Why is the comunidad range so wide, 900 to 6.000 €?

Because it depends on what the specific building needs to maintain, not on a coastal average. A small block with no lift and no pool can sit near the bottom. A full-service urbanizace with a pool, gardens, security and a managed reception sits much higher. The only reliable figure is the specific building’s own accounts. This is why the checklist above asks for those accounts before you rely on any number.

Does the waste charge always arrive on its own bill?

No. Some town halls include it in the IBI bill. Others send it separately, sometimes on a completely different schedule. Ley 7/2022 requires the fee to reflect the real cost of the service, not a fixed historic amount. Because of this, more towns are moving toward a separate waste bill. But there is no single national rule, so you must check this for each town.

Can all five of these run automatically if I am rarely in Spain?

IBI, comunidad, insurance and utilities can normally all be set up on direct debit from a Spanish account, once the account exists. This is how most non-resident owners manage them. The one item that cannot run automatically is the annual non-resident tax filing. This is a tax return that must be prepared and submitted. It is not a bill that simply arrives and gets paid.

Guides

Annual costs of owning property in Spain

In 30 seconds

Owning a Costa del Sol apartment costs roughly 2.900 to 11.600 € a year. This covers five items: IBI, the community fee, the waste charge, insurance, and the standing charges for electricity and water. You must also file one Spanish tax return, even in a year when nobody stayed there.

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Electricity and water	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Non-resident tax return (unlet property)				Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec

Electricity and water: Billed monthly, whether or not the property is occupied.
Non-resident tax return (unlet property): Filing window opens 1 April, closes 31 December of the following year.

IBI, the waste charge, the comunidad fee and insurance also happen every year. But each one has a different date, set by the town hall, the building, or the insurance policy. Check the exact date on your own bill. Do not assume a general month.

What are the five things you pay every year?

Two are taxes set by the town hall. One is a fee set by your own building. Two are market costs, so you can compare prices and choose a provider. All five costs continue whether you use the property or not.IBI is the annual Spanish property tax, paid to the town hall by whoever owns the property. It is based on the cadastral value of the property, not on the price you paid. This is why two apartments with a similar price can have different IBI bills.

	Low	High
IBI	400 €	1.000 €
Comunidad	900 €	6.000 €
Waste charge	80 €	200 €
Insurance	300 €	800 €
Electricity and water	1.200 €	3.600 €
Total	2.880 €	11.600 €

Arithmetic on the five rows above; rounded to roughly 2.900 to 11.600 € in the band above.

Item	Typical range	Who sets it
IBI (Impuesto sobre Bienes Inmuebles)	400 to 1.000 €, sometimes more, per year.	The town hall, on the cadastral value. National law sets the band it must fall inside: 0,4 to 1,10 % of that value for urban property.
Comunidad (owners’ community fee)	900 to 6.000 € per year, usually billed monthly or quarterly.	The owners’ meeting, by vote, on the building’s own budget.
Waste charge (basura / tasa de residuos)	80 to 200 € per year.	The town hall, by its own ordinance. Since Ley 7/2022, this fee must reflect the actual cost of the waste service rather than being a flat add-on, and each municipality sets its own figure.
Insurance	300 to 800 € per year, apartment.	The market. Not compulsory by statute, though a mortgage lender can require cover on the mortgaged property.
Electricity and water	100 to 300 €, sometimes more, per month: 1.200 to 3.600 € a year.	The market, for usage, plus a standing charge (the contracted power fee on electricity) that runs even when the property is empty.

Ranges as of August 2026, for a typical apartment. A villa costs more on almost every line, especially IBI, insurance, energy and maintenance. A pool or garden adds its own extra cost.

Glossary: IBI

Sources

What does that add up to for one apartment?

Roughly 2.900 to 11.600 € a year. The range is wide, but that is not a mistake. It comes mostly from two items: the comunidad fee and the energy bill. These two costs vary much more between properties than IBI, waste, or insurance do.

A modest apartment, older building, no poolSits near the bottom of the range. It has a small comunidad fee, moderate energy use, and low IBI and waste charges.
A newer apartment in a full-service developmentSits higher. The comunidad fee alone can reach several thousand euros a year for a building with a pool, gardens, a lift, security, and a managed reception.
A property that stands empty most of the yearStill carries most of these costs, including the standing charge on electricity. An empty property is never free to own.

This is the arithmetic sum of the five rows in the table above, as of August 2026, not a separately sourced figure of its own.Arevont’s own property-management service exists to close this exact gap. We keep the comunidad fee and the IBI on direct debit, and we check that the payments really leave your account. This way, you do not discover after a year in Czechia that one of the payments failed.

Property management

Which of these can you challenge, and which must you simply pay?

IBI and the waste charge are taxes. The town hall sets the amount by its own rule, and there is nothing to negotiate. You only have the right to check the cadastral value it is based on. The comunidad fee is different.The comunidad de propietarios is the owners’ community that runs the shared parts of a development and sets the monthly fee, and it is close to an owners' association of the kind most countries have without being the same thing.

What buyers assumeWhat changes each year

All five items are fixed once you buy: Only IBI and waste are truly fixed by an outside authority. The comunidad fee changes with the building’s own budget, voted on every year. Insurance and utilities are market costs, so you can compare prices at renewal time.
A lower purchase price means lower annual costs: Not always. IBI is based on the cadastral value, which does not always match the market price. The comunidad fee is based on what the specific building needs to maintain. This has nothing to do with what you paid for your unit.

Glossary: Owners' association, comunidad

Community fees

When does each bill arrive, and what happens if you miss one?

Almost none of these five costs come as a single yearly payment. This matters if you manage them from another country.

Item	Usual billing rhythm	If it goes unpaid
IBI	One annual bill, commonly direct-debited.	The debt is legally attached to the property itself, no matter who owns it now. A lawyer checks this and clears it before completion on a resale property.
Comunidad	Monthly or quarterly, per the building’s own budget.	Unpaid community debt can attach to the property. A buyer takes on a limited part of the previous owner’s unpaid debt.
Waste	Annual, sometimes bundled with the IBI bill, sometimes separate.	Follows the town hall’s own collection process, similar to IBI.
Insurance	Annual renewal, one payment or instalments depending on the insurer.	The cover simply ends. No debt attaches to the property, but a gap in insurance during, for example, storm season is a real risk, not just a paperwork problem.
Electricity and water	Monthly.	The supplier can cut off the service if you do not pay. This is a real problem if nobody is checking on the property.

Getting the NIE and a Spanish bank account set up early is what makes the direct debits above possible. Without both, you cannot set up automatic payment for any of these five costs. Arevont’s nie-and-admin service plans this alongside the rest of the purchase.

NIE application

Sources

Do you owe Spain anything if you never rent out the property?

Yes. This is the most common unpleasant surprise in the first year. A non-resident who owns a Spanish property and never rents it out must still file an annual Spanish tax return. This tax is based on a notional income, an amount the state assumes you earn just from owning the property. It has nothing to do with any income you really received. For an ordinary apartment, it is usually a few hundred euros a year, not a large amount.

Did you rent out the property at all this year?

Yes, part or all of the yearYou pay tax on the rental income you received. See the rental-taxes guide for the rate and deductions.
No, never rentedYou pay tax on a notional income. This is usually a few hundred euros a year for an ordinary apartment.

Non-resident tax

What to confirm before you rely on a range

Four things, checked against the specific property rather than against a published range.

Ask for	What it tells you	What a bad answer looks like
The comunidad’s last full-year accounts	The real fee for this specific building, not a coastal average. This is also where you would see a planned special charge (derrama) for major works.	A verbal figure with no accounts attached, or "it varies".
The IBI receipt for the current year	Confirms the property has no unpaid IBI attached to it, and shows the real figure instead of the range above.	Nobody has asked for it, or a promise to "handle it after completion".
Whether waste is billed separately from IBI in this specific town	Some town halls combine the two into one bill. Others send a separate bill. If you do not know about a separate bill, a small debt can quietly build up.	An assumption rather than a checked answer from the town hall or the seller’s last bill.
That the Spanish bank account and direct debits are really set up	The biggest reason a non-resident misses one of these five bills is not the cost. It is that nobody set up a direct debit from an account that exists.	A plan to "transfer it manually each time".

Villa against apartment

The same five items, on two different kinds of property. Neither figure below is invented. This is the homepage’s own note, stated here as a comparison.

	Villa	Apartment
IBI	Usually higher. A villa’s larger built area and plot usually means a higher cadastral value.	Usually toward the lower end of the 400 to 1.000 € range.
Comunidad	Often lower or absent for a standalone villa outside a managed urbanisation. It can still apply inside a gated development.	900 to 6.000 €, depending on the building.
Insurance and energy	Higher for both. A pool and a garden also add their own running costs, and neither appears in the table above.	Within the ranges on the table above.
What needs checking on	Nobody but you, unless you arrange management separately.	A comunidad-managed building, security and maintenance, already organised by the community.

Frankly

A budgeting range, not your specific bill

Every range above is current as of August 2026. It is the same figure Arevont already publishes on its own homepage cost table, checked against national and Andalusian law for the two items that are genuinely taxes. The 2.900 to 11.600 € total is simple arithmetic on those five published ranges. It is not a single verified figure for one property. It shows how wide the real range is. Use the checklist above to narrow it down for a specific address.Some topics are covered in their own separate guides instead: the comunidad’s legal rules in full (voting thresholds, the reserve fund, the vote on tourist renting), the full imputed-income and rental tax rates, and Spain’s wealth tax. The homepage also mentions the wealth tax. It almost never applies to an ordinary apartment owner, because of Andalusia’s 100 % regional discount. Each of these three topics has its own guide, and we do not repeat them here.This is general planning information, not a bill. A lawyer or gestor working from the property’s real documents will give you the real figure. Until you have that figure, use these ranges to plan your budget.

Frequently asked questions about annual costs

Why is the comunidad range so wide, 900 to 6.000 €?: Because it depends on what the specific building needs to maintain, not on a coastal average. A small block with no lift and no pool can sit near the bottom. A full-service urbanizace with a pool, gardens, security and a managed reception sits much higher. The only reliable figure is the specific building’s own accounts. This is why the checklist above asks for those accounts before you rely on any number.
Does the waste charge always arrive on its own bill?: No. Some town halls include it in the IBI bill. Others send it separately, sometimes on a completely different schedule. Ley 7/2022 requires the fee to reflect the real cost of the service, not a fixed historic amount. Because of this, more towns are moving toward a separate waste bill. But there is no single national rule, so you must check this for each town.
Can all five of these run automatically if I am rarely in Spain?: IBI, comunidad, insurance and utilities can normally all be set up on direct debit from a Spanish account, once the account exists. This is how most non-resident owners manage them. The one item that cannot run automatically is the annual non-resident tax filing. This is a tax return that must be prepared and submitted. It is not a bill that simply arrives and gets paid.

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