Should I wait for a better exchange rate?

Not once you have a contractual deadline. Waiting is a bet on the currency market, made with money you have already promised to somebody else. The downside is a payment you cannot make. If you want to protect yourself against the rate, rather than bet on it, fix the amounts you are already committed to, and leave the uncertain ones floating.

Is a forward contract worth it on a new build?

This is the case where it makes the most sense, because the stage payments run over one to three years, and the total is fixed in euros from the day you sign. A forward turns an unknown koruna cost into a known one. Two cautions. It is an obligation, not a choice, so match it to payments you are contractually bound to. And check what happens if the developer’s schedule slips, because your dates and his are not the same document.

How much should I convert on top of the purchase price?

Enough to cover the tax and fee layer, which runs about 13 % on a new build and about 9 % on a resale property, plus furnishing and the first year of running costs. A property here brings community fees, utilities, local property tax, and insurance from the first month, and none of that is included in the price you negotiated.

What happens if the money arrives late for the notary?

The appointment moves, and everyone in the room has to be available again: the seller, the notary, sometimes the bank. In the worst case, a contract with a hard deadline puts you in breach. That becomes a conversation about your deposit, not about the rate. This is why the balance is planned backwards from the signature, with a week of slack nobody intends to use.

Can I just pay from my Czech account and skip all of this?

For most payments in a purchase, yes, and many buyers do exactly that. A Czech euro payment reaches a Spanish account just like a domestic one. Skipping the planning is the part that costs money. The conversion still happens somewhere, at somebody’s rate, and the compliance questions still get asked. What you are really choosing is who converts and when, not whether.

Guides

Money transfers to Spain when buying property

In 30 seconds

A Spanish purchase is four to eight separate transfers, spread over three months to three years. The exchange rate costs you far more than the fees. One percent of margin on a 400.000 € property is 4.000 €, more than every transfer fee in the purchase combined.

What gets paid, when, and to whom

Every guide written in English treats this as one transfer of the purchase price. It is not, and this difference is the whole subject of this page. Below is the sequence, in the order it happens, with the recipient for each payment. This is the part people get wrong under time pressure.The contrato de arras is the private earnest-money contract used on a resale property. Buyer and seller sign it before the notary, and it sets the penalty if either side cancels the deal. It is the payment most worth protecting against exchange-rate risk, because it is usually the biggest single amount before completion.These shares are typical, not fixed. Your own contract sets them. On a new build, the developer’s payment schedule can often be negotiated, even when the price cannot.

The payment sequence

Days after you decideReservationTo the seller’s agency, the developer or the lawyer, per the reservation contract. Never a personal account.
Weeks after the reservationDeposit, the arrasTypically 10 % of the price, sometimes up to 20 %. Usually to your lawyer’s client account.
Over 1 to 3 years, new build onlyStage paymentsAgainst construction milestones, to the developer’s protected construction account, not his ordinary one.
Before the notary appointmentThe balance of the priceCleared funds, to the lawyer’s client account or a bank cheque. This deadline cannot slip.
At completion and afterTaxes and feesAbout 13 % on a new build, about 9 % on a resale property, through your lawyer.
From the keys onwardFurnishing and first billsSuppliers, the community of owners, the utilities, the town hall.

Two rules prevent most of the problems. Nothing is ever paid into a private individual’s account, and no amount is sent on the day it is needed.

Glossary: arras

Who do I send the reservation payment to?Whoever the reservation contract names. Read the contract before the transfer, not after it. Normally this is the agency, the developer, or your lawyer’s office. If the account named is a private person, stop and ask why. There is no legitimate reason for this on a property purchase.

The rate, the fee, and which one you should be watching

Transfer fees are visible, printed, and small. The exchange rate is invisible, unprinted, and large. This difference is why buyers focus on the wrong number.Run this arithmetic once, on your own amount. One percent of a 400.000 € purchase is 4.000 €. A transfer fee is only a few euros. No other decision about a transfer matters as much as getting the exchange rate right.

A 400.000 € purchase, converted at each spread
A bank’s retail spread3 to 4 % margin, per published guides	12.000 to 16.000 €
A specialist’s spreadtighter, negotiable on larger amounts	Lower, ask for both quotes
The deltawhat the wrong choice costs you	Thousands of euros

A commission-free transfer is not free. The margin sits in the rate you are quoted, not in the advertised fee.

What buyers watchWhat really decides the cost

The transfer fee: Two or three euros inside the euro payment area, sometimes nothing. It is a rounding error on a property purchase, and it is the number most banks advertise, precisely because they make their money elsewhere.
A commission-free transfer: Free of commission is not free. The margin sits in the gap between the rate you are quoted and the rate the bank itself trades at. Our research puts a high-street bank’s spread at up to 3 to 4 %, which on a deposit alone is thousands of euros.
Waiting for the rate to improve: Not a plan, because you have a contractual deadline and the market does not. Holding Czech korunas against a euro debt you have already signed for is a bet, whether or not you meant to take one. The question is not whether the rate will move, but what happens to your purchase if it moves against you.
Converting the purchase price: Only part of what you owe in euros. The tax and fee layer, about 13 % on a new build and about 9 % on a resale property, is a euro cost too. So is the furniture and the first year of running costs. Buyers convert the price, then convert the rest at whatever rate that week happens to offer.
A forward contract is speculation: It is the opposite. A forward fixes a rate for a future date, typically up to twelve months ahead, against a deposit of around 10 %. It turns an unknown cost into a known one. On a new build with stage payments across two years, fixing the rate is the safe choice, and leaving it to float is the bet.

One caution on forwards, because the English sources leave it out. A fixed rate is an obligation, not a choice. If your purchase falls through, you still owe the contract. Match the amounts and dates to payments you are contractually committed to, and leave the uncertain ones floating.

Does a specialist provider hold my money at any point?Briefly, yes. This is why the provider matters as much as the rate. Money leaves your bank, sits with the provider while the conversion happens, and then goes on to the recipient. Check that the firm is authorised in its home country, and that it holds client funds in segregated accounts. Send a small first transfer before a large one, so you have seen the whole route work.

The Czech side: what your own bank will ask, and what it can hold

Almost everything written about this subject describes the receiving end. The delays we see happen at the sending end, and this delay costs more than the exchange-rate spread ever does. A compliance hold on a completion payment is not a fee. It is a missed notary appointment.

Tell your bank before the first large transfer, not during itA payment far outside your normal pattern gets reviewed. That review is routine and faster when the bank already knows a purchase is coming and has seen the contract.
Assemble the source of funds as one folderSale of a company, dividends, an investment account, a property sale, a gift, an inheritance. It will be asked for on both sides, so gather it now with translations ready, not in the week of the deadline.
Expect the question twiceYour Czech bank asks, and then the Spanish bank or the lawyer asks again. Neither will accept the other’s file, but the same folder answers both.
Never plan a transfer to arrive on the day it is neededCutoff times, weekends, Spanish public holidays that are not Czech ones, and a bank’s own checks all add days no schedule shows. Work backwards from the notary date and add a week you do not intend to use.

If you are carrying cash rather than transferring, different rules apply. Money entering or leaving the European Union has a declaration threshold, and Spain has its own declaration duty for large movements of cash or similar payment methods. On a property purchase, this is a theoretical option, not a practical one, because both the notary and the bank want a traceable payment.

Sources

Can my Czech bank refuse to send the money?It can decline or suspend a payment while it checks the origin of the funds, and it does not have to warn you first. This is not the bank being difficult. It is the law the bank operates under. The way through is the same in every case: prepare documentation in advance, tell the bank what is coming, and leave time in the schedule for a question you hope nobody asks.

What not to do

Five mistakes account for nearly all of the money lost on this part of a purchase, and none of them is about picking the wrong provider.

CostlyPaying a reservation by cardConverts at a rate you did not agree, often with a cash-advance charge, on a route nobody can trace cleanly afterwards.
What to do insteadPay by transfer, to the account the reservation contract names.
Most severeSending money to a private accountNot an agent’s personal account, not a director’s account, not an account in an unrelated country. There is no legitimate reason for any of the three.
What to do insteadStop and ask why. This is the single clearest warning sign in the whole process.
CostlyConverting the price onlyTaxes, notary, registry, lawyer, furniture and the first year of community fees are all euro liabilities too.
What to do insteadConvert the total, not the headline, so you are not buying euros twice at two different rates.
CostlyTiming the market with a deadline in handOnce signed, a favourable rate is a bonus and an unfavourable one is a problem you cannot refuse.
What to do insteadDecide in advance which payments you are contractually committed to, and fix those.
Root causeLeaving the whole thing to the last weekOpening an account, proving the source of funds, comparing providers, and moving a large sum each take days, and these days do not happen at the same time.
What to do insteadThis is the mistake that causes all the others. Start early instead.

A bank, or a currency specialist

This is not a question with one answer. It depends on the size of the amount and on how much of the process you want to run yourself.

	Bank	Currency exchange specialist
The rate you are quoted	The bank’s own retail rate. The sources in our pack put the spread at up to 3 to 4 % on a high-street transfer.	Tighter, and negotiable on larger amounts. The saving is in the rate, not in the advertised fee.
What you are told about the cost	Usually a fee, and a rate you have to work out for yourself against the market.	Usually a rate, quoted against the market. Ask for both numbers from both of them and compare the euros that arrive.
Fixing a rate ahead of a payment	Rarely offered to a private client.	A forward contract, typically up to twelve months ahead against a deposit of around 10 %. On a new build this is the main reason to use one.
Compliance and source of funds	Your existing bank already knows you, which can make a large transfer simpler rather than harder.	A new relationship means a full onboarding before your first transfer. Start it early, not in the week of a deadline.
Where your money sits in transit	Bank to bank, with deposit protection at both ends.	Through the provider’s client account. Check the authorisation and that client funds are segregated, and test the route with a small transfer first.
When the bank is the better answer	Small amounts, the running costs after the purchase, and anything where a day of extra admin costs more than the spread.	The deposit, the balance and new-build stage payments. The larger the amount, the more the rate outranks the convenience.

Straight talk

We do not touch your money, and we are not paid for this advice

We do not move money, we do not exchange currency and we take no cut of an exchange. There is no Arevont currency service and there is not going to be one, because the moment we earn from the rate you get, nothing else we tell you about rates can be trusted.We do not name a provider here either. If you would rather not start from scratch, we can introduce you to one we have worked with, and you are free to use your own bank instead. Ask both for the euros that will really arrive, for your real amount, on the same morning, and take the larger number.What we do give you is the calendar. Tell us the purchase price and roughly when you want to buy, and you get the sequence: which amount has to be where, by when, and who receives it. That is the part that costs people money, and it is the part nobody sends you.

Frequently asked questions about money transfers to Spain

Should I wait for a better exchange rate?: Not once you have a contractual deadline. Waiting is a bet on the currency market, made with money you have already promised to somebody else. The downside is a payment you cannot make. If you want to protect yourself against the rate, rather than bet on it, fix the amounts you are already committed to, and leave the uncertain ones floating.
Is a forward contract worth it on a new build?: This is the case where it makes the most sense, because the stage payments run over one to three years, and the total is fixed in euros from the day you sign. A forward turns an unknown koruna cost into a known one. Two cautions. It is an obligation, not a choice, so match it to payments you are contractually bound to. And check what happens if the developer’s schedule slips, because your dates and his are not the same document.
How much should I convert on top of the purchase price?: Enough to cover the tax and fee layer, which runs about 13 % on a new build and about 9 % on a resale property, plus furnishing and the first year of running costs. A property here brings community fees, utilities, local property tax, and insurance from the first month, and none of that is included in the price you negotiated.
What happens if the money arrives late for the notary?: The appointment moves, and everyone in the room has to be available again: the seller, the notary, sometimes the bank. In the worst case, a contract with a hard deadline puts you in breach. That becomes a conversation about your deposit, not about the rate. This is why the balance is planned backwards from the signature, with a week of slack nobody intends to use.
Can I just pay from my Czech account and skip all of this?: For most payments in a purchase, yes, and many buyers do exactly that. A Czech euro payment reaches a Spanish account just like a domestic one. Skipping the planning is the part that costs money. The conversion still happens somewhere, at somebody’s rate, and the compliance questions still get asked. What you are really choosing is who converts and when, not whether.

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