What it costs to own a home in Spain each year, for UK owners

The costs of owning a home in Spain once the keys are yours. This guide covers the yearly charges a British owner pays on a Costa del Sol property: the municipal property tax (IBI), the refuse charge, community fees, insurance, utilities, and the non-resident tax return that is due even on a home you never let. The buying costs, the taxes and fees on top of the price, are a separate sum and I work them line by line in what a €350,000 apartment really costs. Every figure below is either one this site already uses or one taken from an official page, linked where it appears.

IBI, the municipal property tax

IBI stands for Impuesto sobre Bienes Inmuebles. It is the nearest thing Spain has to council tax, and it is set and billed by the town hall where the property sits. The national law on local finances fixes how it works. The tax is charged on the cadastral value of the property, the valor catastral, and each town hall sets its own rate within a range the law lays down.

The cadastral value is not the market value. It is a figure assigned to the property by the Spanish authorities for tax purposes, and it is normally well below what the home would sell for. It is protected data, so it is not published, but as the owner you can look it up on the Sede Electrónica del Catastro once you hold a digital certificate or a Cl@ve login (Catastro help pages).

Málaga city publishes its rate. For 2024, the latest year on its page when I checked, the city’s tax office, Gestrisam, set the general rate for urban property at 0.4510% of the cadastral value. Other towns publish their own.

One rule worth knowing. Whoever owns the property on 1 January is liable for that whole year’s IBI. Gestrisam puts it plainly: where a sale happens after 1 January, the seller is the taxpayer for that year, and any private arrangement between the parties has no effect on the tax office. The UK government’s guidance on buying in Spain lists a paid-up receipt for the seller’s IBI among the papers to see before you buy.

The refuse charge

Alongside IBI, the town hall charges for refuse collection, usually called the tasa de basura. It is a separate bill, set locally, and it applies whether or not you are in residence. The amount and the payment dates are published by the town hall.

Community fees

If the home is in a block or a managed development, it belongs to a community of owners, and each owner pays a share of the shared costs. Those cover things such as gardens, swimming pools, lifts, security, cleaning and the upkeep of the building. The gov.uk guidance puts it in one line: each homeowner is assigned a monthly quota as set out in the community’s governing statutes. The amount depends on the development. A small block with a stairwell and a shared roof costs a fraction of a gated estate with round-the-clock security and a heated pool, so there is no useful average. The right number is the one in the community’s accounts for the property you are looking at.

First, ask for the accounts and the minutes of recent meetings before you commit, because major works that have been approved or proposed become extra charges to every owner. Second, unpaid community fees attach to the property rather than the person. Under article 9 of the Horizontal Property Law a new owner is liable for the unpaid fees of the current year together with the three preceding calendar years. That is why your lawyer obtains a certificate from the community administrator, confirming the account is clear, before completion.

Home insurance and utilities

Buildings and contents insurance is a normal running cost, and the premium depends on the property and the cover you choose. Water and electricity carry standing charges that apply whether or not the property is occupied, so a home that sits empty for part of the year still has bills each month.

The non-resident tax on a home you do not let

If you live outside Spain and own a home here that you keep for your own use or leave empty, Spain treats the home as producing a notional income and taxes it each year. The UK government’s guidance says the same in plain words: non-resident property owners in Spain are required to complete a tax return each year even if they do not rent out their homes (gov.uk).

The mechanism is set out by the Spanish tax agency on its page on imputed income from an urban property kept for own use.

• The notional income is a percentage of the cadastral value. It is 1.1% where the cadastral value has been revised, modified or set through a general collective valuation procedure that took effect within the last ten tax years, and 2% otherwise.
• No expenses are deducted from that figure.
• The rate depends on where you live. Residents of the EU, Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein pay 19%. Everyone else, which includes UK residents, pays 24%.
• The tax accrues on 31 December, and if you owned the home for only part of the year the amount is reduced in proportion.

An illustration, with a made-up cadastral value so the arithmetic is visible. Take a cadastral value of €120,000 in a town whose values were revised within the last ten years. 1.1% of €120,000 is €1,320 of notional income. 24% of €1,320 is €316.80. That is the year’s tax for a UK-resident owner. With the 2% figure it would be €2,400 of notional income and €576 of tax.

The return is Modelo 210, and the filing window has just changed. The tax agency’s note on the new deadlines states that the imputed income for 2025 is filed between 1 January and 31 December 2026, unchanged, and that from the 2026 tax year onward the window runs from 1 April to 31 December of the following year. So the 2026 return opens on 1 April 2027. The change comes from Orden HAC/623/2026. Your lawyer or a gestor can file the return for you, and it goes on the list before you leave.

If you let the property

If you let the home instead, the rental income is declared on the same Modelo 210 rather than the notional income, and the tax agency’s note above sets out the current grouping and deadlines for rental returns. Landlords resident in the EU, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein are charged 19% and may deduct expenses. Landlords resident elsewhere, including the UK, are charged 24% and may deduct nothing, so base your sums on gross rent. The tourist licence guide covers the registration a tourist let now needs in Andalucía and the community vote that can permit or block it.

Wealth tax in Andalucía

Andalucía rebates the wealth tax in full, so most owners pay nothing. A separate national tax applies above €3.7 million of net Spanish assets per person. Since 2021 owners who live outside the European Union have had the same right to Andalucía’s rules as EU residents, which matters for purchases at the upper end of the market. If the value of your Spanish assets may approach that level, take advice from a Spanish tax adviser.

How I handle it

My approach is the same on every purchase. Before you commit to a property I put the yearly costs on the table next to the buying costs: the IBI and refuse bills, the community’s accounts and any works on the way, and the Modelo 210 you will file as a non-resident. You see the whole number, not just the price. That is part of the buying service, and if you are still settling the budget, what you need to buy, area by area works the purchase sums at four budgets. To talk it through, book a call.

General guidance, not tax advice. The Modelo 210 percentages, rates and deadlines, and the Málaga IBI rate, are as published on the official pages linked above, last checked 13 September 2026. They change from year to year, so take independent legal and tax advice before you commit.

Common questions

The same subject, for buyers abroad

Pages written for buyers in other countries, in their own language, covering what changes for them.

• United States: Taxes for American owners of a Spanish home
• Netherlands: Box 3 en uw woning in Spanje: wat u in Nederland aangeeft
• Belgium: Belastingen op een tweede verblijf in Spanje: wat u in België aangeeft
• Belgium: Kadastraal inkomen voor uw Spaanse woning: aangeven binnen vier maanden
• Germany: Spanische Immobilie und das deutsche Finanzamt
• Poland: Nieruchomość w Hiszpanii a podatki w Polsce
• Sweden: Skatt i Sverige när du äger bostad i Spanien
• Norway: Skatt på bolig i Spania når du bor i Norge