Buying Guide

Buying is easy with Sofaris Homes

We want to ensure that the entire process is straight forward and enjoyable for our clients. Buying a property is an exciting time, whether its to live or holiday in, or whether you are an investor. It’s a big decision and we want you to make the right one.

Its important to be well informed on the important aspects of buying a property here in Spain. We have brought together the most important points in this short guide, to help you.

During our meetings and journey through the process, we will keep you up to date and give you more information whenever needed.

More than 800,000 brits have chosen to live here full time and enjoy the amazing weather, food and lifestyle. You can be one of them.

Property Viewing

You have two options with Sofaris Homes.

Option 1 – Choosing properties

You can look through our extensive but easy to use website. Many people like to search through the property pages, getting to know the details of many of the properties and making a selection of those which they feel matches their needs. This is an exciting process for many of our clients and gives a broader understanding of the types of properties available.

Option 2 – Personal Property Finder

Not everyone enjoys or has time to spend looking through property web sites and portals. For those that prefer, we can offer you a Personal Property Finder service. Whichever option you prefer, one of our agents will work with you, one to one, to understand exactly what you are looking for: The size of the property, the number of rooms, the location, the price, the style of the property and may more factors which are all important.

We have thousands of properties at our fingertips, and will select the very best properties based on your criteria. We will send you ideas and talk you through the properties in detail. We can then agree exactly which properties to view when you are here.

The Buying Process

The buying process is relatively straight forward and can be completed in a few weeks. An initial deposit is paid, and a simple reservation contract is signed when a client sees a property that they want to buy.

There are some clients who may want to extend the period between signing the initial reservation contract and the buying date. It is usually acceptable for this to be up to a few months later, based of course, on an agreement with the seller.

Delayed Purchase. There are also times when a client sees a property and they want to secure it, but are not able to make the actual purchase for perhaps another 6-12 months. In this scenario, a suitable contract is drawn up and an agreement is made that an extra payment (as well as the initial deposit) can be made at an agreed time or times to reserve the property for the future date.

The Reservation Contract

The reservation contract is the legal agreement that is signed by both the seller and buyer. This document together with the initial deposit, removes the property from the market and reserves the property in the client´s name. It stipulates the details of both parties, the agreed price and a target date for the purchase of the property.

Deposit

The deposit to reserve the property will be paid by the buyer into either our client account or your lawyers client account – the moment this is paid the property will be removed from the market. We will then work with your lawyer to check all the legal paperwork for the house, making sure that the property is as it says in the deeds, debt free, up to date with the payment of taxes, etc.

Once your lawyer is satisfied with the paperwork then and only then is the deposit transferred to the seller – giving you total peace of mind. If there are any legal issues with the property which cannot be resolved, then the entire deposit will be returned to you and any legal obligations to buy the house will be removed. It is worth noting that with some older or country properties, there maybe some details of the house or land that need updating. This is usually a simple process, for which the seller will be responsible, and can be resolved on the day of signing.

Other important parts of the buying process.

NIE number

The NIE (Número de Identidad de Extranjero) is a tax identification number in Spain.

This number is also used for your residency card and linked to your social security number in Spain. You will be asked frequently for your NIE number and you will need to keep it safe. It will be used for everything from buying gas bottles, new telephones, banking, taxes and on many more occasions.

It is similar to your National Insurance number but used much more routinely in Spain than in the UK.