Property · Fuengirola, Mijas and Benalmádena
Buying a resale flat, selling while you live abroad, inheriting a Spanish home under a British or Nordic will, and letting it out, all of it handled in English.
Talk to a lawyer today
Most homes that change hands in Fuengirola are flats in older blocks with large communities of owners, and the seller or heir is often British, Swedish or Finnish and spends only part of the year here. Before you sign a deposit contract or accept an inheritance, call us on +34 711 29 14 66 or send a message and we will go through the paperwork with you.
Written and reviewed by the firm’s property team.
Updated on 4 October 2026.
We get the registry extract (nota simple) and the community’s statement of fees, compare what is built with what is recorded, prepare or go through the deposit agreement line by line and come to the signing with you. If you cannot be in Spain, we sign on your behalf with a power you grant before a notary at home.
Many flats on the seafront and in the town centre are decades old and have had several owners. Enclosed terraces, moved kitchens and storerooms turned into bedrooms often appear nowhere in the Land Registry or the Catastro, and it pays to find that out before you hand over the deposit.
If you are tax resident in another country and own a flat in Fuengirola, you owe Spanish non-resident tax on it every year, even if you never let it. Missed years can still be filed late with a surcharge, which is cheaper than waiting for the tax office to come after you.
When a British or Nordic owner dies, the family often finds a will from home and a Spanish one, or no Spanish will at all. We work out which law governs the estate, gather the documents needed from each country and see it through until the flat is registered in the heirs’ names.
Where to start
Send us a WhatsApp or ring us with where things stand, and we will say which documents to chase first.
I want to buy a resale flat
Before the deposit contract we check the registry extract, any unpaid community fees and council tax (IBI), levies already approved and building work that was never legalised. With the usual penalty deposit, a buyer who pulls out loses it and a seller who pulls out pays it back twice over.
I live in the UK and I am selling my apartment
Your buyer holds back 3% of what they pay you and hands it to the Spanish tax office towards your final tax bill. We then file your capital gains return and, if the tax comes to less than was withheld, claim the difference back. Selling as a non-resident
My father has died and left an English will
You need the Spanish certificate of last wills, the will itself with an apostille and an official translation and, if the notary or registrar asks, evidence of what English law says. With those, the heirs sign the acceptance of inheritance in Spain.
The estate has already been dealt with in Sweden or Finland
If the Swedish or Finnish authority has issued a European Certificate of Succession, it proves in Spain who the heirs are without any separate recognition procedure, and the flat can be registered with it.
I would like to rent my flat out to tourists
You file a declaration with the Andalusian Tourism Register and, in a block of flats, need the community’s prior approval. If you are buying with letting in mind, we check this before you commit.
The same family rents from me every winter
Once a stay with the same tenant runs beyond two months in a row, Andalusian holiday-let rules stop applying and the contract becomes a seasonal tenancy under the Urban Leases Act. The contract should state what the stay is for and when it ends.
The community has approved a levy and I am selling
Who pays is a matter for the contract. We set out in the deposit agreement how much is left, when each instalment falls due and who covers it, so nothing comes up on completion day.
My tenant has stopped paying
We send a formal demand and, if it goes unanswered, file for eviction together with a claim for the rent owed.
Buying and selling
In Andalusia a second-hand home carries transfer tax (ITP) at 7%. The tax base is whichever is higher of the agreed price and the Catastro reference value, so check that figure before settling on a price.
The first sale of a new home is taxed with 10% VAT rather than ITP, and the deed then attracts AJD stamp duty, set at 1.2% in Andalusia.
If you buy from someone who is not resident in Spain, you deduct 3% and have one month from signing to pay it over on form 211. Until that money reaches the tax office, the flat is answerable for it, which is why we set it aside at the notary and pay it on time.
A non-resident seller pays 19% on the difference between what they paid, plus costs, and what they receive. The return is form 210, and you have three months to file it, starting once the month the buyer has to pay in the 3% has run out.
This local tax on the rise in land value falls on the seller, unless the person selling is an individual living abroad, in which case the buyer has to pay it and withholds it from the price. You have 30 working days from the signing to declare it to the town hall.
Whatever a former owner failed to pay the community in the year of the sale and the previous three calendar years stays attached to the flat. At the signing the seller has to produce a statement of any debts, which the community secretary must issue within seven days.
From 3 April 2025, anyone wanting to begin short holiday lets in a flat in a building can only go ahead if the community expressly agrees: three fifths of the owners must vote for it, and between them they must hold three fifths of the shares. Lets that were already registered and running may carry on. By the same majority the community can raise that flat’s share of service charges by up to 20%.
Under Spanish anti-money laundering law, notaries, banks and lawyers have to check who is buying and where the money has come from. The deed records the transfers used to pay, so keep the bank statements that back them up. Source of funds
Inheritance and owners abroad
For deaths on or after 17 August 2015, EU Succession Regulation 650/2012 applies the law of the state where the person who died had their habitual residence, unless their will opted for the law of a country of which they were a national, even a non-EU one such as British law. A Briton living in Fuengirola who made no choice falls under Spanish law, which reserves two thirds of the estate for the children.
It is issued in countries that apply the Regulation, Sweden and Finland among them, and in Spain a notary can issue it. The UK, Ireland and Denmark do not apply it and Norway is outside the EU, so estates handled there need their own documents, apostilled and translated.
If the deceased lived in Andalusia, or the larger part of their Spanish assets lies here, the heirs use the Andalusian rules even if they live abroad. Spouses, children, grandchildren and parents get a 99% relief on the tax due. The return is due six months after the death, and that can be extended if you ask in time.
On an inheritance the heirs pay the municipal plusvalía, and must declare it within six months of the death, a deadline they can ask to have extended to a year.
A non-resident owner declares each year a notional income for simply owning it, worked out as a share of the cadastral value (1.1% or 2%), the figure turning on the date of the town’s last general revaluation. If you live in an EU country or in Iceland, Norway or Liechtenstein the rate is 19%, and anyone else, including UK residents, pays 24%.
Residents of the EU or the European Economic Area can deduct the costs of earning the rent, such as community fees, IBI and repairs. A UK resident is taxed on the gross rent with no deductions.
How we work
By phone, WhatsApp or video call you tell us what you want to do and with which property. Before we start you get a written quote.
Land Registry, Catastro, community, IBI and licences. On an inheritance, also the wills and certificates from each country.
We draft or negotiate the deposit contract and, if you will not be in Spain, send you the wording of the power to sign before your local notary.
We read the draft deed, check the payments and, if a non-resident is selling, make sure the withholding is set aside.
We file the taxes and the plusvalía, then lodge the deed at the Land Registry and post you the registered copy.
FAQ
Yes. Any foreigner buying or selling in Spain needs a foreigner identity number (NIE) to sign the deed. You can apply in Spain or at the Spanish consulate in your country.
Yes. You grant a power at home before a notary, apostilled under the Hague Convention and translated into Spanish, and with it we sign the deed on your behalf.
If your gain is small, or you sold at a loss, yes. When we file form 210 for the sale we claim back whatever was withheld beyond the tax due.
The buyer, in place of the seller. That is why the notary signing holds back enough of the price to cover it, on top of the 3% withholding.
The law of the country where she was habitually resident when she died, unless her will chose Swedish law. If Sweden has already issued a European Certificate of Succession, it can be used to register the flat in Spain.
Yes, on what is in Spain. The Andalusian rules apply, and as a child, spouse or parent of the deceased you get a 99% relief on the tax due.
Yes, provided the community of owners in your building approves it by a three-fifths majority and you register it with the Andalusian Tourism Register. If it was already registered and operating before April 2025, you do not need that approval.
Yes, the flat answers for arrears from the current year and the three before. We get the certificate and deduct that sum from the price so it is paid off at the notary.
Yes, along the whole Costa del Sol. Notaries and registries in the area work the same way with clients who sign from abroad.
It depends on the job: checking a purchase costs less than an inheritance with documents from two countries. Before we start you get a written quote.
Client reviews
Jimena Sastre ha sido una excelente abogada de inmigración que me ha guiado durante todo el proceso de solicitud de la nacionalidad española. Ha sido profesional, amable, siempre dispuesta a responder mis preguntas y me ha orientado correctamente. Su enfoque hizo que mi solicitud fuera mucho más sencilla y sin estrés, y la recomiendo a otros expatriados/inmigrantes que necesiten asesoramiento y asistencia legal para sus solicitudes de residencia o nacionalidad.
El equipo de esta firma ,son sencillamente los mejores, muy profesionales, responsables, y de completa confianza. 200% recomendables!!
Todos hemos visto alguna vez pelis de abogados, que hacen milagros en los juzgados, y hemos pensado, que en la vida real estas cosas no pasan… Pero los de SyC lo consiguen. Solo puedo decirles Gracias por estar a mi lado siempre! En hora buena por vuestro trabajo!
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