Who checks a Spanish property, and what each route costs

The cheapest lawful route is doing it yourself: the Colegio de Registradores charges €9.02 plus IVA per property, as at August 2026. Of the three law firms publishing a fee that day, two charged 1% plus IVA under a stated ceiling and one a flat euro fee. Pay when the register is not plain.

How we compared, and what we could not verify

We read each provider's own published price page on 26 August 2026 and recorded what it says, not what it means. A figure that was not on the provider's own site is not in the table. Where a page does not state something, the cell says Not published — that is a fact about the page, and we draw no inference from it.

Each provider's own page is named with its address in the table's final column and again under each route block, as plain text rather than as a link: we cite them to identify them, and we pass them no ranking signal.

We compared six things and nothing else: the published price, whether the tax position is stated, what the provider says the work covers, what it says the work excludes, the turnaround, and the date we read it. We did not compare quality, reputation, reviews or outcomes. Nobody can measure those from a website, and a ranking that pretends to is worth less than no ranking.

What we could not verify. No gestoría anywhere published its own price for property-purchase administration. We read four of them and found none, and the figures circulating for that route come from third-party summaries rather than from any gestor. So the gestor route is described below and is not priced.

The table

The first column of every row names the route it belongs to, because the mapping is not one to one. The table carries eight named providers across five of the six routes. The gestor route has no row, for the reason above. Route 4 carries two firms. Two firms appear with no price at all, because the absence of a published figure is itself a measured fact and belongs in the table rather than in a footnote.

What the UK government's guidance covers, and what it leaves out

The page a British buyer is usually sent to is Spain: buying and renting property on gov.uk. It was published on 22 March 2013 and last updated on 13 May 2021. It is a good page. It names the land registry extract and the body that issues it:

"you have seen the land registry extract (nota simple), available from the Colegio de Registradores (translations into English for an additional fee)"

And it gives the clearest one-line definition of independence in the market:

"We strongly recommended that you choose an independent lawyer who specialises in Spanish land law (urbanismo). Independent means that they work on your behalf only and are not also looking after the interests of the agent or developer."

Then it stops. We read the full rendered text on 26 August 2026 and counted:

• It names the documents and explains none of them. No field list, no worked example, no annotated specimen. What is inside one is on the nota simple.
• It gives no price, fee, rate or timescale for the purchase. The only percentage on the whole page is a cap on rent increases, in the renting section.
• It never mentions the contrato de arras. The word does not appear once, and it is the moment a British buyer irrevocably commits money. That moment is covered on the deposit contract.
• It never mentions the AFO certificate, or asimilado a fuera de ordenación in any form.
• It is five years and three months out of date, written four years before the regulation that now governs the NIE.
• Its disclaimer is explicit: "The FCDO and the British embassy will not be liable for any inaccuracies in this information."

That is the boundary of a free public reference, stated so that you know what you still have to find elsewhere.

The six routes

1. Do it yourself, through the official channel

Buy the nota simple from the Colegio de Registradores and look the property up in the cadastre at the Sede Electrónica del Catastro, which does not charge for a basic consultation. Choose this when the property is a straightforward resale, you read Spanish, and you want to see the register before you spend anything at all.

2. A gestor

A gestor is an administrative agent: filings, tax forms, utilities, the paper machinery around a purchase. A gestor is not a lawyer and does not give legal advice. Choose this when the legal work is already covered and what you need is somebody to run the paperwork. We could not price this route: no gestoría we read publishes a figure.

3. An independent Spanish abogado

The route gov.uk itself recommends. De Trinidad y Asociados Abogados publishes 1% of the property price plus IVA for standard purchases up to 300,000 euros, and lists the six things that fee covers and the tax analysis it does not. Choose this when the property is in Spain, you want the person acting for you to be regulated in Spain, and you can work in Spanish or with a translator.

CostaLuz Lawyers is also a Spanish firm, and it works in English with foreign buyers. It publishes a flat euro fee up to a stated purchase value rather than a percentage, which is worth knowing above 300,000 euros, where a flat fee and a percentage cross over.

4. A UK-based firm of Spanish lawyers

Jorge Iguacel Spanish Lawyers has an office in Southend-on-Sea, quotes in sterling, and publishes an itemised list of nine cost heads its fee does not cover. Choose this when you want to be able to telephone somebody in your own time zone, and when knowing the whole legal cost before you start matters more than the last few hundred euros.

5. A building inspection

This route looks at the building rather than at the paperwork. Kaitek Arquitectura publishes a banded price by floor area and a report 48 to 72 hours after the visit. Choose this when the property is old, has been extended, or when the register and the cadastre disagree about its size.

6. An automated report

CasaValidator publishes four tiers and states on the price page which layers are gated behind the higher one. Choose this when you want a fast, cheap first look before you decide whether to spend on a lawyer. It is a starting point, not a substitute for one.

Which route catches which problem

This table is our reading, not a measurement, and it is the one thing on this page that is. The table above records only what each provider publishes. This one is our own inference from those published scopes, and where a provider's published scope is silent the cell says so rather than assuming.

| The problem | What would find it | |---|---| | A mortgage or a seizure still on the register | The land registry extract. Routes 1, 3, 4 and the Full tier of route 6 read it; the published scopes of route 5 and of the Standard tier of route 6 do not | | The seller is not the registered owner | The same document, and the same routes | | The register and the cadastre disagree about the size | Routes 3, 4 and 5, and the Full tier of route 6 | | An unlicensed build, or an AFO question | Ask a lawyer. No provider on this page publishes a scope that names planning or licensing, and this site does not state the legal effect of an AFO certificate | | Community of owners debts | A certificate the community issues. No published scope on this page names it; ask before you instruct | | Damp, subsidence, wiring, a failing roof | Route 5 only. It is the only published scope here that describes a site visit | | A one-sided deposit contract | Routes 3 and 4. Two of the three firms name contract review in their published scope |

When the paid route is the better choice

Doing it yourself is the cheapest way to read the register, on the Colegio de Registradores figure current in August 2026, and it is the wrong choice more often than the price suggests. The official channel hands you a document in Spanish and no interpretation of it, and it demands that you can already identify the property before you can buy anything. If the register shows a charge, an easement or a seizure, knowing the word is not the same as knowing what it does to your purchase. If the property has been extended, the size mismatch on the register is a planning question rather than an arithmetic one. And if the contract in front of you was drafted by the seller's agent, nobody in the transaction is acting for you at all, which is the exact situation gov.uk warns about. In every one of those cases the professional fee is small against the sum being wired, and paying it is the better choice rather than the cautious one.

Who should choose what

• A straightforward resale, you read Spanish, nothing unusual on the register. Route 1, then route 3 for the contract.
• A resale, no Spanish, buying from the United Kingdom. Route 4.
• A property that has been extended, or where the register and the cadastre disagree. Route 3 or 4, plus route 5.
• An older property you have not stood inside. Route 5, always.
• You are still deciding between three listings. Route 6 first, then one of the legal routes on the one you choose.

What each of those professionals actually does, stage by stage, is on what a Spanish property lawyer does. The route comparison for the register document alone is on the Spanish land registry, and the sequence the whole purchase follows is on buying property in Spain.

We are not lawyers

We are not lawyers and this is not legal advice. Before you commit money, instruct an independent lawyer who acts only for you.

We sell nothing, we are not in the table above, and we take no commission from anybody in it.