Buying property in Majorca: 10 steps from NIE to Land Registry (2026)

You buy a flat in Mallorca in ten steps: NIE number, Spanish bank account, land registry extract (nota simple), holiday-rental check, preliminary contract (arras), deed (escritura) at the notary, 3% withholding when buying from non-residents, ITP transfer tax, Land Registry entry, then annual taxes. All rates come from Spanish laws and authorities, as of October 2026.

This guide is general information, not legal or tax advice.

The 10 steps at a glance

1. Apply for an NIE

The NIE (Número de Identidad de Extranjero) is the Spanish identity number for foreigners. You apply for it in Spain at the foreigners' office or the police, or at the responsible Spanish consulate abroad, using application form EX-15 and the fee form Modelo 790 Código 012 (Consulate General in Frankfurt). The examples below refer to the Spanish consulates in Germany; fees and processing times at other consulates may differ.

• Cost: Frankfurt €9.84 (€7.31 for an update), Berlin "currently" €13.05, in each case payable by card (Embassy in Berlin/Information%20zur%20NIE%20auf%20Deutsch.pdf)). Neither page gives a date.
• Time: Frankfurt states "at least four months" from requesting an appointment to receiving the NIE by email. Berlin states a processing time of "about 2–3 weeks" at the foreigners' office in Spain.
• Responsible for: Frankfurt covers Hesse, Saarland and Rhineland-Palatinate; Berlin covers Berlin, Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony and Thuringia.

2. Open a Spanish bank account

To open an account as an EU citizen, you show your passport or identity card together with your NIE. If you do not live in Spain, you have to prove this with documents (Banco de España).

• Documents: passport or identity card, NIE, proof of non-resident status
• Good to know: Under anti-money-laundering rules, the bank can ask for proof of where the money comes from.
• Source dated: 9 March 2021

3. Get a land registry extract (nota simple)

The nota simple informativa is an information extract from the Land Registry (Registro de la Propiedad). According to the registrars' official fee scale, it costs €3.01 per property (finca) (€3.005061), however many entries the registry page has (BOE, RD 1427/1989, Anexo II no. 4.1 f).

• Cost: €3.01 per finca (fee scale as of 17 November 2011)
• When: ideally before the preliminary contract

4. Check the holiday-rental rules before you buy

If you want to let the flat to holidaymakers later, you need to check this before you buy. Since Decreto-ley 4/2025, no new holiday rentals may be registered for flats in buildings under shared ownership (propiedad horizontal) anywhere in the Balearic Islands. Terraced and semi-detached houses are exempt, as is letting your own main home (BOE, DL 4/2025, Disposición adicional segunda).

• Registration: Holiday rentals need a Declaración responsable (DRIAT, a declaration that the tourist activity is starting), only in zones expressly designated for this, with purchased bed places (plazas) and an energy certificate of at least F (buildings up to the end of 2007) or D (from 2008) (BOE, Ley 8/2012, art. 50).
• Your own main home: at most 60 days a year, again only in designated zones (art. 50.20)
• Good to know: No new holiday rentals are allowed on protected rural land (suelo rústico protegido). The Consell de Mallorca is responsible; in Palma the city council sets the zones.

5. Preliminary contract with deposit (contrato de arras)

The preliminary contract (contrato de arras) is a private contract with a deposit (arras). With a deposit, either side can withdraw from the purchase: the buyer by losing the deposit, the seller by paying it back twice over (BOE, Código Civil, art. 1454).

• Cost: freely agreed; the law does not set an amount
• Notary: is not involved in the preliminary contract, but according to the notaries' council will explain its content free of charge (Consejo General del Notariado)
• Good to know: A preliminary contract is not mandatory.

6. Deed of sale at the notary (escritura pública)

The transfer of ownership of a property must be set out in a public deed, the escritura pública, which is signed before a notary (BOE, Código Civil, art. 1280). Unless agreed otherwise, the seller pays for the deed itself, and the buyer pays for the first copy and all costs after that (art. 1455).

• Notary fees: €90.15 for a price up to €6,010.12; above that, falling rates per thousand (4.5‰ to 0.3‰); freely agreed from €6,010,121.04; a 5% discount on everything (BOE, RD 1426/1989, Anexo I no. 2.1; as of 17 November 2011)
• Energy certificate: A copy of the registered energy certificate, including its label, is attached to the contract of sale. It is valid for at most 10 years, or 5 years for class G (BOE, RD 390/2021, art. 13 and 17).
• Plusvalía: The municipal capital gains tax on land (plusvalía municipal) is paid by the seller if nothing is agreed in the preliminary contract or if it says "según Ley" (according to law) (Consejo General del Notariado).

7. Seller does not live in Spain: withhold 3%

If you buy from someone who is not tax resident in Spain (a non-resident), you withhold 3% of the price and pay it to the Spanish tax agency AEAT. This is an advance payment on the seller's tax (AEAT).

• Form: Modelo 211
• Deadline: within one month of the transfer (AEAT, Instrucciones Modelo 211)
• Good to know: The seller pays 19% tax on the capital gain (BOE, RDLeg 5/2004, art. 25).

8. Pay the transfer tax: ITP, or IVA and AJD

For a resale flat you pay the Balearic ITP (Impuesto sobre Transmisiones Patrimoniales, property transfer tax). The rate is banded: 8% up to €400,000, then 9%, 10% and 12% on the part above, and 13% from €2,000,000.01 (BOE, DL 1/2014, art. 10 a). If you buy new from the developer, instead of ITP you pay 10% VAT (IVA) and 1.5% stamp duty AJD (Actos Jurídicos Documentados) (BOE, Ley 37/1992, art. 91).

• Return: self-assessment with Modelo 600 at the Balearic tax agency (ATIB)
• Deadline: ITP and AJD within one month of signing the contract (DL 1/2014, art. 82)
• Reductions: The 4%, 2% and 100% relief apply only to your main home (vivienda habitual). So they do not apply to a second home only; details in the table below.

9. Entry in the Land Registry

Finally, the change of ownership is entered in the Registro de la Propiedad. The fee depends on the value: €24.04 up to €6,010.12, above that falling rates per thousand from 1.75‰ to 0.20‰, at most €2,181.67 in total (BOE, RD 1427/1989, Anexo II no. 2).

• Cost: at least €24.04, at most €2,181.67 (as of 17 November 2011)
• Time: not stated in the source

10. Annual taxes: IBI and non-resident tax

The property tax IBI (Impuesto sobre Bienes Inmuebles) is paid by whoever owns the property on 1 January (Ajuntament de Palma). Each town council sets the rate; for urban property the law allows 0.4 to 1.10% of the cadastral value (BOE, RDLeg 2/2004, art. 72). We could not confirm the rate for Palma in 2026, as the city's tax bylaw was not accessible to us.

• IBI in Palma: collected by the ATIB, payment period 2026 from 15 September to 1 December (ATIB)
• Flat for your own use: As a non-resident, you pay tax on a notional rent (renta imputada) of 2% of the cadastral value, or 1.1% for revised values, at 19% (EU/EEA) or otherwise 24% (BOE, Ley 35/2006, art. 85; RDLeg 5/2004, art. 25)
• Return: Modelo 210. For 2025 from 1 January to 31 December 2026; from tax year 2026 onwards from 1 April to 31 December of the following year. You declare rental income from 1 to 20 April of the following year (AEAT).

Taxes and fees when buying

The ITP rates are in the consolidated text of DL 1/2014 (BOE); the ATIB has published the value limit of €331,859.70 for Mallorca (ATIB). We found no new ITP or AJD rates for 2027 in official sources.

Adopted but not yet confirmed: RDL 29/2026

On 7 October 2026 Spain published Real Decreto-ley 29/2026 (BOE). A decree-law of this kind must be confirmed by parliament (convalidación). As of 24 October 2026, the BOE did not record this confirmation. The following changes have therefore been adopted but not yet confirmed:

• From 1 December 2026: new maximum values for calculating the plusvalía (BOE, RDLeg 2/2004, art. 107.4) and 10% IVA on furnished holiday rentals of up to 30 nights to the same tenant.
• From 1 January 2027: The notional rent for non-residents will be banded at 1.1%, 1.5%, 2% or 3%, depending on the total cadastral value (BOE, Ley 35/2006, art. 85.1).
• IBI surcharge on holiday homes: Town councils in stressed housing markets can add up to 50%, up to 100% from two holiday homes and up to 150% from four. Each town council decides this for itself (RDLeg 2/2004, art. 72.4 ter).

Where our information comes from

All rates, fees and deadlines come from the consolidated legal texts in the Spanish official gazette BOE, from the Balearic tax agency (ATIB), the Spanish tax agency (AEAT), the Banco de España, the notaries' council and the Spanish consulates in Frankfurt and Berlin, accessed on 24 October 2026. We deliberately did not use estate agents', lawyers' or banks' websites. We have put the steps in the order of the purchase, from the first visit to an authority to the first tax return.