REAL ESTATE – MARBELLA WOHNEN – Buying a home in Spain on the Costa del Sol as a foreigner

Buying a home in Spain on the Costa del Sol as a foreigner

Spain is one of the favorite countries in Europe to buy housing from foreigners. But, in order to buy a home in our country there are a series of requirements that must be met.

One of the first requirements is to request the Identification Number for Foreigners. Any person who wants to establish a company or acquire a property in Spanish territory must request this identification number. The NIE is carried out when the transaction is carried out through the figure of a natural person. For its part, when it comes to a legal person, the request will be to acquire the NIF.

For this reason, today we are going to focus on obtaining the NIE and its importance in order to buy a home in Spain.

What is the NIE?

From a legislative point of view, the Foreigner Identification Number (NIE) is regulated by article 206 of the Regulations of Organic Law 4/2000, on the rights and freedoms of foreigners in Spain and their social integration, approved by Royal Decree 557/2011, of April 20. As its name indicates, the NIE is a personal, unique and exclusive number that, for identification purposes, is assigned to all foreigners (both EU citizens belonging to the European Union and non-EU citizens). The objective of the NIE is to be able to identify foreign citizens. Analogous to the DNI of Spanish citizens, it is made up of a letter, seven numbers and a verification code.

And it is requested in the General Directorate of the Police.

Requests to obtain the NIE for economic, professional or social reasons may be:

• Those presented by the interested party personally in Spanish territory.
• Those that are presented through a representative in Spain. Presented in Spain through a representative.
• All those presented at the Spanish Diplomatic Representations or Consular Offices located in the applicant’s country of residence.

Different types of NIE

There are different types of NIE, and depending on your plans you must apply for one of the following options:

• A NIE as a non-resident if you are going to buy the house, but you are not going to live in Spain (that is, you will only travel to the country for that reason) and you are a non-EU citizen.
• A resident NIE if you are going to be in the country more than 183 days a year, regardless of whether you are a community member or not.
• And, if you are from the European Union, but you are only going to be in the country for the duration of the sale, you can obtain a temporary NIE.

Our recommendation is that you hire an immigration lawyer to obtain the NIE quickly and easily; since sometimes it will not be granted to you unless you adequately justify the reason why you request it.

Time of issuance of the NIE to be able to buy a house in Spain

From the presentation of the NIE application to the receipt of the certificate with your identity number (NIE) usually takes at least ten days. Said certificate will be sent to the email that was informed in the request.

If you need help buying a home and handling any type of paperwork in Spain, we are experts in property purchases and also have the contacts with legal departments to help you complete all the procedures needed to make the purchase efficiently and safely.

Marbella WOHNEN Immobilien

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