Buying a Home on the Costa Blanca in August: What to Check Before You Sign (2026 Guide)

August is the month when most foreign buyers sign a deposit contract in Torrevieja, Orihuela Costa and Moraira — and also the month when half of Spain is on holiday: town halls on skeleton staff, agencies closed and banks on reduced hours. This guide sets out, point by point, what to check before you part with a single euro: land registry search, charges, community debts, licences, council tax, the 9 % transfer tax (11 % above one million), the 1.4 % stamp duty on new builds, and the deadlines that do not pause in August.

Why August is the month of nasty surprises

In Torrevieja, Orihuela Costa, Guardamar, Rojales, Ciudad Quesada and Moraira-Teulada, August accounts for a huge share of the year's transactions. The family is on holiday, five properties are viewed in four days, "the one" appears, and the agency asks for a 3,000 or 6,000 euro reservation to take it off the market — usually the same day.

The month is not the problem. The information gap is. The seller and the agency know the property; the buyer has just arrived. And in August the usual checks run slower: town halls work with skeleton staff, many community administrators close for a fortnight and agencies cut their hours.

The rule is simple and has no exceptions: check first, sign afterwards. Nothing in this guide takes more than a few days if it is requested in the right order.

1. The nota simple: the document that changes everything

Before signing anything — including a one-page reservation form — obtain the nota simple, the Land Registry extract. It costs a few euros and answers the four essential questions:

  • Who actually owns it. The person showing you round is not always the owner, or the only owner. Where there are co-owners, all of them must sell.
  • What exactly is being sold. Registered surface area, boundaries, and whether the storeroom and parking space are separate properties or inseparable annexes.
  • What charges it carries. Live mortgages, court attachments, tax charges, easements, resolutory conditions.
  • Whether the description matches reality. Extensions, pools or porches missing from the Registry are the number one source of later trouble.

> A registered mortgage does not prevent a purchase: it is paid off at completion and cancelled at the Registry afterwards. What must never happen is discovering it on the day at the notary.

2. The deposit contract: where the deal is won or lost

In Spain the decisive document is usually not the deed but the arras (deposit) contract signed weeks earlier. That is when price, deadline, allocation of costs and the consequences of default are fixed.

Article 1454 of the Civil Code governs penitential arras: if the buyer pulls out, the deposit is lost; if the seller does, they repay double. But this only applies if the contract says so expressly. A poorly drafted contract can turn that deposit into a payment on account and leave the buyer bound to complete even if a serious problem emerges.

Clauses that must always be there: