Buying a House in Spain? Check What You’re Buying

2 September, 2026 | Antonio Beltrán

You are buying a house in Spain. Make sure you are actually buying what you see.

There is something I often explain to international clients buying property in Spain.

When you visit a house, you see a house.

A swimming pool.

A garage.

A terrace.

Perhaps an extension, a guest house or an outdoor kitchen.

And naturally, you assume that all of this is simply part of the property you are buying.

Sometimes it is.

But you should never assume it.

This summer, two different property purchases reminded me why.

In the first case, my client was buying a house with a garage.

The garage existed physically.

You could see it.

You could park your car inside it.

But when we checked the Land Registry information, the garage was not registered.

We discussed it with my client and agreed that the situation should be clarified and regularised before completing the purchase.

The estate agent understood the issue and immediately started working with the seller to resolve it.

Then came another purchase.

Another house.

Another client.

This time, the problem was not the garage.

It was the swimming pool.

The pool was there.

It looked perfectly normal.

It was obviously part of the property the buyers had visited and part of the reason they were willing to pay the agreed price.

But it did not appear in the Land Registry information we reviewed.

This time, the reaction was different.

The estate agent initially suggested that registering it was unnecessary and that the purchase could proceed anyway.

My clients and I decided otherwise.

We wanted the situation investigated before they bought the property.

And this is the important part if you are a foreigner buying property in Spain.

Never assume that because something physically exists, its legal, registry and planning situation is necessarily in order.

And never assume that the rules work exactly as they do in your home country.

Before buying a villa or house with land in Spain, one of the checks you should make is surprisingly simple:

Compare what you see with the legal and registry documentation.

If you see a 200 m² house, check the documented surface area.

If you see a swimming pool, check it.

If there is a garage, check it.

If there is an extension, a covered terrace, a guest house or other additional construction, check it.

And if something does not match, do not panic.

But do not ignore it either.

Ask why.

Can it be regularised?

What documentation exists?

Is there a planning issue?

Are further legal or technical checks required?

These questions are much easier to deal with before you buy the property than after you become its owner.

Because when you buy your dream house in Spain, you are not buying a photograph.

You are buying a property with a legal history.

And that beautiful swimming pool you are imagining yourself sitting beside next August?

Before paying for it, make sure of something rather less romantic.

That legally, it is where you think it is.