Buying Property in Spain?

Lucid Foreign Exchange never holds or touches client money. Your currency exchange and payments are carried out by our regulated payment partners: The Currency Cloud Limited and Equals Connect Limited in the UK, CurrencyCloud B.V. in the European Economic Area, Visa Global Services Inc. in the United States, and Sciopay Ltd for clients we introduce to them. Your money is held by them and never passes through a Lucid account. In the UK and EEA, these partners are required to safeguard client money, which means keeping it separate from their own funds. Full details of each partner and how it is regulated are at the bottom of every page and on our safeguarding page.

Not to complete the purchase. We can send euros straight to your lawyer or notary, which saves you opening an account abroad and going through a second round of compliance checks just to buy.

A local account is often useful afterwards for the running costs of owning a property there, but that is a separate decision and one your lawyer is better placed to advise on than we are.

Once your account is open and your paperwork is verified, the payment itself is quick.

The trade and the payment happen together, so sterling converts to euros and the funds go out the same day, subject to the daily cut-off. A SEPA payment typically takes 24 to 48 hours instead.

What actually holds people up is almost never the payment itself. It is the account opening and the compliance checks at the start, and those take longer when paperwork arrives in pieces. If you know roughly when you are completing, start early.

It varies more than most buyers expect, and it depends on the property.

A deposit goes first to secure it. On a new build, stage payments follow at intervals the developer sets, and we manage those schedules regularly for buyers in Spain. On a resale there is usually just the balance at completion.

The question worth asking is not how many payments, it is when you want to fix the cost of them. You can convert the full amount in one go, or move it in tranches so you are not exposed to a single day’s rate.

Your property gets more expensive, or cheaper, and you have no control over which.

Spanish purchases are priced in euros, so the sterling cost of the same property moves every day until you convert. On a large purchase that swing is not trivial.

You can take that uncertainty off the table with a forward contract, which holds today’s rate for a value date up to twelve months out. You put down a deposit and settle the balance when the money is needed. There is more on our forward contracts page.

When certainty is worth more to you than the chance of a better rate. That is the only test that matters, and it is a judgement about you rather than a rule about timeframes.

A short gap between exchange and completion rarely justifies one. The market can only move so far in a fortnight. A long gap often does, particularly on a new build where you have budgeted carefully.

One warning worth more than any of the above. Never book a forward contract until the purchase is genuinely certain. If the sale collapses the contract still stands and you still have to settle it. We would rather talk you out of booking too early than take the trade.

We make our money on the exchange rate, through a spread. There are no transfer fees and no other charges. The rate we agree is the rate you get, our margin sits inside it, and that is the whole cost.

The spread is only part of the picture though. There are apps that move money for very little and for everyday transfers they do a fine job. When the sums get bigger, what matters is having someone who picks up the phone, knows where you are in the process and can tell you what to do when a completion date moves.

Yes, and we would rather do that than work around them.

We deal with Spanish lawyers, notaries and agents regularly. In practice that means making sure payments carry the right references, land in the right account and arrive on the date everyone has agreed, so nobody is chasing a missing payment on completion day.

We do not advise on Spanish legal or tax matters. That is your lawyer’s job and they are the right person for it.

Yes, and it works exactly the same way in reverse.

We can collect the euros in Europe and repatriate the funds to your UK account, with the same checks and the same handling as a purchase.

Worth talking to us before you complete rather than after. There is a lot more we can do with the timing while the money is still in front of you.

Yes. The NIE is the identity number Spain gives to foreigners, and you need one to sign the contracts, pay the taxes and complete. Your lawyer can usually arrange it for you.

It does not change anything on the currency side, but it is worth starting early because completion cannot happen without it.

On a resale home you pay transfer tax (ITP), which is set by each region and ranges from around 6% to 13% depending on where you buy and the price. On a new build you pay VAT at 10% plus stamp duty instead.

Your lawyer will confirm the exact figures for your purchase. We do not advise on Spanish tax, but we make sure your currency plan covers the full amount you will need in euros, taxes included.