The short answer is reassuring: Britons can still buy property in Spain freely, and the purchase process itself is unchanged. What Brexit changed is your status as a person — not your right to own a home. Here is the myth-busting truth about the time limits, the tax, and how to plan around both.
Let us deal with the biggest myth first, because it stops people in their tracks for no reason. Brexit did not close the door on British buyers. There has never been a restriction on non-EU nationals owning property in Spain, and Brexit did not create one. Spain places no nationality bar on who may own a Spanish home — Americans, Canadians, Norwegians, Swiss and citizens of dozens of other non-EU countries buy Spanish property every year, and since 1 January 2021 UK nationals have simply joined that group. You can buy a villa on the Costa del Sol, an apartment in Alicante, a townhouse in Murcia or a finca in the Costa Cálida exactly as you could before, and the conveyancing process is the same one that has applied for decades.
The mechanics of a purchase have not changed at all. You still obtain an NIE (the foreigner's tax identification number), you still sign a reservation contract and then a private purchase contract, your lawyer still carries out the searches at the Land Registry and town hall, you still pay your taxes and fees, and you still complete before a Spanish notary who signs the public deed of sale — the escritura — which is then registered in your name. None of that turns on whether the UK is in the EU. If you want the full nuts and bolts of how a Spanish purchase works, our guide for British buyers walks through every step; this page stays in its lane and focuses only on what Brexit genuinely changed.
Almost all the confusion comes from mixing up two separate questions: your rights as a buyer of property, and your status as a British citizen visiting or living in Spain.
No nationality restriction on owning Spanish property. UK buyers purchase on exactly the same legal footing as before — NIE, contracts, searches, notary, registration. Brexit did not touch any of this.
The conveyancing steps, the role of the notary, the Land Registry, the deposit and completion structure — all identical. The process that protected buyers before Brexit protects them now.
As a non-EU citizen you can now only spend 90 days in any rolling 180 in the Schengen area as a visitor — including in your own Spanish property — unless you hold residency or a visa.
British owners are now non-EU non-residents for Spanish tax. The non-resident rates and deduction rules are less favourable than the EU regime, which directly affects rental income tax in particular.
Hold those two columns in your head and most of the Brexit noise falls away. Owning a Spanish home is no harder for a Briton than it was in 2016. What is harder is being a Briton who wants to spend long stretches of time in that home, because you are now a third-country national subject to the same visitor rules as any other non-EU traveller. That is the real subject of this page, and the good news is that it is entirely manageable with a little planning.
From 1 January 2021, the end of the post-referendum transition period, UK nationals stopped being EU citizens and became what Spanish and EU law call "third-country nationals" — that is, citizens of a country outside the EU and the European Economic Area. For day-to-day life that label sounds dramatic but means something quite narrow. It does not affect your ability to own, sell, let or inherit Spanish property. It does not stop you opening a Spanish bank account, taking out a mortgage, or insuring your home. What it changes is the immigration footing on which you enter and remain in Spain — and that single change is the root of nearly every practical Brexit consequence a property owner feels.
Before Brexit, as an EU citizen you enjoyed freedom of movement: you could come and go, and stay as long as you liked, registering as resident if you settled. That freedom is gone. You now enter Spain as a visitor under the rules that apply to all non-EU short-stay travellers, and if you want to stay beyond the visitor allowance you must obtain residency through a visa — the same path an Australian or American buyer would take. The property does not give you the right to stay; it is simply something you own. Understanding that distinction is the key to planning your time in Spain sensibly rather than being caught out by a rule you did not know applied to you.
If you want to spend more time at your Spanish property than the visitor allowance permits, the solution is to change your status from visitor to resident through one of Spain's visa routes. This is well-trodden ground — thousands of non-EU nationals do it every year — and owning a property can help demonstrate your accommodation and ties to Spain, even though it is not itself a route to residency. The two routes most relevant to property owners are the Non-Lucrative Visa and the Digital Nomad Visa, and which suits you depends on whether and how you earn an income.
The Non-Lucrative Visa (NLV) is designed for people who can support themselves from savings, pensions or passive income without working in Spain — the classic choice for retirees and the financially independent who simply want to live in their Spanish home. The Digital Nomad Visa (DNV) suits those who work remotely for an employer or clients outside Spain and want to live in the country while continuing that work. Both grant the right to reside, both lift you out of the 90/180 trap, and both carry their own income thresholds, paperwork and tax considerations. This page is about the property purchase, so we keep the visa detail brief deliberately — but if living in your Spanish home for more than 90 days at a time is your goal, the visa question should be settled in parallel with the purchase, not after it. We help UK buyers structure both the purchase and the residency question together so they fit.
This is the change that costs money rather than time, and it catches landlords in particular. The reform is real but contained, and it can be planned for.
The big one. As a non-EU non-resident, rental income from your Spanish property is taxed at a flat 24% on the gross rent, with no deduction for mortgage interest, repairs, agency fees or other costs. EU and EEA residents pay 19% on the net rent after allowable expenses — so the gap is both in the rate and, more painfully, the lost deductions.
The mechanics are unchanged. Non-resident owners still file Form Modelo 210 — quarterly where there is rental income, annually for imputed income where the home is for personal use. Brexit changed the rate and deductions, not the requirement to file or the form you use.
If you do not let the property, you still pay non-resident tax on a small "imputed" income — a notional benefit of owning a Spanish home you do not rent out. This continues as before; what shifts is the rate band that now applies to you as a non-EU owner.
The rental-income change is the one to take seriously if you intend to let your property. Under the EU regime a landlord could deduct mortgage interest, community fees, IBI, insurance, repairs, agency commission and depreciation, and pay 19% on what was left. As a non-EU non-resident you lose every one of those deductions and pay 24% on the gross rent. For a mortgaged, actively let property the difference in the annual bill can be substantial, and it is the single most common unpleasant surprise for British owners who assumed letting would work the same as before. None of this stops you letting — it simply means the numbers must be run honestly before you rely on rental income. Our page on non-resident property tax in Spain sets out the rates, the Modelo 210 process and the deadlines in full, and we factor the real after-tax position into our advice when a client is buying to let.
Healthcare is the other area where British owners notice a difference, though for property purposes it sits in the background. As a visitor under the 90/180 rule, the old EHIC has been replaced by the UK Global Health Insurance Card (GHIC), which still gives access to state-provided medically necessary care on a similar basis during short stays. For a holiday-home owner spending occasional weeks at the property, that — backed by sensible travel insurance — generally covers the gap. What changed is the assumption of seamless EU-wide cover; you should no longer treat a long stay as automatically protected.
For anyone moving towards residency, healthcare becomes a condition of the visa rather than a convenience. Non-Lucrative and Digital Nomad applicants must show comprehensive private health insurance with full cover and no co-payments, which is a documented requirement of the application rather than an optional extra. We mention this only so it is on your radar: at the point you stop being a visitor and start being a resident, healthcare cover moves from "nice to have" to "must prove." The detail of cover belongs with the visa advice rather than the property purchase, but it is part of the same overall picture of life in your Spanish home after Brexit.
Buying in Spain after Brexit is not difficult — but it does require you to answer two questions at once rather than one. The first is the property question every buyer faces: is the title clean, are there debts or charges, is the price fair, are the taxes and fees correctly handled, and is your purchase properly protected from reservation to registration. The second is the question Brexit added: given your new status as a non-EU national, how do you want to use this home, how long do you want to be in it, and what does that mean for your residency and your tax. Answering only the first and ignoring the second is how British buyers end up surprised — by a time limit they did not know applied, or a tax bill larger than they budgeted.
Our role is to handle both together. As your independent lawyer acting only for you, we run the full conveyancing — searches, contracts, tax handling, completion at the notary and registration — so the purchase itself is watertight. Alongside that we map out the Brexit-specific consequences for you personally: how the 90/180 rule affects your plans, whether a Non-Lucrative or Digital Nomad Visa makes sense, and what the non-resident tax position really looks like if you intend to let. With extensive experience helping expats in Spain, our team of bar-registered solicitors and legal specialists explains everything in plain English. Where work falls outside a clear scope we tell you what it involves and quote for it rather than leave you guessing — extras may apply depending on the complexity of your matter. You can see the full range on our Spanish property legal services page.
Yes, freely. There has never been a restriction on non-EU nationals owning property in Spain, and Brexit did not create one. UK buyers purchase on exactly the same legal footing as Americans, Australians and other non-EU nationals. You obtain an NIE, sign the contracts, your lawyer runs the searches, and you complete before a notary — the same process as before.
No. The conveyancing process is identical: obtaining an NIE, the reservation and private purchase contracts, Land Registry and town hall searches, paying taxes and fees, and completing the public deed (escritura) before a Spanish notary who then registers it in your name. None of these steps turns on whether the UK is in the EU.
Your status as a person, not as a buyer. From 1 January 2021 UK nationals became non-EU "third-country nationals". The practical effects are a limit on how long you can stay in Spain as a visitor (the 90/180 rule), a less favourable non-resident tax position, and changes to healthcare cover. Your right to own, sell, let or inherit property is unchanged.
As a visitor, a maximum of 90 days within any rolling 180-day period across the whole Schengen area — not just Spain. Owning the property makes no difference to the count. If you want to stay longer, you need residency through a visa such as the Non-Lucrative Visa or the Digital Nomad Visa.
No. Owning a home is not a route to residency. The property is simply something you own. To live in Spain or stay beyond the 90/180 visitor limit you must obtain a residence permit through a visa, the same path any non-EU buyer would take.
The two most relevant to property owners are the Non-Lucrative Visa, for those who can support themselves from savings, pensions or passive income without working in Spain, and the Digital Nomad Visa, for those working remotely for employers or clients outside Spain. Both grant residency and lift you out of the 90/180 limit, each with its own income thresholds and paperwork.
As a non-EU non-resident you pay a flat 24% on the gross rent, with no deduction for mortgage interest, repairs, agency fees or other costs. EU and EEA residents pay 19% on the net rent after allowable expenses. The change is both in the rate and, more significantly, the loss of deductions, which can substantially increase the bill on a let property.
Yes. Non-resident owners still file Form Modelo 210 — quarterly where there is rental income, and annually for imputed income where the home is kept for personal use. Brexit changed the applicable rate and the deductions available, not the requirement to file or the form you use.
If you own a Spanish property that you do not let, you still pay non-resident tax on a small "imputed" income — a notional benefit of owning a home you do not rent out, calculated from the cadastral value. It continues as before; what shifted is the rate band that applies to you as a non-EU owner. It is declared on the annual Modelo 210.
Yes. UK buyers can still obtain Spanish mortgages. Lenders treat them as non-residents — as they did many EU buyers — typically lending a lower percentage of the property value to non-residents and asking for fuller documentation, but the door remains open and the product range is broadly unchanged by Brexit.
The old EHIC has been replaced for UK travellers by the Global Health Insurance Card (GHIC), which still gives access to medically necessary state care on a similar basis during short stays, best backed by travel insurance. If you move towards residency, comprehensive private health insurance with full cover and no co-payments becomes a documented condition of the visa rather than an optional extra.
No. Transfer tax on resale, VAT and stamp duty on new builds, and notary, registry and legal fees apply to UK buyers exactly as to anyone else. The cost structure of a purchase is unchanged by Brexit. What changed is your ongoing non-resident tax position once you own, not the one-off costs of buying.
We act as your independent lawyer, handling the full conveyancing so the purchase is watertight, and at the same time we map out the Brexit-specific consequences for you personally — how the 90/180 rule affects your plans, whether a visa makes sense, and the real non-resident tax position if you intend to let. We act for English-speaking clients across Spain in plain English and quote clearly for any work beyond a clear scope.
Britons can still buy in Spain freely — the trick is settling the property and the post-Brexit residency and tax questions together. We handle both, in plain English, across Spain. Tell us your plans and we will map the whole picture.
The information on this page is general guidance only and does not constitute legal, tax or immigration advice. The 90/180 Schengen rule, visa requirements, non-resident tax rates and deduction rules, and healthcare arrangements following the UK's withdrawal from the EU are set out in legislation and bilateral arrangements that change over time and can vary with individual circumstances. Always obtain advice on your specific situation before acting. Platinum Legal Spain is an independent English-speaking legal practice serving clients across Spain.