Financing a new-build home in Girona as a non-resident buyer

When you buy a resale home in Girona, the mortgage and the purchase usually close on the same day, at the notary. Off-plan works differently: the developer asks for a reservation payment, then further instalments as construction advances, and the final balance only on completion. A mortgage, by contrast, is normally drawn down once the property legally exists and can be registered as security.

That gap between paying the developer and drawing the loan is the part buyers from the United Kingdom find hardest to picture. It is manageable, but it needs to be planned from the first instalment, not discovered later.

Girona province covers the Costa Brava coastline as well as inland countryside toward the Pyrenees, offering both beach towns and rural stone villages. Its proximity to France draws French, Belgian and Dutch buyers, alongside others wanting a quieter alternative to busier Spanish coasts.

Girona-Costa Brava airport serves the coast directly, with Barcelona airport also within reach for wider connections. Coastal areas see strong summer activity, while inland towns remain calmer, and property types range from apartments and townhouses near the sea to farmhouses further inland.

Off-plan buying in Girona province covers two distinct settings: apartment and townhouse developments rising in coastal towns along the Costa Brava, and farmhouse-style projects or renovations pushing toward the Pyrenees foothills inland. Because Girona-Costa Brava airport serves the coast directly, while Barcelona's airport gives wider international connections, a buyer scheduling a milestone visit to check a site's progress can often choose whichever route suits the trip, though inland villages take longer to reach from either airport than the coastal towns do.

Coastal construction sites tend to move fastest through spring and early summer, ahead of the peak season when access roads and town centres get busier with visitors, while inland sites near the stone villages keep working at a steadier pace all year since they are not tied to a tourist calendar. A developer's instalment schedule usually follows this rhythm: coastal projects often push to finish before summer, and buyers should ask early whether that timing affects when each payment falls due.

A bank valuer pricing an off-plan coastal apartment in a Costa Brava town works from a reasonably steady run of comparable sales, since the coast attracts consistent demand from French, Belgian and Dutch buyers among others. Valuing a project further inland, a renovated stone farmhouse or a small development near a rural village toward the Pyrenees, is a different exercise: comparable sales are scarcer, plots and buildings vary more from one village to the next, and the valuer has to lean more heavily on the licensed plans and building specification than on nearby recent sales.

This gap between coast and countryside matters for timing, too. A coastal project moving toward a summer handover may get valued and revalued faster simply because more recent local sales exist to support the figure, while an inland farmhouse conversion can take longer to appraise precisely because fewer comparables are available nearby.

French, Belgian and Dutch buyers make up much of the non-resident interest in Girona, drawn by the province's proximity to the French border and by a quieter alternative to busier Spanish coasts. Because the border is close, some buyers reach the province by road rather than flying, which changes how milestone visits and notary trips get planned compared with buyers arriving from further afield; a bank or gestoría used to this pattern can usually work around either way of travelling.

Coastal towns see a strong seasonal pattern, busy through summer and much quieter the rest of the year, while inland towns toward the Pyrenees keep a steadier rhythm year-round. This affects the kind of file banks see: a coastal apartment bought as a holiday home follows a different income and usage profile from an inland farmhouse bought by someone planning to spend longer stretches of the year there, and it is worth being clear with the bank about which pattern applies to your purchase.

New-build homes anywhere in Girona province, whether a coastal apartment or an inland development, carry the 10% VAT plus stamp duty applied to new construction across Spain. Resale property in Girona, however, falls under the transfer tax scale set by the regional government of Catalonia, shown in the table accompanying this page; Catalonia sets its own rate structure, distinct from other Spanish regions, so it is worth confirming the applicable band with the gestoría handling the file.

Once registered, non-resident owners in Girona file the annual Modelo 210 return like any non-resident owner in Spain, and a later sale carries the same 3% withholding on account of the seller's tax that applies nationwide. A double taxation agreement between Spain and the buyer's home country generally avoids the same income being taxed twice, which is worth raising with a tax adviser alongside the mortgage application, particularly for buyers close enough to the border to have income or assets on both sides.

This section brings together dated, sourced data on Girona (province): who lives there, what properties are asking for, how the area connects to the rest of Spain, and its climate. Reading them first should give you a clearer, realistic sense of Girona (province) before you size a mortgage budget.

On 1 January 2025 the INE recorded 830,429 residents across the entire province of Girona, a figure that includes every municipality, not just the capital that shares its name. These official population data set the context for the local market figures below. In the province of Girona, 181,899 residents hold a foreign nationality, about 22 of every 100 people registered there. That is a significant but not dominant share, and it varies considerably from one town to another within the province.

According to INE, only 3,372 British nationals were registered across the province of Girona as of 1 January 2025. That low figure reflects the padrón's focus on year-round residents, excluding owners who use a property there only part-time. The following table shows the leading foreign nationalities registered in Girona (province) on 1 January 2025, according to the municipal-level data INE makes available.

For nationalities the census groups together rather than listing them individually, such as Germans, Italians, Dutch, Belgians or Scandinavians, we turn to the detailed INE register for Girona province. Unlike the table above, this count dates from 1 January 2022, the most recent detailed edition.

Of the 3,863 homes for sale across the province of Girona, the median asking price is €2,910/m² and the median ticket €299,000 in our data. That puts the province near the middle of the table, close to the €3,210/m² median across the 127 towns we track. Prices vary considerably from one listing to the next, though the bulk of the market, its middle half, falls between €2,050 and €3,870 per square metre.

Taking €299,000 as the median asking price in Girona (province), the resale transfer tax of 10 % amounts to about €29,900, with a further €3,600 for notary, registry and gestoría fees. That puts the total near €33,500, which a lender does not finance and must come from savings. The figures reflect asking prices in listings live on 2026-10-05, rather than prices actually paid. Final amounts are agreed through negotiation and vary with the state, location and orientation of each property.

This table sets out population, foreign residents per 100 people and median price per square metre for the towns we track in Girona (province), highlighting how much local markets can vary.

INE's experimental statistic, based on listings from the main holiday-rental platforms, counted 20,821 holiday-let homes in Girona (province) in 05/2026 (116,320 bed places), about 25 per 1,000 residents. That is a moderate presence, and tourist letting still requires a regional licence.

As Girona is served by only one commercial airport, Aeropuerto de Girona-Costa Brava (GRO), buyers near the provincial border should also weigh up whether an airport just across the boundary might be more convenient. The figures that follow reflect conditions in or around Girona, the provincial capital; elsewhere in the province, particularly inland, at altitude or on other islands, the climate can vary considerably. With January averaging 7.1 °C (minimum 1.1 °C) and August averaging 23.4 °C (maximum 29.8 °C), winters here are genuinely cold for Spain. That makes heating and insulation a meaningful part of the running costs of any home. With around 728 mm of rain annually over about 66 days, this area is wetter than much of coastal or central Spain, so it is worth looking for signs of damp when viewing a property. These figures are the official climate normals (1981-2010) from AEMET, Spain's state weather agency, at its Girona Aeropuerto station, about 9 km away; conditions at the exact property can differ slightly, especially inland or at altitude.

15,293 home sales were registered in the province of Girona in the twelve months to 06/2026, according to INE. A market of this size usually means more comparable sales and a wider choice of homes for buyers. These figures describe the province of Girona as a whole and can change considerably from one town to another, and from one property to the next. Tell us what you are looking for and we will go through the numbers together.

The transfer tax on a resale home is set by each Spanish region. In Girona the general rate is 10 %, and on top of it come notary, land registry and gestoría (roughly one more percent). On a new build you pay 10 % VAT plus stamp duty instead of the transfer tax. This money is not lent by the bank.

Off-plan contracts in Spain typically set out a reservation fee, one or more staged payments tied to construction milestones, and a final payment on completion, when keys and title are handed over. Spanish law requires developers to guarantee these advance payments, usually through a bank guarantee or insurance policy, so ask to see that document before signing anything.

Because a mortgage is a loan secured on a finished, registered property, banks are generally reluctant to release funds against a home that is still a hole in the ground. In practice, most non-resident buyers cover the early instalments from savings or bridging arrangements in the buyer's home country, and reserve the mortgage for the final balance due at completion.

A Spanish bank valuation (tasación) is a condition for any mortgage, and for a new build it is done in two steps. Early in the process, the valuer works from the architect's project, the licence and the developer's specifications, producing an estimated value on completion. Closer to handover, once the building is finished and registered, a further valuation confirms the actual property before the loan is formally drawn down.

This means the loan amount offered early on is provisional. The bank will usually confirm final terms once the home is complete, matches the original project, and can be inscribed at the land registry in your name. Delays in construction can therefore also delay, though not necessarily reduce, when the mortgage funds actually move.

Spanish banks usually ask non-residents for a larger deposit than they would ask a resident buyer; the exact share depends on the bank, your country and your financial profile, so we compare offers rather than quote a single figure. Proof of income and existing debts from the United Kingdom, such as recent payslips or a P60 and your last Self Assessment return, are generally required, often with a sworn translation into Spanish.

Mortgage terms in Spain usually run until the borrower is around 70 to 75 years old, and you can choose between fixed, variable (Euribor-linked) or mixed rates. None of this changes because the property is new build rather than resale; what changes is simply the timing of when the loan is actually released.

New builds carry 10% VAT plus stamp duty rather than the regional transfer tax applied to resale homes, and you should also budget separately for notary, land registry, gestoría fees and the bank's own valuation charge. Once you own the property, as a non-resident you will file an annual non-resident income tax return (Modelo 210); a local tax adviser can confirm, under the double taxation agreement between Spain and the United Kingdom, exactly how this interacts with what you report to HMRC.

If you later sell, the buyer withholds 3% of the price on account of your Spanish tax, a mechanism worth remembering even at the buying stage, since it shapes how any future sale in Girona will be settled.

Off-plan projects can take a year or more to complete, during which sterling and the euro will move against each other more than once. Because you are converting funds at several points, from reservation to each instalment to the final balance, it is worth discussing currency timing with your adviser rather than treating each transfer as an isolated decision.

Remember, too, that the Golden Visa route tied to property investment ended on 3 April 2025 and is not available for new applications. As a UK citizen you can stay in Spain for up to 90 days in any 180-day period without a visa; anything longer, including time spent overseeing a build, requires a separate visa or residence permit.

Spain is a relatively short flight away from most UK airports, making regular visits to a Spanish property straightforward for owners based in Britain. Many British buyers are drawn to Spain for its climate, coastal lifestyle and established expatriate communities. One practical point to bear in mind is that Spanish inheritance law differs from UK rules, so it is worth taking specific advice on how it may affect the property and one's estate. Currency movements between sterling and the euro can also affect the overall cost of purchase and ongoing expenses.

Spain and the United Kingdom have a double taxation agreement in place, and a local tax adviser should confirm how rental income or gains from Spanish property must be declared and reported to HMRC.

As the United Kingdom is no longer an EU member state, British citizens may stay in Spain for up to 90 days in any 180-day period without a visa, and must apply for a visa or residence permit for longer stays.

Since the United Kingdom uses the pound sterling (GBP) rather than the euro, buyers should factor in exchange-rate movements and currency conversion costs when paying for a property or transferring funds to Spain.