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

When you buy a resale home in Madrid, 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.

Madrid province is centred on the Spanish capital, an inland city with no coastline, drawing buyers focused on urban life, business connections or investment rather than beach lifestyle. Many buyers are professionals relocating for work, families using international schools, or investors targeting rental demand.

Madrid-Barajas is one of Spain's main international airports, offering extensive global connections. Property in the city centre is mostly apartments, while outer areas of the province offer houses and chalets, and demand stays fairly constant through the year rather than following a summer season.

Off-plan buying in Madrid province splits into two quite different markets. Inside the capital, new developments are mostly apartment blocks built on redevelopment plots or the last available urban land, aimed at professionals relocating for work or investors focused on steady rental demand rather than a summer lifestyle. Further out, towns around the province offer new houses and chalets with gardens, appealing to families who want more space while staying within reach of the city for schools and commuting.

Because demand in Madrid holds fairly constant through the year rather than following a beach season, developer sales calendars and instalment schedules tend to move at a steadier pace than in coastal areas, without the summer rush and winter lull seen elsewhere. Staggered payments to the developer still follow construction milestones, but buyers reserving a unit here are less likely to be racing a seasonal window and more likely to be timing their purchase around a job move, a school year, or an investment plan.

With no beach or sea view to price in, a bank valuer working on an off-plan Madrid property looks instead at location relative to the city's ring roads, metro access, and proximity to business districts for city-centre apartments, or plot size and finish quality for chalets in the outer municipalities. Because building activity across the Community of Madrid is fairly continuous rather than concentrated in short seasonal bursts, appraisers usually have more finished, comparable units nearby to reference than they would in a smaller coastal town — even though the specific unit being financed is still only a project on paper.

As with any off-plan purchase, the valuation is revisited as construction progresses, with lenders typically releasing funds against certified stages rather than the full amount up front. In a market with steady building turnover like Madrid's, this staged process tends to run on a more predictable timetable, though the property itself remains unbuilt until those certified stages are actually reached.

Buyers financing an off-plan home in Madrid as non-residents are often professionals moving for a role based in the city, families choosing the area for its international schools, or investors targeting the rental demand that a capital city sustains. Each of them needs a Spanish tax number and a Spanish account open before instalments start, and each will be asked for proof of income and existing debts from their home country, translated under sworn translation and sometimes apostilled, with the precise list of documents varying by bank.

Because demand here does not swing with the seasons, the build period itself is really where currency movements matter most: instalments spread over the construction timeline mean the amount transferred each time can vary if exchange rates move between payments. Madrid-Barajas, one of Spain's main international airports with extensive global connections, makes it straightforward for non-resident buyers to combine site visits, valuations and notary signings within a single trip as the project advances.

The Community of Madrid sets the transfer tax that applies to resale homes in the province, shown in the table on this page, while new-build purchases carry VAT at 10% plus stamp duty instead. For phased developments, a gestoría typically manages registration of each apartment or house as it is completed, since land registry entries for a building still under construction are updated unit by unit rather than for the whole project at once, and municipal paperwork can be more involved in the fast-growing towns on the outer edge of the province.

Spain's double taxation agreement with the buyer's home country applies here as everywhere else, and once the property is finished, non-resident owners file the annual Modelo 210 return. Should the home be sold on at some later point, the buyer at that time withholds 3% of the price on account of the seller's tax — a detail worth keeping in mind even while the building is still going up.

This section brings together dated, sourced data on Madrid (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 Madrid (province) before you size a mortgage budget.

According to the INE annual census, 7,113,886 people were registered as living in the whole of Madrid province on 1 January 2025. The count takes in every town and village across the province, not only its capital. Foreign nationals make up 1,181,319 residents of the province of Madrid, roughly 17 per 100 inhabitants. The figure is meaningful without being overwhelming, and it shifts noticeably depending on which town in the province you look at.

On 1 January 2025, the province of Madrid had just 10,938 British nationals on its register, a modest figure. Because registration only counts year-round residents, it leaves out second-home owners who spend part of the year in the province. Below are the main foreign nationalities registered in Madrid (province) as of 1 January 2025, taken from the figures INE publishes municipality by municipality.

This second table covers nationalities the census does not itemise separately, such as Germans, Italians, Dutch, Belgians or Scandinavians, across Madrid province. The data come from 1 January 2022, the latest INE edition with full nationality detail, a year different from the table above.

Of the 24,729 homes for sale across the province of Madrid in our price bank, the median works out at €3,830/m², with a median ticket of €360,000. That is higher than the €3,210/m² median across the 127 towns we track nationally. Among current adverts, the central half cluster between €2,750 and €5,910 per square metre; some properties are listed well below this band, others well above it.

On the median asking price in Madrid (province) of €360,000, transfer tax at the regional rate of 6 % comes to about €21,600, plus roughly €4,300 for notary, registry and gestoría fees. The total of about €25,900 must come from the buyer's own savings, not the mortgage. These are asking prices taken from adverts active on 2026-10-05, not confirmed sale prices. What a buyer actually pays is negotiated, and depends on the condition, exact location and orientation of each home.

To illustrate how varied property markets can be within a single province, this table compares the towns we monitor in Madrid by population, foreign residents per 100 inhabitants and median price per square metre.

In 05/2026, INE's experimental estimate based on platform listings counted just 13,431 tourist homes in Madrid (province), with 51,387 bed places, roughly 2 per 1,000 residents. This low figure fits a market that is predominantly residential.

Before booking, confirm that Aeropuerto Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas (MAD), the one commercial airport serving Madrid (province), has a connection from your home airport at the time of year you intend to fly, as this changes seasonally. Because Madrid is where these climate figures were measured, other parts of the province, further inland, at higher altitude or on separate islands, can feel quite different. The mean temperature in January is 6.3 °C (average daily minimum 2.7 °C) and in August 25.1 °C (average daily maximum 31.3 °C), a cold winter for this country. Buyers should budget for proper heating and insulation. Rainfall is moderate: about 421 mm a year, spread over roughly 59 days with measurable rain. All figures are AEMET's official 1981-2010 normals for the Madrid, Retiro station, about 2 km away; expect small local variations, especially further inland or at higher elevation.

INE recorded 78,375 home sales in Madrid (province) in the year to 06/2026. That level of activity typically gives buyers more comparables to judge a fair price and a broader pool of properties to choose from. These figures describe the province of Madrid 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 Madrid the general rate is 6 %, 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 Madrid 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.