Selling an inherited home in Spain

To sell a home you have inherited, you first have to become its owner on paper: accept the inheritance before a notary, pay inheritance tax (Impuesto de Sucesiones) and the municipal plusvalía, and register the home in your name at the Land Registry (Registro de la Propiedad). Only then can the sale be signed, and the sale has taxes of its own.

Here is that process in order, with the 2026 figures for Andalucía and Madrid, a worked example and a table of deadlines. It is a guide: go through it with your adviser.

What has to happen before you can sell?

While the home is still in your father's or mother's name, it cannot be sold. These are the steps; a notary's office or a gestor (an administrative agent) normally runs them:

1. Death certificate. Issued by the Civil Registry; the funeral home usually arranges it.
2. Certificate of last wills. It says whether there was a will and before which notary. It is requested from the Ministry of Justice (form 790, about 4 euros) from 15 working days after the death.
3. If there was no will, a declaration of heirs. Before the notary of the deceased's last address, with two witnesses; it sets out who inherits under the law.
4. Inventory and deed of acceptance and allocation of the inheritance. Assets and debts are listed, valued and shared out. All the heirs sign it (or someone holding their power of attorney). This is where the value of the home is decided, and that value matters a great deal later.
5. Inheritance taxes: inheritance tax and the municipal plusvalía (next sections).
6. Registration at the Land Registry.

How much inheritance tax do you pay in Andalucía and in Madrid?

Each heir pays inheritance tax on what they receive, and it is filed in the region where the deceased lived (not where the home is, unless the deceased was a non-resident). The deadline is 6 months from the death, extendable by another 6 if requested within the first 5; the extension carries late-payment interest.

For a spouse, children, grandchildren and parents (groups I and II), in 2026 the tax is almost symbolic in both regions:

Two warnings. The main-home reduction requires you not to sell for 3 years (Andalucía) or 5 (Madrid): if you are going to sell now, do not claim it or you will pay it back with interest (in Andalucía, with the million-euro allowance, it is rarely needed). And between siblings and to nieces and nephews the tax does weigh, above all in Andalucía: do the sums before accepting.

And if the heir does not live in Spain?

They still pay tax in Spain on the home (non-residents are taxed on their Spanish assets), but the file is handled by the state tax agency (Oficina Nacional de Gestión Tributaria), not by the Junta de Andalucía or the Madrid region. Since the European Court ruling of 2014 and Ley 26/2014 (a 2014 tax reform law), they can apply the rules of the region where the deceased lived, and since 2022 that option no longer depends on living in the European Union: a son living in London or Buenos Aires inherits the flat in Estepona with the Andalucían allowance. If they live outside the EU or the European Economic Area, they must appoint a tax representative in Spain.

What is the municipal plusvalía on an inheritance?

The town hall where the home is charges the plusvalía (IIVTNU, a tax on the rise in land value) on how much the value of the land has risen while the deceased owned it. On inheritances the heir pays it, within 6 months of the death, extendable to one year. The calculation is the same as on a sale: it is in what taxes you pay when you sell your home.

The law allows each town hall to grant a bonus of up to 95 per cent when a spouse, children or parents inherit, and it is almost always on request: if you do not claim it in the self-assessment, it is not applied.

• Estepona keeps a 95 per cent bonus for heirs, claimed in the self-assessment itself (article 10 of its ordinance). In recent years it has required conditions such as having lived with the deceased; confirm the current requirements before counting on it.
• Madrid city grants a bonus on the deceased's main home according to the cadastral value of the land: 95 per cent up to 60,000 euros, 85 up to 100,000, 70 up to 138,000 and 40 above that.
• Marbella, Benahavís, Mijas and the rest have their own ordinances.

And when you sell the home, the plusvalía is paid again, this time for the period from the death to the sale. Before a year has passed, the coefficient is prorated by full months; selling in the same month, it comes out at zero.

Why does the inheritance have to be registered before selling?

The Land Registry will not register the inheritance without proof of inheritance tax and plusvalía (article 254 of the Ley Hipotecaria, the Mortgage Act), and the notary of the sale will not sign unless the sellers appear as owners. Registration takes about 15 working days. Allow for it when setting dates with the buyer: a well-run inheritance takes between 3 and 6 months from the death until the home is ready to sell.

What changes when you sell an inherited home?

Once the home is sold, each heir declares the gain on their share in their income tax (IRPF, or the non-resident equivalent if they live abroad). And this is the key: the acquisition value is not what your parents paid, but the value you declared for inheritance tax, dated on the day of the death. Since 2022 that value is at least the Cadastre's reference value (valor de referencia); if you declare more (up to market value), the declared figure stands. To that value you add the inheritance tax, the plusvalía, the notary and the registry of the inheritance.

That is why valuing the inheritance properly saves tax later: in Andalucía and Madrid, with the 99 per cent bonus, declaring the home at its market value costs almost nothing in inheritance tax and cuts the gain that will be taxed in the IRPF; whoever sticks to the reference value, which usually sits below the market, pays the difference when selling. Back the figure with a valuation or an appraisal dated at that time.

With several heirs

• Everyone signs the sale, in person or with a notarial power of attorney (from abroad, before a local notary with an apostille, or at the consulate).
• An heir can sell their share to another heir or to a third party, but the others have one month's right of redemption and buyers of shares pay well below market. The usual solution is for one to keep the home and compensate the others (an extinción de condominio, which is taxed less than a purchase).
• If one does not want to sell, any of them can ask for the division of the common property: as a flat cannot be split, the judge orders a sale by auction, with costs and at a worse price. Negotiating almost always pays.

The worked example

A son inherits his mother's flat in Estepona, which she bought 25 years ago. The Cadastre's reference value is 180,000 euros, but an appraisal puts it at 220,000 euros, and he declares 220,000.

• Inheritance tax (Andalucía): 220,000 minus the 1,000,000 allowance: base of zero. Tax: 0 euros.
• Plusvalía on the inheritance: cadastral land value of 60,000 euros, 25 years, coefficient 0.40: base of 24,000 euros at 20 per cent, 4,800 euros. With the 95 per cent bonus, 240 euros.
• Notary and registry of the inheritance: about 1,500 euros.

Eighteen months later he sells for 260,000 euros.

• Plusvalía on the sale: one full year, coefficient 0.15: base of 9,000 euros at 20 per cent, 1,800 euros.
• IRPF. Acquisition value: 220,000 + 240 + 1,500 = 221,740 euros. Selling costs (agency at 5 per cent plus VAT, plusvalía, energy certificate): 17,630 euros. Transfer value: 242,370 euros. Gain: 20,630 euros. Tax: 6,000 at 19 per cent (1,140) + 14,630 at 21 (3,072): 4,212 euros.

Had he declared only the 180,000 euro reference value, the gain would be 60,630 euros and the tax 12,825 euros: more than 8,600 euros of difference because of one figure in the inheritance deed.

What costs and documents does the sale involve?

The same as any sale: nota simple (the Land Registry extract), energy certificate, IBI receipt (the property tax), community certificate, mortgage cancellation, agency fees. The full list is in documents to sell a home. Three situations that are common in inherited homes:

• With a tenant. The lease continues with the buyer until it expires. Before selling you must notify the tenant of the price and terms: they have 30 calendar days of first refusal (article 25 of the LAU, the tenancy act) and the notice is valid for 180 days.
• With a mortgage. The debt is inherited with the home. Ask the bank for the outstanding debt; it is cancelled out of the price at the same signing, as in any sale.
• The older house. Many parents' homes have no occupancy licence, have extensions built without a licence or a registered floor area that differs from the real one, and the buyer's bank will see it in the valuation. Before listing it, have an architect review the planning situation and say what can be regularised (a declaration of new build by age, a technical certificate or, on rural land, the AFO recognition, which does not legalise but lets you sell with guarantees). It is the approach we bring to our projects, and it keeps the sale from collapsing at the notary.

The deadlines, in one table