Who do I ask for a complete list of all costs of building a house? I like lists, I really do. Mostly because I can’t keep track of all the questions in my head. And I do have loads of questions. If I don’t know something and I find it interesting, I try and learn everything I can about it. I read loads and I search the internet and …. ask questions. For me, asking professionals about their field of knowledge is the most direct way of learning fast. So I asked each and everyone I met for their ‘complete’ list of all costs.
Building our own list
Someone who has built a house and likes lists like I do? Mmhhh, I don’t know anybody that has done this here in Spain. Even within Spain with their autonomous regions with different rules and tax percentages there has to be differences as well. So I need to find people here in Andalusia that can supply me with a complete list of all costs
We often see houses half built. Could a reason be that they ran out of money because they didn’t plan for it ? Well we don’t want that! So … we need to find someone that can help us. And of course let’s start building our own spreadsheet with all the costs we know of already.
21% IVA or 8% ITP
One of the items that was bugging me was the difference in percentages when buying land. After doing some checking it is really quite simple; IF the land you want to buy is owned by a company, you pay an additional 21% IVA (VAT), IF the land is owned by a person, you will pay 8% I.T.P. (“Impuesto de Transmisiones Patrimoniales”).
Land
Let’s start that ‘complete’ list of all costs. The ones that I know of at this very moment, when buying a piece of land are;
- Cost of the land: X
- on top of that;
- either 8% I.T.P. or 21% IVA (as mentioned above)
- probably about 3% for the real estate agent (Agente de Propiedad Inmobiliaria – A.P.I.)
- about € 600 for the notary (notario)
- here in Andalusia the property registry (registro) costs 0,15% of X, if the land is less than € 150.000
- Mod 600 AJD is another tax you pay and it’s 1% here in Andalusia
- The admin that is done by an agency working for the notary (gestoría) costs about € 500.
Mortgage
And if you need a mortgage to pay partly for the land …. you need to add the following costs as well;
- “tasación” ± € 500 valuation of the land
- “notario” ± € 500 notary (notario)
- “gestoría” ± € 400 admin agency
- “registro” ± € 500 property registry
- “hacienda” 4% taxes of the value of the mortgage
- sometimes a fee +/- € 500 from the bank to open your mortgage
All this is what I know of at this moment and it might go up or down – I plan for about 10% on top of the cost of the land (excl. IVA/VAT). As soon as we find and buy a piece of land I will update this with the actual costs.
This particular list of costs is quite small. I’m creating a more extensive list on the actual creating & building part of the house. And will supply this as soon as I can.
