How much it costs to buy a home: expenses and taxes

When considering the purchase of a property, it is very important we take into account that the financing not only includes the price of the property, but also the costs of formalization of the transaction, in which some taxes are included.

At Lasose Properties & Investments we break down all the costs involved in the purchase of a property.

Buying and selling expenses

Within the expenses generated from a purchase-sale operation we have to include:

• The Notary’s office expenses for the public deed, which are between 0.2% and 0.5% of the house value.
• The Property Registry expenses to register the deed, which oscillate between 0.1% and 0.25% of the property price.
• The expenses of the agency in charge of processing all the documentation and settling the taxes. Depending on the company hired, this usually costs around 300€.

Taxes

Taxes vary depending on the type of property being purchased:

• VAT: this is paid if the property is new, and corresponds to 10% for housing in general, and 4% for social housing.
• ITP (Impuesto de Transmisiones Patrimoniales): this is the corresponding tax if the property isn’t new, and depends on each autonomous community. In Catalonia it corresponds to between 10% and 11% as a general rate, and a reduced rate of 5% for large families, buyers under 32 years of age or disabled people.
• IADJ (Impuesto de Actos Jurídicos Documentados): this is applied to the deed of sale, and in the case of applying for a mortgage, to the formalization of the mortgage loan, although in this case it is the bank who must pay the IAJD, following the new Mortgage Law. This tax consists of a fixed fee, which is the same for the whole country, with reference to the paper on which the notarial documents are drawn up, corresponding to 0.30€ per sheet and 0.15€ per page. There is also a variable fee, which depends on the Autonomous Community. In the case of Catalonia, this amounts to 1.5% as a general rate, and 0.5% for home purchases by people under 33 years of age or with a disability equal to or greater than 33%.