What to check before you sign the Spanish private contract
Once the private contract is signed, the leverage is gone. Everything listed here belongs before that moment, not after.
Author & regulatory separation. Content author: Siegfried Perini. Mortgage brokerage in Spain and Portugal is carried out under the §34i GewO licence held by Olga Nikushkina; in Portugal through a locally licensed intermediary. This information does not replace legal or tax advice.
In short
Am I bound to the developer's bank?
The private contract with a Spanish developer binds. What must be settled beforehand — protection, licence, financing clause, equity plan.
Is the developer's lawyer enough?
No. They act for the developer. Your own independent Spanish lawyer is not optional on an off-plan purchase.
When should I start on the financing?
Before the private contract. An indicative review shows whether the plan holds; afterwards it merely confirms what you already owe.
What should you settle before signing an off-plan contract in Spain?
Everything that stops being negotiable afterwards. Seven points in practice: the NIE and a Spanish bank account applied for, since both take time; a robust view of financeability based on your self-disclosure; cover for the instalments by aval bancario or seguro de caución, produced before the first payment; the development's building licence; a payment schedule you can service without a bank; a condición suspensiva tying the contract to the financing; and an equity plan that reaches all the way to handover, not just to the first instalment. That last point is missing from almost every set of advice. Once you have signed, the leverage is gone: the contrato de arras typically binds 10 per cent of the purchase price, and without a financing condition that money is lost if the bank later says no.
Protection and licence
- Building licence (licencia de obra mayor) granted and in force — not "applied for".
- Bank guarantee or surety insurance for every instalment, in your name. Aval bancario versus surety insurance.
- Dedicated account named in the contract.
- Developer checked: commercial register, completed projects, liquidity. A first project is a different risk from a twentieth.
- Nota simple for the plot: owner, charges, no surprises.
What must be in it
- Financing clause: deadline, minimum amount, how a refusal is evidenced, and the consequence for instalments already paid.
- Completion date with delay clause and a hard right of withdrawal after a defined overrun.
- Final price, not "from". Including parking, storeroom, upgrades.
- Specification (memoria de calidades) as part of the contract, signed page by page.
The equity plan almost nobody draws up
- Total of all instalments up to handover — that is your equity requirement during the build.
- Plus purchase costs at completion (IVA/AJD, notary, registry, advice).
- Minus what is genuinely available — not what is "there in principle".
- The difference is the gap. It has three possible answers: own funds, borrowing against German property — or no off-plan purchase.
This calculation takes half an hour. Doing it afterwards costs considerably more.
Frequently asked
Is the developer's lawyer enough?
When should I start on the financing?
Can I withdraw from the private contract?
What does the initial consultation cost?
More on the construction phase
Aval bancario & seguro de caución
New-build in Spain — let us work through the construction phase together
I check which part of the price has to come from your own funds, what a German bank can raise against existing property, and what the Spanish bank takes on at completion — free of charge, no upfront cost.