Buying & Selling Property in Mallorca
How a Spanish property transaction actually works: the paperwork, the people involved, the deposit contracts, and who pays what, from first offer to keys in hand.
Planning to rent the property out after buying? A short-term/tourist letting needs an ETV licence; see our Holiday Rentals in Mallorca report. Letting it long-term instead is a different legal regime entirely (the LAU, no tourist licence, but its own lease and deposit rules), covered in full in our Long-Term Letting Guide.
Six roles in every transaction
Click a card to reveal what each role actually is, and isn't.
What is an Agente inmobiliario?
A private commercial intermediary, not a public official: the direct equivalent of a UK estate agent or US realtor. In Spain, they work for and are paid by the seller by default. They have no duty of neutrality toward the buyer and don't run legal due diligence.
What is a Buyer's Agent?
Not the same as a regular estate agent, and not tied to any listings of their own. A buyer's agent (agente comprador) holds no property stock and is independent of any single agency's inventory: they're free to search across every agency's listings and off-market properties on the buyer's behalf. Only the buyer pays them, which removes the conflict of interest a seller-paid agent has. Optional and less common in Spain than a standard estate agent, but increasingly available in Mallorca.
What is an Abogado?
Equivalent to a UK solicitor or US real estate attorney: independent, privately hired, and working solely for whoever hires them. Not legally required, but standard practice for any serious buyer or seller, especially non-residents. Runs due diligence and can hold power of attorney.
What is a Notario?
The one most people get wrong. Not "your" lawyer, and not the light-touch signature-witness a "notary public" is in the UK/US. A Spanish notario is a highly trained, state-appointed legal official with real authority: they verify identity, confirm both parties understand the deed, and certify it as an enforceable public document. Neutral by design, representing the transaction's legality, not either party's interests.
Is a Gestor an accountant?
Not quite. A gestor is a Spain-specific administrative professional, not an accountant. They handle bureaucratic paperwork with public bodies: tax filings, deed registration, utility transfers, and similar processes. There's some overlap with basic bookkeeping, but that's not their core role, and they're often used alongside a lawyer rather than instead of one.
What is the Registrador?
A public office, directly equivalent to the UK's HM Land Registry: records legal ownership and charges (mortgages, embargoes) on a property. Distinct from both the notary, who authorises the transaction, and the Catastro, which tracks a property's physical description and tax valuation, not legal ownership. Registration is what makes ownership enforceable against third parties.
You can check it all yourself
With advances in Spain's open data and online services, you no longer have to take a seller's or agent's word for any of this: every figure can be checked directly against an official source, or one of this site's own tools. Tap any item for the plain-English explainer: what it actually is, why it matters, and how to check it yourself.
Every official source this page relies on or links out to, for verifying data yourself.
Papers to expect
Missing paperwork is the most common cause of a stalled sale. Tap any document for what it actually is, who's responsible for it, and when you'll need it.
What it is. A short official Land Registry extract for the specific property: current legal owner, registered boundaries and size, and any charges against it (mortgage, embargo, right of way).
Why it matters. It's the single most important document in the whole transaction: see section 02, Verify it yourself, above for the full detail on why. Nothing else here matters much if this one has a problem.
What it is. The public deed of sale: the formal legal document that actually transfers ownership, signed in front of a notary. Not the same as the private deposit or option contract signed earlier; this is the one that legally counts.
Why it matters. Ownership doesn't legally transfer until this is signed, regardless of what was agreed or paid earlier. It's also what gets filed at the Land Registry afterwards to make the sale enforceable against third parties.
What it is. A habitability certificate confirming the property meets the minimum legal standards to be lived in (basic safety, sanitation, structural conditions). Balearic-specific and required for most residential sales.
Why it matters. Without a valid one, a notary can, in some cases, refuse to authorise the sale, and utility companies can refuse to register new supply contracts in the buyer's name. It typically needs renewing every 10 years or on change of ownership.
What it is. An EPC rates the property's energy efficiency (A to G, like a UK EPC or EU energy label) based on an inspection by a certified assessor.
Why it matters. It's a legal requirement to have one before a property can even be advertised for sale, not just before completion; a seller (or their agent) should already have one when you first view the property.
What it is. Proof of payment for the annual local property tax (see section 02 above for what IBI is and why unpaid tax is a risk you inherit).
Why it matters. Confirms the seller is current on this tax before you take on the property, and gives your lawyer the property's cadastral reference, needed to cross-check the Catastro's official records.
What it is. A certificate from the property's homeowners' association (comunidad de propietarios) confirming its community fees are paid up to date, with no outstanding balance.
Why it matters. Unpaid community fees are a debt that follows the property, not the person who ran it up: a new owner can be pursued for a previous owner's unpaid balance (typically the current year plus the prior one, by law).
What it is. Confirmation that everything actually built on the plot (main structure, extensions, pool, outbuildings) has the planning licence to match, and that the registered floor area lines up with what's physically there.
Why it matters. An unlicensed extension is one of the most common sources of problems in rural Mallorca, especially on older fincas; see the callout below.
What it is. Número de Identificación de Extranjero: the tax ID number every foreign buyer needs to be a party to a Spanish property transaction at all, from opening a bank account to signing at the notary.
Why it matters. It can take 1–4 weeks to obtain (longer at busy times), and you cannot complete without one. This is the single most common cause of a rushed or delayed completion date, so start it as early as possible, ideally before you even make an offer.
What it is. If the seller has an existing mortgage on the property, formal confirmation from their bank that it's been (or will be, at completion) fully paid off and the charge released from the Land Registry.
Why it matters. Without this, the seller's mortgage charge can remain registered against the property even after you've bought it, which is exactly the kind of inherited debt the Nota Simple check (section 02) exists to catch. This certificate is how it actually gets resolved, not just flagged.
An unlicensed extension is a common source of problems when confirming floor plans/licences, especially on rural fincas, and the rules on regularising one have genuinely changed recently.
The Balearic government's Decreto Ley 3/2024 (approved 24 May 2024) opened a three-year window, until roughly May 2027, for owners to legalise rural buildings, extensions and uses built without a licence, provided the original planning infraction has legally prescribed. In general that means construction completed at least 8 years before the decree took effect; land under special rural protection has an earlier cutoff (built before 29 May 2014), and land within a protected Natural Space earlier still (before 10 March 1991).
Legalising isn't free: it requires a one-off payment, scaled by when you apply. It's 10% of the construction's value in year one, rising to 12.5% in year two and 15% in year three, with reductions of up to 50% for owners under set income thresholds. A legalised rural property cannot then be used for tourist rental, and the scheme doesn't cover everything: coastal-protection zones, public-domain land, and anything requiring its own separate licence (a rural hotel or agritourism business, for instance) are excluded.
This is genuinely useful if you're buying (or already own) a finca with an unlicensed extension, but the detail matters and the deadline is fixed; confirm your specific property's eligibility with a lawyer or gestor rather than assuming it qualifies.
Sources: Illes Lex, summary of Decreto Ley 3/2024 · elDiario.es, coverage of the reform. Confirm current terms with a lawyer or gestor before relying on this for a specific property; Balearic planning rules are revised often and this scheme has already been amended more than once since 2024.
Directly relevant to the legalisation scheme above, since the reason so many rural extensions ended up unlicensed in the first place is that Balearic rural land (suelo rústico) is genuinely restrictive about what's allowed on it. The rules below apply specifically to rústico land, the Mallorca countryside outside a town's urban boundary; land classified as urbano (inside a town or urbanisation) follows the local municipal plan instead, which varies by town.
Land classification decides everything first
Before anything else (size, budget, plans), the single question that decides what's buildable is how the plot is classified. Protected categories (Área Natural d'Especial Interès/ANEI, Àrea d'Alt Nivell de Protecció/AANP, and similar high-protection designations) generally prohibit new construction outright, regardless of plot size. Always confirm a specific plot's classification with a lawyer or the local Ajuntament before assuming it's buildable at all.
Minimum plot size to build on at all
On land where building is permitted, Mallorca's Territorial Plan (Pla Territorial de Mallorca) sets a minimum plot size before any dwelling can be authorised at all:
- 14,000 m² (1.4 hectares): the general minimum for standard rural land (suelo rústico común) and agricultural-interest areas.
- 50,000 m² (5 hectares): for forestry rural land and landscape-interest rural areas, a substantially larger minimum.
A smaller plot than the applicable minimum generally can't be built on at all, whatever else is true about it; this is usually the very first thing worth checking before getting attached to a specific piece of land.
How much of the plot you can actually build on
Meeting the minimum plot size doesn't mean building freely across it. Balearic rural-land rules cap both footprint and volume:
- Occupancy: 2–3% of the plot. Maximum built footprint is 2% of the plot's surface in the most protected landscape categories, 3% elsewhere on rural land, meaning even a full 14,000 m² minimum plot allows only a few hundred square metres of building footprint.
- Maximum volume: 1,500 m³ per building. A hard cap under Article 28 of Ley 6/1997, the Balearic rural land law.
- One dwelling per plot. Only a single single-family house may be authorised on a rural plot, not multiple units.
These figures come from the base Balearic rural-land law and Mallorca's island-wide Territorial Plan; individual municipalities can apply their own, sometimes stricter, rules on top, so the numbers above are a starting point for a conversation with a lawyer or gestor, not a substitute for one.
Use of Land: mobile homes, caravans and livestock casitas
A question that comes up a lot: "if I can't build much, can I just put a caravan or mobile home on the land instead?" In the Balearics, the honest answer is almost always no.
The law explicitly prohibits siting a caravan or other movable structure that could be lived in on rural land, outside a handful of specifically designated zones (e.g. an authorised campsite), and, critically, what matters legally is the intended use, not the construction method. As one Balearic planning lawyer put it plainly: a caravan installed with the intention of leaving it in place and living in it "is a dwelling" in the eyes of the law, wheels or not, meaning it needs the exact same licence, plot-size and build-limit requirements as a conventional house (see above), not a lighter-touch exemption. Balearic penalties for getting this wrong are among the toughest in Spain: fines of 200–300% of the value of the unauthorised work, on top of a possible demolition order.
There is one genuine, narrower exception, but it isn't a loophole for a holiday caravan: a dwelling can be authorised on rural land specifically because it's tied to a working agricultural or livestock holding (vivienda vinculada a explotación agraria), for example, housing needed on-site to manage livestock. This requires a mandatory, binding favourable report from the Balearic agricultural authority before the town hall will even consider a building licence, under the Balearic Agricultural Law (Ley 3/2019). It's tied to the land actually being a genuine, active holding, not a plot with a few animals kept for the look of it, and the same general build limits above (occupancy, volume, one dwelling) still apply on top. A related but distinct structure, a caseta de aperos (tool/equipment shed for storing agricultural gear), is explicitly not permitted to be lived in at all, temporarily or permanently, regardless of how it's used day to day.
Sources: COPE, lawyer Ángel Hoyos on caravans/mobile homes on rústico land · Cocampo, on casetas de aperos and agriculturally-linked dwellings. The livestock/agricultural-holding exception in particular needs a lawyer or gestor to confirm your specific case actually qualifies; it's assessed by the agricultural authority, not self-declared.
Sources: Ley 6/1997, de 8 de julio, del Suelo Rústico de las Illes Balears (BOE, consolidated text) · Slow Studio, minimum buildable plot size in Mallorca · Auba Studio, 2024 occupancy/volume rule changes. Rules vary by landscape unit and municipality; always confirm a specific plot's classification and limits before buying.
Buying, step by step
Deposit-to-completion is typically only 30–60 days: start your NIE now.
Selling, step by step
Missing paperwork is the most common cause of a stalled sale.
Not all deposits are equal
"Putting a deposit down" in Spain isn't one single legal thing. Read the contract, not the label at the top of it: "arras" alone doesn't tell you which variant you're agreeing to.
Signing isn't the finish line
Ownership transfers at signing, but registration is what makes it stick.
Who pays what
The quick version below, then every figure and caveat in full underneath.
- ITP: resale property
- VAT + AJD: new-build property
- Notary fees
- Land Registry fee
- Agent commission
- Plusvalía municipal
- Capital gains tax: non-resident sellers
of the price