Is any of these twelve impossible to undo?

Two come close. A community decision that stops you renting the property is not something you can buy your way out of, and neither is a planning permission on the plot in front of you. Everything else can be fixed at a cost. That cost is usually money, sometimes a year, and occasionally a resale property at a worse moment than you would have chosen.

Do the same mistakes apply at 300.000 € and at three million?

The list is the same, but the weight changes. At the lower end, the arithmetic mistakes hurt the most, because the costs on top of the price take a larger share of what you have. At the top end, the document mistakes hurt the most, because the sums are larger, and a mismatch between a villa and its paperwork is expensive to fix. For this reason, we check more at a high budget, not less.

If I already reserved a property, is it too late to have it checked?

No, and this is the most common moment people come to us. What changes is your position, not the answer: the check finds the same things either way. What you can do with the findings depends on what the reservation contract says about getting your money back. Send us the property and the contract together, and we will tell you both things at once.

Are these mistakes specific to the Costa del Sol?

The process and money mistakes are Spanish, and apply anywhere in the country. Three have a local flavour: the plot in front of you matters more on a coast where the view is part of the price, the community fee range is wider in resort developments than in a city block, and the schedule mistake belongs to anyone who buys in a place they had to fly to.

Why would an agency publish a list of mistakes buyers make?

Because the list is the argument. Every item on it is something we would find and tell you about. A buyer who reads it and then handles their own purchase carefully still gets a better outcome than one who did not read it. We are paid by the seller side, from a commission that exists no matter which agent is involved. So a page that makes you harder to sell to costs us nothing.

Guides

Most common mistakes when buying property in Spain

In 30 seconds

The mistakes that cost foreign buyers most in Spain are ordinary ones. They budget the asking price and nothing else, but the real cost is 8 to 13 % more. They expect the notary to check the property, but he does not. And they decide on the last day of a viewing trip, because the flight home is on Sunday.

ProcessProcessSigning a reservation before the refund conditions are read.
What to do insteadHave the lawyer read it before the money leaves.
MoneyMoneyBudgeting the asking price and nothing else, missing the 8 to 13 % on top.
What to do insteadCost the whole purchase before you shop.
PropertyPropertySkipping the technical inspection because nobody asks for one.
What to do insteadCheck the plot and the building, not only the price.
DecisionDecisionReserving on the last day of the trip because the flight home is on Sunday.
What to do insteadDecide the criteria before you fly, not during the trip.

What do buyers worry about, and what really costs money?

Almost every foreign buyer arrives with the same short list of fears, and almost none of them is what ends up costing money. It helps to clear this list first, because the fears are loud and the real mistakes are quiet.

What buyers arrive worried aboutWhat really costs money

Squatters take the apartment while I am in Czechia: It happens, but it is rarer here than Czech media coverage suggests. The real risk in this area is less dramatic: a rule you did not read. A community can restrict what you do with the property, and that decision is made at a meeting you did not attend.
The developer takes my money and never finishes: Every payment you make before a new build is finished must be covered by a bank guarantee in your name, and your lawyer checks the wording for your unit before any money moves. The money mistake that really happens is smaller and far more common: budgeting the asking price and nothing else.
There is a hidden legal defect nobody can find: A good independent lawyer finds those, and finding them is the job you are paying for. What no standard check covers, unless somebody asks for it, is what can legally be built on the plot in front of you. That is not a defect in the property. It is a fact about the neighbourhood.
I will pay too much for the property: Possible, and if you hold the property long enough, you can recover from it. The costly version is paying a fair price for the wrong property: the wrong micro-location, the wrong orientation, or an apartment whose running costs make it more expensive than a similar home.

Which of these twelve do you see most often?We will not give you a ranking, because we have not counted, and a made-up ranking is exactly the kind of thing to avoid. What we can say is where the mistakes cluster. Almost everything expensive happens in two places: the week the budget is set, and the last two days of a viewing trip. A lawyer who works for you catches most of the paperwork mistakes.

What process mistakes catch buyers most often?

The Spanish notary witnesses the signing and turns the sale into a public deed, and does not check whether the property is a good idea. He does not check that the seller paid the community fees, that the building matches its documents, or that the price is fair. Assuming otherwise is the first of four mistakes. All four come from the same root: the process looks familiar, but it is not.

CommonExpecting the notary to check the propertyThe word exists in your language, but it describes a different job there. A Spanish notary confirms identities, reads the deed aloud, and records that you signed. He does not check that the seller has paid the community fees, that the building matches its documents, or that the price is fair.
What to do insteadTreat the notary appointment as the day the sale becomes final, not the day it gets checked. The checking happens weeks earlier, and somebody has to be paid to do it.
SeriousUsing the seller’s or the developer’s lawyerIt is offered, and it is convenient. In many countries, the line between the two sides is often unclear. Here, the developer’s lawyer does a competent job, but only for the developer.
What to do insteadInstruct your own independent lawyer, paid by you. We standardly recommend Malaga Solicitors and you are free to bring your own. We take no referral fee either way.
SeriousSigning a reservation contract without reading the refund conditionsThe reservation payment is small compared with the full purchase. It feels like a formality, and buyers usually sign it under time pressure. But it is the one payment in the whole purchase that has no guarantee behind it.
What to do insteadHave the lawyer read the reservation before the money leaves, not after. One thing matters: exactly which findings bring the money back to you, and get this in writing.
CommonSigning Spanish documents you cannot readEverybody in the room is friendly and in a hurry, and asking for a translation feels like slowing things down for no reason.
What to do insteadAsk for the document in advance, in a language you read, and for a sworn interpreter at the notary if you want one. Slowing down a signature is free. Undoing one is not.

None of these four is unusual and none of them is anybody’s fault. They are what happens when a process from one country is read with the habits of another.

Glossary: notary

What a lawyer does and what a notary does

How much of this can I avoid without paying anybody?More than most people expect. Reading the reservation contract properly, asking who the lawyer on the other side of the table works for, and asking for a document in a language you read are all free. What is not free is the independent legal check, and that is the one place we would never suggest saving money.

What money mistakes cost buyers the most?

Add roughly 13 % on top for a new build, and roughly 9 % for a resale property. Then add what the property costs every year to own. Then check how much a bank will really lend, based on its own valuation. Three of the four mistakes below are simple arithmetic, and the fourth is about the bank. You can answer all four before you look at a single property.

Budgeting the asking price and nothing elseOn a new build, expect costs of roughly 13 % on top of the price. On a resale property, roughly 9 %. The difference is mostly tax. A new build carries 10 % VAT and, in Andalusia, AJD. A resale property carries transfer tax at 7 %. Then add the lawyer, the notary, the registry, and several smaller items. On a 500.000 € apartment, this is not a small rounding error. It is the difference between a purchase that works and one you have to renegotiate.
Budgeting the purchase and forgetting the ownershipOwning the property brings a stream of payments that never stops: local property tax, refuse collection, insurance, electricity and water, the non-resident tax filing, and the community fee. The community fee varies the most, from about 900 € to about 6.000 € a year. This is why two apartments at the same price can differ by thousands of euros a year. Compare the total cost, not just the price.
Leaving the currency transfer to the final weekFor a foreign buyer, the biggest single cost is often not a fee at all. It is the exchange rate on a large transfer. The second biggest risk is timing. A bank can ask you to prove where the money came from, or hold a transfer for an internal check. Both are normal, and both take days. The worst moment to discover this is at the notary appointment.
Assuming a Spanish mortgage behaves like a Czech oneWith income in a currency other than the euro, plan realistically for financing around half of the value the bank itself gives the property, not 70 or 80 % of what you agreed to pay. The bank lends against its own valuation. So if you buy at 500.000 € and the bank values it at 470.000 €, the loan is calculated from 470.000 €. Sort out the financing before you reserve, not after you have chosen the property.

You can answer all four of these before you look at a single property. That is why they are listed this early. A budget that already includes the tax, the annual costs, and the real loan-to-value is a budget you can really shop with.

Community fees in detail

Sources

Do these percentages change if I buy through a company?They can. That is a question for a Spanish tax adviser before you sign anything, not for us and not for a web page. What we will say is this: buying through a company structure to save tax is one of the places where a Czech assumption works badly here, and the cost of getting it wrong often shows up years later.

What mistakes do buyers make about the property itself?

Spain does not require a survey. It does not stop you buying next to an empty plot. And it does not tell you whether you may rent the apartment out. You must ask about all three yourself.

SeriousSkipping the technical inspection because nobody asks for oneThere is no legal requirement and no common expectation, so most buyers skip it. Photographs are taken at the property’s best hour, and they do not show its age. The costly problems are behind the wall, under the terrace, and inside the installations.
What to do insteadOrder an independent technical inspection on any property you are serious about.
SeriousChecking the building and not the plot in front of itA standard legal check tells you about the property you are buying. It does not tell you what can legally be built on the land next to it. A low old villa in front of your terrace can sit on a plot permitted for something much taller.
What to do insteadAsk what the planning position allows on the plot in front, before you price the view in.
CommonAssuming you can rent it to touristsNot automatic. It depends on the property, the municipality, the community’s rules, and the current licensing system. A community can approve, limit, set conditions on, or forbid tourist renting, by a three-fifths majority vote.
What to do insteadVerify renting rights before you reserve, if renting is part of why you are buying.

Sources

Ley 49/1960 de Propiedad Horizontal, art. 17.12, consolidated text (BOE) ↗

Is an off-plan purchase riskier than a resale property?It is a different kind of risk, not simply a bigger one. Off plan, your money is at risk for longer, and the completion date can move. This is why every payment before completion must be covered by a bank guarantee in your name. On a resale property, you get the property right away, but you also inherit its history: its condition, its documents, and its place in a community that already has decisions and debts. The mistakes below come from both situations.

What is the single most expensive mistake on this coast?

A schedule, not a document. It looks like this: five days booked, eight viewings a day, a flight home on Sunday, and a reservation signed on Saturday afternoon. The trip is ending, and going home with nothing feels like failure. None of the English guides names this mistake. In our experience, it is the costliest of the fourteen.Nothing here is a legal problem. Everyone is honest, and the paperwork is fine. But the buyer has still made the decision for the wrong reason. A deadline that comes from a flight, a school holiday, or a developer’s pricing round is not a reason a property is right for you.The fix is simple and it works. Before the trip, decide what would make a property worth reserving. Write it down. And give yourself permission, in advance, to come home without buying. Most viewing days stay under six properties, for the same reason: after six, you stop really seeing them. If the trip gives you a shortlist instead of a signature, it was a successful trip.

The other half of this problem is availability pressure, and it deserves its own name. "The last good unit" is a reason for a seller to want a fast decision. It is not, by itself, a reason for you to make one.

How we plan the viewing trip

Which of these mistakes are specifically Czech?

Four mistakes, and none of them appears in any English guide, because they are not mistakes an English buyer makes. Each one is a habit that works well in Czechia, but does not work here.

What transfers from Czechia	Why it does not work here	What to do instead
The certainty of the land registry	In many countries, the land registry list of ownership is almost final proof, and people treat the Spanish version the same way. A nota simple is the plain extract from the Spanish land registry showing who owns a property and what is registered against it, and it is the first document your lawyer reads before you pay anything. But it is not final proof. It is a snapshot in time. Some charges take time to appear on it, and the real building can differ from what is registered.	Read it as one piece of information among several. The lawyer reads it alongside the community certificate, the licence status, the catastro, and the building itself. The gap between any two of these is what the check finds.
The agent is roughly neutral	In many countries, the difference between a buyer’s agent and a seller’s agent barely exists, so a foreign buyer does not think to ask. On this coast, the person showing you the property is usually paid by the seller, and is doing their job properly for the seller.	Ask one question of anybody who shows you a property: who pays you. Then decide how to read their answers. It is not an accusation, it is a fact you need.
Budgeting in crowns	A budget based on a rate you saw once is not a real budget. On a purchase of several hundred thousand euros, a small move in the exchange rate is worth more than every fee on this page added together. And the rate you get on a large transfer is not the rate you see in the news.	Set the budget in euros, get a real quote for the size of transfer you will really make, and know before you offer what a movement in the rate does to your ceiling.
My lawyer, my bank, my broker come with me	Your own lawyer from home cannot run a Spanish property conveyance. A Czech mortgage does not attach to a Spanish property. And a Czech insurer will not usually insure the building. People usually discover this at the moment they need it.	Assume that nothing comes with you except your money and your paperwork. Set up the Spanish equivalents early. Expect the NIE to be the first step you need, not something to leave for later.

There is a fifth mistake that is harder to put in a row: assuming that because the language is unfamiliar, everything must be dangerous. Most of this purchase is ordinary. It just has to be done in the order used here.

Every finding here is cheap before the reservation and expensive after it

Almost none of this is rare. What decides the cost is when it comes to light. These are real categories of finding, shown on both sides of the signature.

	Before reserving	After signing
A community vote on tourist renting	You wait for the meeting, read the result and decide with it in front of you. If it kills the reason you were buying, you do not buy.	You own an apartment that cannot do what you bought it for. The vote does not apply backward for people who are already renting legally, which does not help someone who has not started yet.
What can be built on the plot in front	The planning position is checked, and either the price makes sense with the risk in it or it does not.	You find out when the fence goes up. The view was a large part of the price and there is no route back to it.
Documents that do not match the building	The requirements go to the seller and the next step waits until they are resolved. The risk stays on their side.	The risk is yours. You are the owner of an undocumented extension and the person who has to legalise it.
A community with debts or a levy coming	The certificate is requested, the last minutes are read, and the levy is either negotiated into the price or it is a reason to walk.	A limited period of arrears follows the property rather than the seller, and the levy arrives with your name on it.
The real total cost	The tax, the fees and the annual running costs are in the budget, so the ceiling you shop with is true.	The gap comes out of the deposit, the furnishing budget, or the reserve you were going to keep.
The reservation deposit itself	The refund conditions are read first, so the deposit is either protected against exactly these findings or it is not paid.	It is 6.000 to 11.000 € sitting outside the system of guarantees, and whether it comes back depends on wording nobody read.

Real cases

Four times we told a client not to buy

Every mistake above is a category. The four cases behind these categories are real, and they are written up in full on their own page. In one, a community meeting decided the outcome. In another, a new build, the pressure to decide fast was the only urgent thing. In a resale property, the plot in front could legally hold something three storeys tall. And in a villa, the building and its documents did not fully agree. We had nothing to gain from any of these four conversations.

We are not putting them here in shortened form. A case worth reading is worth reading properly, and it is one click away.

When we said no

Frankly

The mistakes we cannot save you from

We can check a property, a community, a plot, and a set of documents. We cannot tell you whether you will still want to fly here six times a year in 2032, and that is the assumption behind most second homes. If the honest answer is one trip a year for two weeks, renting is often the better choice, and we will say so.The other one is budget, and it is the least popular thing we say. Below roughly 250.000 € for the property itself, the choice on the Costa del Sol is very thin, and Costa Blanca often makes more sense for the same money. From around 300.000 € there are real options here, and it still depends on the town, the distance to the sea, the condition, and what you need from the view. We would rather send someone to a different coast than sell them the best property from a bad shortlist.And we are not the lawyer. We coordinate, we hold the calendar and we tell you what we think. The legal check is done by an independent lawyer who is paid by you and works for you, and we take no fee from any lawyer for sending you anywhere.

200 000 €: below this threshold, we would generally not focus on Costa del Sol at all
250 000 €: the selection is already very limited and Costa Blanca often makes more sense
300 000 €: from this threshold, the selection on Costa del Sol starts to make real sense

Frequently asked questions about buying mistakes

Is any of these twelve impossible to undo?: Two come close. A community decision that stops you renting the property is not something you can buy your way out of, and neither is a planning permission on the plot in front of you. Everything else can be fixed at a cost. That cost is usually money, sometimes a year, and occasionally a resale property at a worse moment than you would have chosen.
Do the same mistakes apply at 300.000 € and at three million?: The list is the same, but the weight changes. At the lower end, the arithmetic mistakes hurt the most, because the costs on top of the price take a larger share of what you have. At the top end, the document mistakes hurt the most, because the sums are larger, and a mismatch between a villa and its paperwork is expensive to fix. For this reason, we check more at a high budget, not less.
If I already reserved a property, is it too late to have it checked?: No, and this is the most common moment people come to us. What changes is your position, not the answer: the check finds the same things either way. What you can do with the findings depends on what the reservation contract says about getting your money back. Send us the property and the contract together, and we will tell you both things at once.
Are these mistakes specific to the Costa del Sol?: The process and money mistakes are Spanish, and apply anywhere in the country. Three have a local flavour: the plot in front of you matters more on a coast where the view is part of the price, the community fee range is wider in resort developments than in a city block, and the schedule mistake belongs to anyone who buys in a place they had to fly to.
Why would an agency publish a list of mistakes buyers make?: Because the list is the argument. Every item on it is something we would find and tell you about. A buyer who reads it and then handles their own purchase carefully still gets a better outcome than one who did not read it. We are paid by the seller side, from a commission that exists no matter which agent is involved. So a page that makes you harder to sell to costs us nothing.

Looking at a specific property?

Send us the property