Buyer guide · Germany
Spanish Mortgages for German Buyers
We are independent credit intermediaries arranging mortgages in Andalucía for buyers from Germany. Your EU citizenship makes the purchase itself simple. It does not, on its own, make you a resident borrower in the eyes of a Spanish bank, and that single distinction decides how much you can borrow. We put your German paperwork into the form Spanish lenders expect and take the file to several of them. You pay us nothing.
- Independent, not tied to one bank
- No fee to you
- Everything in English
Free movement, and still a non-resident borrower
As a German citizen you can come and go as you please. There is no Schengen day limit to count, no visa to apply for, no permission needed to own property in Spain, and no cap on how long you may stay. That freedom is real and it is worth having.
The bank asks a different question. Spanish lenders sort applicants by tax residence, not by passport, and the two are not related. If your home, your job and your tax return are in Germany, you are a non-resident applicant even if you spend several months a year on the coast and even though you hold an EU passport.
The consequence is financial. A non-resident with straightforward employed income should plan on 60–70% of the bank's valuation, and 50–60% if self-employed or with complex income. A Spanish tax resident can reach around 80%. That gap is the thing German buyers most often get wrong, usually because they have been told that EU citizens are treated the same as Spaniards. For immigration purposes, broadly yes. For mortgage purposes, no. Budget on the non-resident band unless you are genuinely moving your tax residence, and treat anything better as an upside rather than a plan.
The documents a Spanish bank asks a German applicant for
Spanish underwriters are used to German files and generally know what they are looking at, which helps. What slows a case down is not the German paperwork itself but the fact that it arrives in pieces. Assemble the set before you approach anyone:
- Lohnsteuerbescheinigung — your annual employment tax certificate, normally for the last two years.
- Einkommensteuerbescheid — the income tax assessment issued by your Finanzamt, again usually two years, and three if you are self-employed.
- Gehaltsabrechnungen — recent payslips, typically the last three to six months.
- Kontoauszüge — bank statements over the same period, showing salary arriving and existing loan payments leaving.
- Schufa-Auskunft — a current copy of your German credit record.
- Passport, and your NIE once you have it. The NIE must be in place before completion, and it is one of the few items with a fixed deadline.
If you run your own business, add the last two or three sets of business accounts. Expect to be asked for translations of at least part of the file; requirements differ between lenders and between a retail branch and a department that handles international clients. We will tell you which documents need translating before you pay a translator for anything.
Your Schufa record is something you bring with you
A Spanish bank cannot see your Schufa. German credit data is not shared with Spanish lenders, and the Spanish registers a bank does consult only show borrowing held in Spain. For most German applicants that means the bank starts with no credit history at all for you, which is not the same as a good one.
So the Schufa-Auskunft works in your favour only if you supply it. A clean record, translated or at least clearly presented, answers a question the underwriter would otherwise have to leave open, and it does so at the point in the process where open questions are expensive. If there is an entry on your record you would rather explain, explain it in writing at the same time. An old dispute with a mobile provider, addressed up front, is a footnote. Discovered late, it becomes a reason to re-examine the whole file.
Worth doing early: order your Schufa-Auskunft when you start looking at properties, not when a bank asks for it. It takes time to arrive, it dates quickly, and having it in hand is often the difference between a file that moves and a file that waits.
Buying for part of the year, moving later
A large share of German buyers here are not relocating. They buy for part-year use, keep the house in Germany, and see how it goes. That is a perfectly sound plan and the non-resident terms above are what it is priced at.
What is worth knowing is that the position is not fixed. If you later move your tax residence to Spain — actually move it, with your income declared here and your salary or pension paid into a Spanish account — your profile changes, and the resident lending band becomes available to you. Refinancing an existing Spanish mortgage onto better terms is an ordinary transaction, and a mortgage taken now at non-resident terms does not commit you for twenty years. Come back to us once the residence position has settled and we will look at it again.
Whether you should change your tax residence at all is not a question we answer. It affects your German tax position as much as your Spanish one, and it belongs to a tax adviser in Germany, ideally one who talks to a Spanish adviser. We are mortgage intermediaries. We can tell you what each status does to your borrowing; we cannot tell you which status to hold.
Costs, timing and how we are paid
Andalucía charges 7% transfer tax on a resale, or 10% VAT plus 1.2% stamp duty on a new build, with notary, registry, legal fees and the valuation on top. Budget roughly 9–11% for a resale and 12–14% for a new build, in cash, alongside your deposit. The full breakdown is on our main page.
Terms of 20–25 years are typical for non-residents, with the loan usually required to be repaid by the age of 70 to 75. From a complete set of documents to a binding offer, allow four to eight weeks. The word doing the work in that sentence is complete: the clock does not start when you first make contact, it starts when the last Kontoauszug arrives.
Spanish mortgage lending is governed by Ley 5/2019, which bans tying — a lender may not make the mortgage conditional on buying its insurance or other products — while allowing bundled offers, provided the bank also quotes you the loan on its own so you can compare. We are an independent intermediary, no vinculado, paid by commission from the lender on completion. You pay us no fee.
Questions German buyers ask us
Do I still need a NIE if I am an EU citizen?
Yes. The NIE is a tax identification number for foreigners, not a residence permit, and every buyer needs one before completion regardless of nationality. You cannot sign the deed, pay the purchase tax or register the property without it, and a lender will not release funds without it either.
It is worth applying early. The number itself is straightforward; the appointments are the bottleneck, and they are the bottleneck at exactly the time of year most German buyers are here looking at properties.
Should I borrow in Germany instead of in Spain?
It is a fair question and the answer depends on what you already own. A Spanish mortgage is secured on the Spanish property, in euros, from a lender that understands the asset. Raising the money against a German property instead is a conversation for your German bank, and it leaves you buying in Spain as a cash purchaser, which has its own advantages in negotiation.
What we would not recommend is assuming one route is cheaper without pricing both. We can tell you what the Spanish side looks like at no cost to you, which at least makes the comparison a real one.
Does my German income need to be translated?
Usually some of it. Practice varies by lender: a department that sees German files weekly may accept a Lohnsteuerbescheinigung as it stands, while another will want everything in Spanish, occasionally by a sworn translator. Since translation costs money and takes days, we confirm what a specific bank requires before you commission anything rather than translating the whole file on principle.
What tax will I pay in Spain on a holiday home?
Owning property in Spain as a non-resident brings annual obligations, including a local property tax and a non-resident filing even in years when you do not let the property. There is also the question of how any of it interacts with your German return and with the double taxation treaty.
We deliberately do not give figures here, because this is not our field. Put the question to a Spanish gestor or tax adviser and to your adviser in Germany before you buy. We arrange the mortgage; the tax analysis is someone else's work and it is worth paying for.
Free assessment
Find out what you can borrow as a German buyer
One short form and we will tell you which banks are likely to lend to you, at what loan-to-value, and what it will cost — before you commit to a property or pay a reservation deposit. You pay us nothing; the lender pays our commission on completion.
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