough of how the buy actually unfolds in Spain, including: getting your foreigner tax ID, the timeline from offer to signing, how transfer tax shifts by region, and how the city numbers really work.
Spanish residency for property buyers: Non-lucrative, digital nomad, post-Golden-Visa
Now that the Golden Visa is gone, here are the visa paths that still work, what kind of income you need to prove, how tax residency gets pulled in, and what owning property actually does and does not get you.
Costa del Sol vs Valencia vs Madrid
A read on the three regions Americans tend to compare, including: How prices have moved, what you can rent for, what daily life looks like, and where the friction shows up.
Spanish non-resident mortgage vs cross-border
A side-by-side look at when the local Euribor-linked loan wins and when borrowing across the border still makes more sense.
Taxes for American buyers in Spain
How the IRS layer sits on top of Spanish ownership, including: What you have to report each year, how foreign tax credits work, and the quirky imputed-rent income tax that surprises most buyers.
Taxes for Canadian buyers in Spain
How CRA reporting overlays Spanish ownership, including: What to file each year, how foreign rental income is treated, and how it interacts with the principal residence rules.
One market read, one process explainer, one number to know.
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