For estate agents in Spain
Anti-money laundering compliance, legal checks on every property before it goes online, and the contracts you sign with vendors, buyers and other agencies. In English.
Talk to a lawyer today
If you sell homes on the coast to British, Scandinavian or other foreign clients, Spanish anti-money laundering law applies to your agency on every sale and on lettings from 10,000 euros a month. You have to identify buyer and seller, find out where the money comes from and report anything suspicious to SEPBLAC, the Spanish financial intelligence unit. We set that up for you, check the properties you take on and draft your paperwork. Call us on +34 711 29 14 66.
Written and reviewed by Jimena Sastre, compliance officer and external expert registered with SEPBLAC.
Updated on 4 October 2026.
Our client is the agency itself. Many agencies on the Costa del Sol are run by British or Nordic owners who know the market well but are less at home with Spanish regulation. We explain it in English and leave you with procedures your team can actually follow.
Law 10/2010 and Royal Decree 304/2014 make an agency check the identity of everyone in the deal and of the beneficial owner behind any company, establish the source of funds, look into anything unusual in writing, report it and keep the file for ten years. You also need a written risk assessment and, depending on size, a manual, a training plan and an external review.
Who owns it, what is charged against it, whether there are community or council debts, planning status and, for holiday lets, the tourist registration. Under the 2023 Housing Act a buyer or tenant can ask for this before paying anything, so it pays to have the file ready when you take the instruction.
Sole and multi-agency instructions, viewing forms, reservation and deposit contracts, fee-split agreements with other agencies and contracts with self-employed agents. They decide whether you are paid when someone tries to go round you.
What we do
Based on your clients, your areas and how money reaches you.
ID, beneficial owner, source of funds and a file per transaction.
For employees and freelance agents, with a record of who attended.
The annual report the law requires, where someone else set up your procedures.
Before the listing goes live, and again before the deposit contract.
Drafting, review and claims for commission that goes unpaid.
There is a deadline, and your answer goes on record. Call us with the letter in front of you and we will prepare the reply and the documents with you.
Spanish AML rules for agents
On every sale you act in. On lettings, once the rent reaches 10,000 euros a month or 120,000 a year. A long summer let of a villa can cross that line, and the tenant then gets the same checks as a buyer.
The law covers everyone taking part in the transaction. Where a company buys or sells, you need the individuals holding more than 25 % or controlling it in some other way. Politically exposed people, their relatives and close associates need enhanced checks.
You can lean on another regulated firm’s checks only in limited cases, and the agency stays fully responsible even if that firm got it wrong. In practice, ask your client for the documents yourself.
Foreign buyers often pay with the proceeds of a sale back home, savings, an inheritance or a pension lump sum. A completion statement, bank statements covering the transfer, or a will and estate account usually do the job. We tell your client in plain English what to send.
The official list of risk indicators for the property sector includes rushing for no reason, not caring about price, payment from a third party abroad, a reservation passed to someone else before completion, a deposit forfeited with no sale and a price far from market value. None of them calls for a report on its own, but each has to be looked into and written up.
If that review leaves a suspicion, you report to SEPBLAC straight away and hold the transaction until you have. You may not tell the client, or anyone else, that a report has been made.
Under 10 people, agents included, and no more than 2 million euros in turnover or balance sheet: no manual, no annual training plan and no external review, unless you belong to a larger group. Checks, reporting and record keeping stay the same, and your representative before SEPBLAC needs outside training.
Your fee cannot be paid in cash from 1,000 euros, or from 10,000 where the payer is a private individual whose tax home is outside Spain. Serious breaches of the AML law carry fines of at least 60,000 euros for the agency, and its directors can be fined separately.
Before you list
We get the nota simple, the Land Registry extract showing owner, size and charges, and compare it with the cadastre and with your draft listing.
The property answers for unpaid community fees of the current year and the previous three calendar years, and the notary will not sign without a certificate of arrears unless the buyer expressly waives it. We ask for it early, with the latest IBI council tax receipt.
Building licence and the right to occupy, which in Andalusia is a declaración responsable filed with the town hall. For extensions or pools built without a licence, we check whether the town hall has recognised them as asimilado a fuera de ordenación.
It has to exist before you advertise, because its rating label must appear in every listing for sale or rent.
We check its number on the Andalusian Tourism Register and what the community statutes say. A flat that starts holiday letting after 3 April 2025 needs the community’s prior consent, by a three-fifths majority of owners and of shares.
The buyer keeps back 3 % of the price and pays it over to Hacienda using form 211. Put it in the deposit contract so nobody is caught out on completion day.
Contracts and commission
Drop us a WhatsApp or phone, and we can say where you stand.
The vendor sold privately to a buyer we introduced
A signed viewing form and an instruction that covers later sales are what your claim rests on. We look at how long after expiry the instruction protects you.
We had a sole agency and another agent sold it
What you can claim depends on the clause: full commission, an agreed penalty or damages. If the instruction says nothing, the claim is harder.
The other agency will not pay our share
A written agreement setting the split and when it is paid avoids most disputes. If one has already started, we build the claim from emails, messages and the shared listing.
The buyer pulled out after paying the deposit
With arras penitenciales, a buyer who backs out forfeits the deposit, and a vendor who backs out returns double. Where the contract is unclear, Spanish courts tend to treat it otherwise, and the sale itself can be enforced.
A tenant wants our letting fee back
Since the 2023 Housing Act, agency and contract costs on a residential let fall on the landlord. A fee charged to the tenant for that may have to be refunded.
A freelance agent left and took our listings
We review their contract for confidentiality, introduced clients and fees still due. If the relationship was really employment, you need to know that before you claim.
Who runs your AML work
FAQ
Yes. With fewer than 10 people and no more than 2 million euros in turnover or balance sheet you can do without a manual, an annual training plan and an external review. Client checks, reporting and keeping files for ten years still apply.
Only where the rent reaches 10,000 euros a month or 120,000 a year. Below that, the agency has no AML duties on that letting.
Yes. The law covers everyone taking part in the transaction. If the vendor is a company, you also need to know who owns or controls it.
Yes. The duties fall on your agency because it operates in Spain, whatever the nationality or residence of the client.
You cannot go ahead until they do. If there are signs of something wrong, review it in writing and, if the suspicion stands, report it to SEPBLAC.
No. Neither the agency nor its staff may tell the client or anyone else.
Yes, as long as we have not done other paid work for you in the previous three years, and we could not take any for three years after the report. If you would rather we run your procedures, another expert has to do the review.
Not from 1,000 euros. The limit is 10,000 euros if the payer is a private individual who shows their tax home is outside Spain.
The landlord. Since the 2023 Housing Act, property management and contract costs on a home let are the landlord’s.
It depends on the size of the agency, how many sales you close and what you already have in place. After a first call we send you a written quote.
Client reviews
Execelentes profesionales y máxima discreción Involucración , empatía y profesionalidad
El equipo de esta firma ,son sencillamente los mejores, muy profesionales, responsables, y de completa confianza. 200% recomendables!!
A parte de profesionales, son muy cercanos en el trato, siempre disponibles y muy eficientes, muy contento con el servicio recibido.