What an international buyer actually pays — acquisition taxes, annual levies, the Solidarity Tax, and the numbers that decide whether the maths still works.
The price on the listing is the smallest tax decision a buyer will make. The larger ones come in layers — at purchase, every year of ownership, and on the wealth the property represents — and they differ depending on whether the buyer is resident, non-resident, EU, or non-EU. Most buyers discover these layers one at a time, usually after committing. This is the full stack, set out before the offer rather than after it.
This is an orientation, not tax advice. Liability depends on residency, structure and individual circumstances, and must be confirmed with a qualified Spanish tax adviser.
At purchase: the transfer taxes
The first layer is the tax on the transaction itself, and it depends on whether the property is a resale or a new build.
For a resale in Andalucía, the buyer pays ITP — transfer tax — at a flat 7% of the declared price, regardless of value. On a €5 million villa, that is €350,000. For a new build or off-plan, ITP is replaced by VAT (IVA) at 10%, plus stamp duty (AJD) at 1.2% — so the same €5 million, new, carries €500,000 in VAT and €60,000 in stamp duty.
On top of that sit legal, notary and registry costs, generally 1 to 1.5% of the price. The distinction matters more than it looks: a new build can carry roughly three points more in upfront tax than an equivalent resale. That difference belongs in the comparison when two properties are weighed against each other, and it rarely appears in the sales conversation.
Every year: the cost of holding
The second layer is annual, and it applies whether or not the property is ever rented.
IBI — the local property tax — is set on the cadastral value, which usually sits well below market value. For a prime villa it typically runs from a few thousand to the low tens of thousands a year, depending on the municipality and classification.
For a non-resident who does not rent the property out, Spain still levies IRNR — non-resident income tax — on an imputed rental income, calculated from the cadastral value (broadly 1.1–2% of it) and taxed at 19% for EU residents or 24% for non-EU. It is modest in absolute terms, frequently overlooked, and a line a non-resident buyer should know exists before the first tax year closes.
The tax is not a surprise. It is the part of the purchase the seller’s agent never has a reason to explain.
On the wealth: the Solidarity Tax
The third layer is the one most likely to surprise, because it is not a property tax at all — it is a wealth tax that the property can trigger.
Spain’s Solidarity Tax on Large Fortunes (Law 38/2022) applies to net wealth above €3 million, on a progressive scale of 1.7% to 3.5%. It is levied on total net wealth, not on the property alone — so for a buyer whose principal asset is the villa itself, a high-value purchase can bring them within its scope. Andalucía’s regional Wealth Tax, by contrast, is effectively neutralised for residents by a 100% regional rebate; the national Solidarity Tax was introduced in part to reach precisely the wealth that rebate exempts. How the two interact depends on residency and structure, and is exactly the kind of question to settle before purchase, not after.
Why the stack matters before the offer
Laid out together, these layers change which property is actually the better buy. A €4.8 million resale and a €5 million new build are not 4% apart once the tax stack is added — the gap can narrow or widen by six figures depending on resale-versus-new, cadastral value, and the buyer’s wealth position. The headline price ranks them one way. The true cost of acquiring and holding can rank them the other.
This is the arithmetic a buyer’s advisor runs before an offer is made, alongside the buyer’s own tax counsel. The selling agent has no reason to walk a buyer through the layers that make their property look more expensive. Someone on the buyer’s side does — because at this level, the tax stack is not a detail of the purchase. It is a material part of the price.
General orientation only. Confirm all figures with a qualified Spanish tax adviser before any decision.
