How an off-plan purchase in Spain works, from the reservation to the day you collect the keys. Most new homes on the Costa del Sol are sold before they are finished, so the money is paid in stages while the building goes up, and Spanish law sets out precisely what protects those payments. This guide follows the purchase in order: what you pay and when, what the developer has to give you before you sign, what the guarantee covers and from what date, why the money sits in a separate account, what you can do if the date is missed, what has to happen before you complete, and the insurance that comes with a new home. Each point is taken from the law in question, linked where it appears. The tax on a new build, which is IVA at 10% plus stamp duty at 1.2% in Andalucía rather than the 7% transfer tax on a resale, is worked in new build or resale on the Costa del Sol, and the developments I can currently show you are on new developments.
The order of an off-plan purchase
An off-plan purchase has four payments and three documents. The payments are a reservation, a payment on signing the private purchase contract, one or more stage payments during the build, and the balance on completion. The documents are the reservation form, the private contract and the public deed signed at the notary.
The reservation takes the home off the market for a short period while your lawyer reads the contract and the paperwork behind it. The private purchase contract (contrato privado de compraventa) is the binding agreement. It records the price, the payment schedule, the delivery date, the plans and the specification you are buying from. The stage payments follow the schedule in that contract. The completion is the day you sign the deed (escritura) before a notary, pay the balance and take the keys. The developer’s guarantee and its insurance sit behind every stage of that sequence, and the rest of this guide takes each in turn.
The exact split of the price across those payments is set by the developer and varies from scheme to scheme. What does not vary is the protection: from the date the building licence is granted, every euro paid before completion is guaranteed by law.
What the developer must give you before you sign
Two sets of rules govern what you are entitled to see. The national rule is Real Decreto 515/1989 on consumer information in the sale of housing. Article 5 requires a developer selling homes to hold available, for any buyer who asks, a copy of the building licence and the planning certificate for the site, the statutes and running rules of the community of owners, information on the taxes that apply to the home, and the form of contract with its general and particular conditions. Article 9 gives every buyer the right to receive a copy of those documents, at the seller’s cost, when the contract is signed. Article 10 requires the contract to be written clearly, without referring to documents you have not been given, and prohibits clauses that raise the price for extras you did not ask for.
The Andalucían rule is Decreto 218/2005, which adds a summary document (Documento Informativo Abreviado) for homes sold in project or under construction. A copy must be handed free of charge to anyone who asks for information about the home, and the regulation is explicit that simply asking about a property is enough to trigger the duty.
The practical point is that the plans, the specification (memoria de calidades), the building licence and the community statutes are documents you are entitled to have in your hands before you pay. Your lawyer reads them, and the contract is checked against them.
The guarantee on every payment
The protection for money paid before completion is set out in the first additional provision of the Spanish building law, Ley 38/1999, in the wording given to it by Ley 20/2015. A developer who takes payments from buyers during construction must do two things.
- Guarantee the return of every sum paid, plus the legal rate of interest, through an insurance contract (seguro de caución) with an insurer authorised in Spain or a joint bank guarantee (aval solidario) from an authorised credit institution, for the case that the building is never started or the home is not delivered by the agreed date. The obligation runs “from the obtaining of the building licence”.
- Receive the money through a credit institution into a special account, kept separate from every other fund the developer holds, from which the developer may only draw for the costs of the construction. The bank that opens the account is required, on its own responsibility, to demand the guarantee before it does so.
The provision goes on to set what the guarantee must contain. It covers the full amount paid, including the taxes on those payments, plus the legal interest from the day each payment was made to the date fixed for delivery. Where the guarantee takes the form of insurance, an individual policy is issued for each buyer, identifying the home being bought. The developer pays the premium for the whole period up to the signing of the deed, and a failure to pay it cannot be used against you. The policy cannot run shorter than the time promised for the construction and delivery, and if the delivery date is extended the developer must extend the cover and tell you.
Two further points in the same provision are worth knowing. Advertising for a scheme that takes payments before or during construction must state that the developer complies with these requirements and must name the guarantor and the bank holding the special account. And a developer who fails to put the guarantee in place faces a penalty of up to 25% of the sums that should have been covered, alongside the consumer-protection sanctions of the region.
The practical rule follows directly from the wording. The guarantee attaches from the building licence. Ask when the licence was granted, ask for the guarantee document in your name, and ask which bank holds the account. Your lawyer confirms all three before the first stage payment is made. A developer with the paperwork in order hands it over without difficulty.
If the delivery date is missed
Building programmes move, and the law anticipates it. Section four of the same provision states that if the construction has not been started, or the home has not been delivered, the buyer may choose between two courses. The first is to cancel the contract and have every sum paid returned, including the taxes on those sums, with the legal interest added. The second is to grant the developer an extension, recorded in an additional clause to the contract, with the new date for completion and delivery written in.
That right sits in the law rather than in the developer’s contract, so a contract cannot remove it. What the contract can do is set out how the parties expect to handle a short delay, and your lawyer reads that clause before you sign so that you know where the delivery date sits and what happens at it.
The right has a time limit. A bank guarantee lapses if you have not demanded cancellation and repayment within two years of the missed date. The claim starts with a formal written demand to the developer (a requerimiento fehaciente), and if the developer has not repaid within 30 days, the bank or the insurer pays. So a missed date should not be left to drift, and any extension you agree should be written into the contract.
What has to happen before you complete
A new home completes when the building is finished and authorised for occupation. Three documents mark that point.
The final works certificate (certificado final de obra) is signed by the architects and confirms that the building has been completed in accordance with the project. The licence of first occupation (licencia de primera ocupación) is the town hall’s confirmation that the finished building matches the licence it was granted and can be lived in. In Andalucía the regional planning law, Ley 7/2021, at article 138, now routes the first occupation of a building constructed under a licence, finished and in accordance with it, through a responsible declaration (declaración responsable) lodged by the developer with the final works certificate, which has the same effect. The deed of completed new build (escritura de obra nueva terminada) is what allows the finished building, and then your home within it, to be registered at the Land Registry. Article 28 of the national land law requires the notary and the registrar to see the architects’ certificate and the occupation authorisation, or the evidence that the responsible declaration has been lodged and the period for objection has passed, before they register it.
The occupation authorisation matters for a further reason. Section five of the guarantee provision states that the developer’s guarantee is cancelled once the licence of first occupation or its equivalent has been issued and the developer has shown that the home has been handed over. So the release of the guarantee, the connection of the utilities in your name and the registration of your deed all turn on the same document. It is the one I would not complete without, and the UK government’s guidance on buying in Spain gives the same advice in one line.
The checks before the keys
The last step before completion is a walk through the finished home with a written list. It is the moment to compare what was built with what you bought: the plans, the specification and any changes agreed during the build. Doors, windows and their seals. Every tap, drain and socket. The air conditioning and the hot water. Tiling, paint, silicone and the drainage on the terrace. The kitchen and bathroom fittings against the specification. Anything short goes on the list in writing and the developer puts it right, either before completion or under the one-year cover described below.
Alongside the walk, your lawyer confirms the occupation authorisation, the utility connections, the ten-year insurance policy and that the community of owners has been constituted. That last point matters because from the day you complete, the community fees and the running of the shared parts of the building are your concern as an owner.
The insurance that comes with a new home
The same building law, at article 17, sets three periods of responsibility for the people who build a home, each counted from the date the work is formally received. Ten years for damage from defects in the foundations, supports, beams, floors, load-bearing walls and other structural elements that compromise the strength and stability of the building. Three years for damage from defects in the elements and installations that make the home habitable. One year, on the builder, for defects in the finishings. The developer is jointly liable with the other parties to the construction for defects in the building, so a buyer does not have to work out which of them was at fault.
Article 19 turns the ten-year period into a compulsory insurance policy (seguro decenal), taken out by the developer, with the developer and every later buyer of the building as the insured, and with the premium paid by the time the work is received. The one-year cover on finishings may instead be met by the developer holding back 5% of the cost of the works from the builder. Your lawyer sees the ten-year policy before you complete, and the policy passes with the home when you sell.
How I handle it
My approach is the same on every new build: proper research on the scheme and its area, a straight assessment of what it is genuinely worth, and careful negotiation on your behalf. On an off-plan purchase that means reading the developer’s contract, the guarantee and the specification with your lawyer before the reservation is paid, keeping the timetable from the reservation to the keys, and walking the finished home with you before completion. The legal checks are your lawyer’s, and I work alongside them rather than in their place. That sits within the buying service. The schemes I can currently show you, with prices, are on new developments, and the comparison with a resale is in new build or resale on the Costa del Sol. To talk it through, book a call.
The developments I can show you are listed town by town, with their starting prices and handover dates: Estepona, Marbella, Benahavís and Istán, Mijas and La Cala, Fuengirola, Benalmádena and Torremolinos, Casares and Manilva and Málaga and the east coast.
General guidance, not legal advice. The protections described are those of the first additional provision of Ley 38/1999 as amended by Ley 20/2015, Real Decreto 515/1989, Decreto 218/2005 of Andalucía, Ley 7/2021 of Andalucía and the national land law, all last checked against the official texts on 17 September 2026. Every scheme’s contract and payment schedule is its own, so take advice from an independent Spanish lawyer before you pay anything.
Common questions
Is my deposit protected when I buy off-plan in Spain?
What is the bank guarantee (aval bancario) on a Spanish new build?
What are stage payments when buying off-plan?
What happens if the developer delivers late?
What is the licence of first occupation?
What guarantees come with a new home in Spain?
What this relates to
The same subject, for buyers abroad
Pages written for buyers in other countries, in their own language, covering what changes for them.
