Property taxes – commonly called the IBI in Spanish – are one of the most significant payments you’ll make annually when owning a property in Spain.
The IBI property tax in Barcelona can often be more than other annual payments, such as community of owners payments, rubbish and refuse collection, parking spaces and more combined.
How much property tax you pay depends on two variables:
- a percentage coefficient set by the relevant municipal government (in our case the Ajuntament de Barcelona)
- the cadastral value of a property as set by the Spanish treasury (not the property’s market value)
Read on to learn more and how to calculate the property tax in Barcelona.
What is the Barcelona property tax?
In Spain, the annual property tax is known nationally as the Impuesto sobre Bienes Inmuebles, or by its acronym, the IBI.
The IBI is equivalent to property tax and council tax paid in other nations. The registered owner of any property – or person with a licence or right to use a property – must pay this property tax annually to the local municipal government.
The IBI property tax in Spain is calculated from the cadastral value (valor catastral) or rateable value of your home. This value is set by the Spanish Treasury department and is not the market value of a property – typically the cadastral value of a property is lower than the market value of a house.
The coefficient of the IBI property tax changes depending on the local municipality. If your property is within Barcelona municipal limits, your property taxes will be set by and payable to the Ajuntament de Barcelona.
If you own or are thinking of buying a property in Barcelona, you will typically pay an annual tax of 0.66% of the cadastral value of the property – more on how to calculate this below.
How to calculate Barcelona property tax
The Ajuntament de Barcelona sets the following coefficients:
- Properties on land classed as terreno urbanizable (urbanisable land) – 0.66%
- Properties on land classed as terreno rústico (rustic, or agricultural land) – 0.66%
- Properties on land with special characteristics, such as airports, reservoirs or motorways – 0.8%
The formula to calculate how much IBI tax to pay on a Barcelona property is therefore: the relevant coefficient x the cadastral value.
The Somrie real estate analysts have the following example: property on urban land with a cadastral value of €60,000 would have to pay an annual property tax in Barcelona of €396 (60,000 × 0.66),
If you own or are planning to buy a house in Barcelona, you will most likely be buying a property on terreno urbanizable. This is the most common type of land in cities like Barcelona.
If you do not know the cadastral value of a property in Barcelona, you can search for it on the online Sede Electrónica del Catastro so long as you know the address and other details. You may need the referencia catastral to access this information if you cannot immediately locate your property. In Spain, each house carries this unique identifying number made of 20 characters (numbers and letters).
You can find the referencia catastral on documents such as an electricity supply receipt, on the previous IBI property tax bill, in a rental contract, in the local property register and in documents concerning the purchase of a house.
If you still need help you can read this blog (in Spanish) from Casavo on how to find the referencia catastral of a property in Spain.
How to pay the Barcelona property tax
The IBI property tax must be paid annually, however the Ajuntament de Barcelona lets you pay in installments.
If you have a direct debit set up to a Spanish bank account, you can pay the Barcelona property tax in installments in March, June, September and December. (According to Casavo, the tax was paid on the 3rd day of each of the above months in 2021.) If you do not have a direct debit set up, you must pay the full amount in one go between March and May of the relevant year.
You can also pay the Barcelona property tax online with only a bank card – you can find the relevant form to fill out here.
If you are within Barcelona, you can pay the property tax by calling 010.
You can pay the Barcelona property tax at a collaborating bank, including: Sabadell, Santander, BBVA and CaixaBank.
You can find more information about how to pay the Barcelona property tax on the website of the Ajuntament de Barcelona.
Reductions on Barcelona property tax
Reductions of up to 90% of the Barcelona property tax are applicable in certain situations.
For example:
- Installing solar panels on your Barcelona residential building or home can grant you a 50% reduction in IBI for three years. You can find out more on the Ajuntament de Barcelona website.
- Newbuild houses and homes undergoing integral renovations can receive a 90% reduction in the IBI property tax in Barcelona.
- Large families can received a reduction, depending on their personal situation.
- Social housing or homes with official protection can receive a 40% reduction for four years, with 30% in the fifth year and 10% in the sixth.
- People with a disability over 33% (according to Spanish health regulations) can received reductions depending on their personal situation.
If you are eligible for a reduction on the Barcelona property tax, you must apply for it with the Ajuntament de Barcelona. It will not be granted automatically.
More Information
We hope you enjoyed reading our article on how to calculate the property tax in Barcelona.
If you are thinking of buying a home in Barcelona, you can read here our blogpost on 5 reasons to invest in Barcelona in 2022 or our blogpost on housing prices in Barcelona in 2022.
If you are not a Spanish citizen, you can read here our blogpost on how foreigners can buy a property in Barcelona.
For any other queries concerning buying a house in Barcelona, don’t hesitate to contact our experienced and English-speaking real estate agents and Barcelona relocations experts at Lasose Properties & Investments.
