This is a website for buyers, owners, and sellers of property in Spain, offering reliable information and resources to help you get things done with confidence. It is run by Mark Stücklin, author of the Spanish Property Doctor Column in The Sunday Times (2005-2008), and the book ‘Need to Know: Buying Property in Spain’ published by Collins.
Mark Stücklin
The cost of buying a new home in Spain will jump if the Government doesn’t extend the VAT reduction on new homes, set to expire at the end of the year.
VAT (known as IVA in Spanish) is currently charged at a super-reduced rate of 4pc on new homes, having been slashed from the reduced rate of 8pc by the previous Government, in an attempt to stimulate new homes sales and deal Spain’s problematic housing inventory, as I reported here: Government slashes VAT on new homes by half, to 4pc and here: Extension of VAT reduction to apply to holiday homes.
Now that the chickens of Spain’s economic mismanagement are really coming home to roost, the present government has been forced to increase VAT on most goods and services (the normal rate from 18 to 21pc, and the reduced rate from 8 to 10pc), but has so far said nothing about the super-reduced rate on new homes.
Who knows what this silence means but to my ears it sounds like they haven’t made up their minds yet. All we can say at this point is they have failed to confirm that they will extend the super-reduced rate next year, which means that VAT on new homes (from a developer, and in some cases from a bank) could go up from 4pc to 10pc next year, pushing the cost of buying a new home worth €200,000 up by €12,000. For a new home costing one million euro, the extra VAT would be €60,000. That would be very bad news for the residential construction business in Spain, already struggling with the worst slump in its history. It will do nothing to increase the supply of quality new properties for sale in Spain.
Arild O. Gautestad says:
That would be excellent – resulting in even less new construction, and a fair competition between new and used apartments.
Sarah Drane says:
The reduced rate expires 31 December 2012 and will go up to 10% on 1 January 2013. Mind you, hardly any of my clients are selling new build – most are shifting resales at the lowest prices in a decade…
david oshea says:
hi, is the tax rate on resale set to increase from the current 7% from next year?
Mark Stücklin says:
David, it depends where the property is located. It is now 10pc in Catalonia and the Valencian Region.