Disadvantages of a second home in Spain: 7 points to consider beforehand

A second home in Spain is almost always sold as a dream with a return. In the first half of 2025, the Dutch bought 4,166 properties in Spain, based on figures from the Spanish notarial profession. What is rarely mentioned in those stories is what the house costs you every year when you are not there, how much of your own money a Spanish bank requires, and which rules have already changed in just two years.

We assist Dutch and Belgian buyers with the financing of their Spanish property. This means we do the calculations upfront, using actual figures. The entire purchasing process is outlined in our step-by-step plan for buying a house in Spain. Below, we focus purely on the seven disadvantages that most often come as a surprise in practice, and what you can do about each point.

Table of contents

1. The buyer's costs are higher than you think.
2. You have to contribute a substantial amount of your own money.
3. A Spanish mortgage is stricter than a Dutch one.
4. You pay tax every year, even without renting out.
5. In the Netherlands, the home is also included in Box 3.
6. Renting out is allowed, but the rules change quickly.
7. Distance takes time and vacancy costs money
8. When do the disadvantages outweigh the advantages?
9. Frequently Asked Questions

The buyer's costs are higher than you think.

In the Netherlands, you can expect approximately 6 percent in additional costs. In Spain, this ranges from 10 to 13 percent of the purchase price, depending on the region. More importantly: you cannot co-finance this amount. It must come from your own funds, on top of your down payment.

The largest part is the transfer tax on existing properties, which each autonomous region sets itself. Nationally, this ranges from 4 to 13 percent. In the Comunidad Valenciana, the rate has been reduced from 10 to 9 percent as of June 1, 2026, with 11 percent above one million euros. Andalusia is at 7 percent, Murcia at 8 percent, Madrid at 6 percent, and the Balearic Islands have a scale of 8 to 13 percent.

If you buy a new-build home in Spain, you do not pay transfer tax but 10 percent VAT, plus stamp duty. That stamp duty also varies by region and ranges between 0.5 and 2 percent: 1.4 percent in the Comunidad Valenciana since June 1, 2026, and 1.2 percent in Andalusia.

On top of that come the notary, registration in the land registry, gestoría, and lawyer. For the mortgage itself, you pay the appraisal and usually an closing fee from the bank.

How to handle this: factor the additional costs into your budget from day one, not treat them as a closing item. A €400,000 home on the Costa Blanca easily requires €45,000 in closing costs. The full breakdown by item can be found on our page regarding closing costs for a property in Spain.

You have to contribute a substantial amount of your own money.

A Spanish bank typically finances a non-resident for 60 to 70 percent of the lower of two values: the purchase price or the appraisal value. This means that in most cases, you contribute at least 30 percent of your own capital, plus the buyer's costs from point 1.

For a home costing 400,000 euros, that involves a down payment of approximately 120,000 euros and another 45,000 euros in costs. That's well over 165,000 euros of your own money before you get the keys.

Two things surprise buyers here most often. In our experience, Spanish banks generally do not count the equity in your Dutch home as personal assets, although some banks make an exception to this. And most banks apply a lower limit to the purchase price they finance, in practice around 150,000 euros. As a result, you often do not qualify for a mortgage for a small apartment.

How to handle this: have your actual borrowing capacity calculated in advance before you start looking. If you want to use equity from the Netherlands, that is possible, but you arrange this on the Dutch side and contribute it as your own funds in Spain. Exactly how a mortgage in Spain works can be found on our homepage.

A Spanish mortgage is stricter than a Dutch one.

Anyone accustomed to the Dutch mortgage market runs into a number of hard limits in Spain.

There is no mortgage interest deduction. The Spanish tax authorities abolished the deduction for the owner-occupied home as of January 1, 2013, with a transitional arrangement for those who were already using it at that time. For a second home, that deduction has never existed.

In practice, Spanish banks do not offer interest-only mortgages. They use the annuity system, so you start repaying from the first month. As a result, your monthly payments are higher than with a comparable Dutch structure.

Generally, your total credit burden should not exceed approximately 35 percent of your net income. That is the standard maintained by the Banco de España, and it includes all debts: your Dutch mortgage, your car lease, and your Spanish mortgage combined. In practice, this standard determines how much you can borrow much more often than the value of the property.

The term at most banks is between 10 and 25 years, at a few banks up to 30 years, and the loan must be repaid around the age of 75. For a couple, the age of the oldest of the two is taken into account. Which bank best suits your profile varies considerably; the most important differences are listed in our overview of banks in Spain.

Early repayment costs money. The Spanish mortgage law of 2019 does set limits on this. With a variable interest rate, the bank chooses between a maximum of 0.25 percent during the first three years or 0.15 percent during the first five years, after which early repayment is penalty-free. With a fixed interest rate, the maximum is 2 percent during the first ten years and 1.5 percent thereafter. Furthermore, the fee may never exceed the bank's actual loss.

There is also an advantage to that legislation. Since the legislative amendments of 2018 and 2019, the bank pays the notary, the registration, the gestoría, and the tax on the mortgage deed. As a buyer, you only pay for the valuation yourself when taking out a mortgage.

How to handle this: have your maximum borrowing capacity assessed against that 35 percent standard before making an offer. That way, you know whether your offer is realistic, rather than finding out afterwards.

You pay tax every year, even without renting out.

This is a disadvantage that most buyers only discover when the first tax assessments arrive. Even if your property stands vacant all year round, you pay annual tax in Spain.

IBI is the Spanish property tax. The municipality determines the rate, and the law stipulates that it lies between 0.4 and 1.1 percent of the cadastral value. Provincial capitals and municipalities with public transport or additional amenities may charge a surcharge on top of this. Note one point that applies immediately to a second home: municipalities may levy a surcharge of up to 50 percent on properties that are structurally vacant.

In addition, there is the renta imputada, a notional rental income attributed to you by the Spanish tax authorities because you have a property at your disposal. The basis is 1.1 percent of the cadastral value if it has been revised in the last ten years, and 2 percent if it was longer ago. You pay 19 percent on that amount if you live in the EU, Norway, or Iceland, and 24 percent outside of them. You declare this using the Modelo 210, no later than December 31 of the following year.

Furthermore, there is the Spanish wealth tax. As a non-resident, an exemption of 700,000 euros per person applies to your Spanish assets. A couple buying together therefore has a combined exemption of 1.4 million euros. Regions may adjust this exemption: the Comunidad Valenciana even applies one million euros per person. Above that, rates rise from approximately 0.2 to 3.5 percent, while Madrid, Andalusia, Murcia, Cantabria, Extremadura, and La Rioja, among others, offer a 100 percent discount.

There is a point here that is often overlooked and actually works to your advantage: you may deduct your debts from your Spanish assets, provided they are demonstrably linked to that Spanish property. A mortgage on the Spanish property therefore reduces the tax base for Spanish wealth tax. Anyone buying with cash is taxed on the full value.

One more reassurance: the solidarity levy on large fortunes does not affect the average second-home buyer. It only starts at a net Spanish net worth of approximately 3.7 million euros.

How to mitigate this: include IBI, imputed rental income, and potentially wealth tax in your annual budget before buying, and have a tax specialist assess the tax implications of a mortgage in your specific situation.

In the Netherlands, the home is also included in Box 3.

Your Spanish property does not disappear from the view of the Dutch tax authorities. As a resident of the Netherlands, you declare the property in Box 3 at its fair market value in an unoccupied state.

You receive a deduction for this to prevent double taxation, so in principle you do not pay twice. In practice, however, according to tax experts, that deduction often turns out to be just slightly too low, leaving a residual amount of Dutch tax. Grant Thornton calculates this in an example and arrives at a few hundred euros that is ultimately taxed twice.



How to handle this: consider it a structural item rather than a surprise, and have your tax return checked for the first few years by an advisor who works with foreign real estate.

Renting out is allowed, but the rules change quickly.

Renting out is often presented as the way to bear the costs. That is possible, but a lot has changed in recent years, and not everything you read online is still accurate.

As of July 1, 2025, a national registration number applied to short-term and tourist rentals. On May 19, 2026, the Spanish Supreme Court largely annulled that national regulation because, according to the court, the State did not have the authority to establish such a register. Consequently, the national number has lapsed, and there is no replacement legislation to date.

What does remain in effect are the registers and permits of the autonomous regions, and these have actually become stricter in recent years. Regions such as Catalonia, the Canary Islands, and Andalusia have their own registration systems, and many municipalities in popular coastal towns no longer issue new tourist permits. Platforms such as Airbnb and Booking remain required to submit data via the digital portal.

As a non-resident, you pay 19 percent tax on your rental income if you live in the EU, Norway, or Iceland. You may then deduct expenses such as property tax, community fees, insurance, maintenance, and interest. If you live outside the EU, you pay 24 percent on the gross rent, without deductions. You can read exactly what is allowed if there is a mortgage on your property in our article on renting out with a mortgage.

Important for your financing: the banks we work with do not include the expected rental income from the property you are buying in the assessment. Existing rental income from other real estate does count. Therefore, you cannot make the purchase financially viable based on rentals that do not yet exist.

How to handle this: before making an offer, check whether that municipality still issues permits at all, and calculate your budget without rental income. If the house is financially viable without renting it out, then the rental income is profit rather than a necessity.

Distance takes time and vacancy costs money

A house 2,000 kilometers away requires maintenance that you cannot simply do yourself. Sun, salt, and moisture cause wear and tear faster than you are used to, and a home that has been sealed up for months requires inspection. Count on a keyholder or property manager, a cleaning service, and someone who can be on-site within a day in the event of a leak.

There is also an obligation that people tend to overlook. If you purchase with a mortgage, the home must be insured against structural damage, with the bank listed as the beneficiary on the policy. This coverage continues for the duration of the loan. Incidentally, you are not required to take out a comprehensive package, and you are free to choose your own insurer: the bank cannot impose this on you.

And then there is the point that is harder to capture in numbers. A second home creates an obligation. Many owners find themselves going to the same place every year, simply because the house is there.

How do you handle this: budget 1 to 2 percent of the property value per year for maintenance and management, and be honest about how often you realistically visit. Two weeks a year is an expensive holiday home.

When do the disadvantages outweigh the advantages?

A second home in Spain almost always works if you buy it to be there regularly yourself and can bear the costs without rental income. Things go wrong if the numbers only add up with rentals, if you treat the buyer's costs as a balancing item, or if you assume financing that a Spanish bank will not provide.

If you are buying primarily as an investment and not to be there yourself, different considerations apply. These are outlined in our article on investing in real estate in Spain.

Those who lay the figures on the table beforehand are rarely faced with surprises. Those who rely on the brochure usually are.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the annual fixed costs of a second home in Spain?

In addition to your mortgage payments, factor in property tax (0.4 to 1.1 percent of the cadastral value), imputed tax (renta imputada), buildings insurance, community fees for an apartment, utilities, and maintenance. For maintenance and management, 1 to 2 percent of the property value per year is a useful rule of thumb.

What is the minimum amount of my own money I need?

Assume a minimum down payment of 30 percent of the purchase price, plus 10 to 13 percent in buyer's costs that you cannot co-finance. For a home of 400,000 euros, this amounts to over 165,000 euros of your own money.

Do I have to give up my Spanish property in the Netherlands?

Yes. The property falls under Box 3, at its fair market value in an unoccupied state. You receive a deduction to prevent double taxation, but in practice, that deduction often turns out to be just slightly too low.

Do I pay Spanish wealth tax on my second home?

Only above the exemption of 700,000 euros per person, and in the Comunidad Valenciana even only above one million euros per person. You may deduct your mortgage debt from the tax base if it is linked to Spanish assets, and various regions grant a 100 percent discount.

Am I still allowed to rent out my home to tourists?

That depends on the region and the municipality. The national registration number was annulled by the Spanish Supreme Court on May 19, 2026, but the regional registers and permits remain valid, and many coastal municipalities no longer issue new permits.

Can I make the purchase work based on expected rental income?

No. The Spanish banks we work with do not take into account the expected rent from the home you are buying. Existing rental income from other properties does count.