Spanish property deed types explained: every escritura an owner encounters from purchase to partition

A foreign buyer in Spain will sign several escrituras publicas before, during and after a purchase, and each one does a different legal job. The escritura de compraventa transfers the property, the escritura de hipoteca formalises the loan, the escritura de obra nueva registers a building, and several others govern partition, donation and horizontal division. All are notarial instruments: they exist only because a Spanish notary authorises them, and most must be inscribed in the Registro de la Propiedad to take effect against third parties. This guide maps every deed type an owner encounters, what each one does, what it costs, and when you need it.

What is an escritura publica in Spain?

An escritura publica is a notarial deed: a legal document granted and authorised by a Spanish notary, who verifies the identity of the parties, confirms the legal capacity to act, checks that the transaction is lawful, and records it in the notary’s protocol. The escritura is the formal instrument that gives a Spanish property transaction legal force. According to the Colegio de Registradores, the standard route to register a sale requires three steps: buyer and seller grant the escritura publica de compraventa at a notary, the taxes are settled, and the deed is presented to the Registro de la Propiedad, which has 15 working days to qualify and inscribe it. The notary you use is a free choice, the parties cannot be steered to a specific one, and the resulting deed is what the Land Registry acts on.

Which deeds does a buyer encounter at the purchase stage?

Two deeds dominate the purchase itself. The escritura de compraventa is the purchase deed: it records the buyer, seller, price, property description and any encumbrances the notary identified from the nota simple. The escritura de hipoteca is the mortgage deed, granted alongside the purchase when financing is involved. Both are signed on the same day before the same notary in a connected signing. The purchase deed is paid for by the buyer; the mortgage deed, since Ley 5/2019 reformed mortgage law, is paid for by the bank, covering the notary fee, registry fee and gestoria for the inscription. A buyer who wants to understand the role of the notary in detail can read our guide to the Spanish notary in a property purchase, and the wider process is covered in how to buy property in Spain as a foreigner.

What is the escritura de obra nueva and why does it require the seguro decenal?

The escritura de obra nueva is the deed that declares a building has been constructed so it can be entered into the Registro de la Propiedad. Without it, the registry holds only the land, not the structure on it. For a new build, the developer grants this deed after construction completes, and the buyer of an off plan property will eventually receive it as part of the chain of title. Under Ley 38/1999 de Ordenacion de la Edificacion (LOE), the notary cannot authorise an escritura de obra nueva for a residential building without proof that the seguro decenal, the 10 year structural warranty insurance, has been taken out. Article 20 of the LOE states that no escritura publica de declaracion de obra nueva may be authorised or registered without accreditation of the guarantees referred to in Article 19. This is why the seguro decenal sits upstream of the deed: it is a precondition, not an afterthought. Our seguro decenal guide covers the insurance in detail, and the snagging inspection checklist covers the handover stage that precedes it.

What is the escritura de division horizontal?

The escritura de division horizontal is the deed that splits a single building into individual units (flats, parking spaces, storage rooms) and common areas, creating the comunidad de propietarios. It is governed by Ley 49/1960, de 21 de julio, sobre propiedad horizontal. The deed records each unit’s description, the participation quota (the percentage each owner pays towards community costs), and the constitutive statutes of the community. It is the foundational document of any apartment building or urbanisation in Spain: without it, individual units cannot be sold as independent properties because the registry has no record of them as separate fincas. A developer grants it after construction, and it must be registered before individual escrituras de compraventa for each unit can be inscribed.

What is the escritura de extincion de proindiviso?

The escritura de extincion de proindiviso dissolves proindiviso, or joint ownership, where two or more parties own shares in a single property. The deed either transfers all shares to one co owner (typically with a cash payment to the others) or physically divides the asset if it is divisible. It is the notarial route to end a copropiedad, commonly used when co owners split after divorce, inheritance or a shared purchase. A related deed, the escritura de division material, physically divides a property into separate registered fincas. For background on joint ownership structures, our guide to joint ownership of property in Spain covers proindiviso and copropiedad in detail.

What is the escritura de donacion?

The escritura de donacion is the deed by which a property is gifted, typically from parent to child. It must be granted before a notary and inscribed in the Registro de la Propiedad. The tax treatment differs from a sale: in Andalusia, donations of property attract ITP (Impuesto sobre Sucesiones y Donaciones) rather than IVA, and the rate depends on the relationship and the region’s tax reliefs. A donor who gifts a primary residence to a descendant may face the same CGT exposure as a sale, because Spanish tax law treats a donation as a disposal at market value, triggering gains between the original purchase price and the gift value. This deed is less common in the foreign buyer journey but appears in inheritance planning and family transfers.

What is the escritura de hipoteca and who pays for it?

The escritura de hipoteca is the mortgage deed, granted when a buyer finances the purchase with a loan. It records the lender, the loan amount, the interest rate, the term and the property given as security. Since the 2019 mortgage law reform, the bank pays all notary, registry and gestoria costs for the mortgage deed, and the notary is chosen by the borrower from a shortlist the bank provides. The deed is inscribed in the Registro de la Propiedad, and the mortgage charge remains on the property until it is cancelled with a separate escritura de cancelacion de hipoteca once the loan is repaid.

How much does each deed cost at the notary?

Spanish notary fees are not negotiated; they follow a statutory fee schedule set by Real Decreto 1426/1989, the Arancel de los Notarios. The fee scales with the deed’s value (the property price or loan amount) and the document’s complexity, so a EUR 1m purchase costs more to notarise than a EUR 200k one. The table below shows the deed types an owner typically encounters and what drives the cost.

Deed type	When you encounter it	Who pays the notary	What drives the fee
Escritura de compraventa	Purchase signing	Buyer	Property price (arancel scales with value)
Escritura de hipoteca	Mortgage signing	Bank (since Ley 5/2019)	Loan amount
Escritura de obra nueva	After construction completes	Developer (passed to buyer in off plan)	Build value + seguro decenal proof
Escritura de division horizontal	When a building is split into units	Developer	Number of units + building value
Escritura de extincion de proindiviso	When co owners split	Parties jointly (or per agreement)	Property value being allocated
Escritura de donacion	Family gift transfer	Donee (recipient)	Market value of the gift

The fee is the same at every notary in Spain for the same deed value, because the arancel is a national schedule. What varies is the number of copies and the complexity of the escritura, which can add supplemental folios. The notary fee for a standard purchase is roughly 0.3 to 0.5 per cent of the property value, though the exact figure comes from the arancel matrix and is not a flat percentage.

What about the escritura de cancelacion de hipoteca?

When a mortgage is fully repaid, the charge does not disappear from the registry on its own. The borrower and the bank sign an escritura de cancelacion de hipoteca before a notary, and the deed is presented to the Registro de la Propiedad to clear the encumbrance. Since the 2019 reform, the bank pays the notary fee for this cancellation deed too, as part of the shift of mortgage costs onto the lender. Until the cancellation is inscribed, the registry will still show the mortgage as an active charge, which can complicate a future sale.

What is the escritura de poder and why might you need one?

The escritura de poder is a power of attorney granted before a notary, allowing someone else to act on your behalf. Foreign buyers who cannot attend the signing in person grant a poder to a lawyer, gestor or trusted representative, who then signs the escritura de compraventa in their name. The power must specify the acts it covers, often limited to a particular purchase, and it is itself a notarial deed inscribed in the notary’s protocol. It is a common instrument for international buyers closing remotely, and the cost is modest compared with a purchase deed because the value parameter is low.

How do the deed types connect to the Registro de la Propiedad?

The Registro de la Propiedad is the master record of who owns what and what charges sit on it. Every escritura above, except the poder, must be inscribed to take effect against third parties. The Colegio de Registradores sets out the standard route: grant the escritura at the notary, settle the taxes, present the deed to the registry, and the registry has 15 working days to qualify and inscribe. Without inscription, a sale is valid between buyer and seller but the buyer lacks protection if a later encumbrance or claim surfaces. The Ley Hipotecaria governs the registry’s operations and the principle that the registered title is protected against unregistered claims. A buyer who skips registration to save the fee is exposed.

What about off plan payments and the escritura?

Off plan buyers who pay stage payments before construction completes are protected by a chain that ties the seguro decenal, the bank guarantee and the escritura de obra nueva together. The predecessor regime was Ley 57/1968, which required developers to guarantee stage payments; it was derogated with effect from 1 January 2016, and its protections now live in the LOE (Ley 38/1999). The practical chain is: the developer takes out the seguro decenal before construction starts, the notary cannot grant the escritura de obra nueva without proof of it, and the buyer’s stage payments are backed by a bank guarantee that the developer must provide under the LOE. Our off plan buying mechanics guide covers the bank guarantee and stage payment rules in full.

What are the common mistakes foreign buyers make with deeds?

The most common mistakes are skipping registration to save the fee, signing a private contrato de arras instead of proceeding to the escritura publica, and not checking the nota simple for encumbrances before signing. A private contract is not a deed; it is a promise to sign a deed later, and it does not transfer ownership. Another mistake is assuming the notary checks everything: the notary verifies identity and legality, but the buyer’s lawyer should independently verify title, encumbrances and planning status via the nota simple and the catastro before the signing day. Our common mistakes buying in Spain guide and whether you need an independent lawyer cover these in depth.

This guide is general information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change and individual circumstances differ. Verify current requirements with an independent lawyer (abogado) or tax advisor (gestor/asesor fiscal) before acting.