Mortgage Offer Validity New Build Spain: timing after 24 months
You sign today. The bank decides in two years. Your money sits in between. That time lag is the real risk in a Spanish off-plan purchase — and it can be contained.
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 — BAFA-notified for Spain, in Portugal through a locally licensed intermediary. This information does not replace legal or tax advice.
When do I need the mortgage approval before the notary appointment?
As late as possible and as early as necessary — and those are not in conflict. Spanish mortgage offers are valid for a limited period, usually three to six months, while an off-plan build runs two to three years. An approval issued when you sign the private contract would have expired long before completion, and the tasación it rests on is only carried out shortly before handover anyway. What is both possible and necessary at contract stage is different: a robust assessment of financeability based on your self-disclosure — the question of whether your case will still work in two years. The binding offer follows roughly two to three months before the notary appointment. The gap in between is where your risk sits: income, interest rates and lending policy can all move. The condición suspensiva in the private contract is the instrument that absorbs it.
What happens when
- Reservation. Small sum, unit off the market. Refundability is set out in the document — or it is not.
- Private contract. This is where it becomes binding. Payment plan, completion date, protection of instalments, financing clause.
- Construction, 18–36 months. Instalments against milestones, all from your own funds.
- Completion, occupancy licence, land registry entry. Only now does a lendable asset exist.
- Escritura. Deed of sale and mortgage deed before the notary — valuation, credit assessment and approval sit immediately before it.
What can change in two years
Between your signature and the bank's decision, much can move: the rate environment, your income, the bank's valuation practice, the value of the property, lending policy towards non-residents. The bank assesses at the end — on the position as it then stands.
If the approval comes in lower than planned, the buyer must cover the difference from their own funds. If it fails entirely, the private contract still binds, and without an effective financing clause the money already paid is exposed.
Four things to settle before signing
- Financing clause in the private contract: by when approval must be in place, for what minimum amount, how a refusal is evidenced, and what then happens to the instalments paid.
- Indicative review before the private contract, not after. It is non-binding, but it shows whether the plan holds in your situation.
- Headroom. Do not calculate to the last euro. If the tasación comes in below the price, lending is measured against the lower figure.
- Delay clause with a hard right of withdrawal after a defined overrun of the completion date.
The clause itself belongs with a Spanish lawyer. What it must contain to hold up financially is something we discuss beforehand.
Frequently asked questions
Can I lock in today's rate for the future?
What is a condición suspensiva?
How long does approval take at the end?
What if construction is delayed?
More on the construction phase
Checklist: what must be checked before the first instalment
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Checklist: what must be checked before the first instalment →Why Spanish banks do not finance the construction phase
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Why Spanish banks do not finance the construction phase →Financing the instalments to the developer
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Financing the instalments to the developer →Subrogación: take over the developer's mortgage, or redeem it?
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Subrogación: take over the developer's mortgage, or redeem it? →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.