What this is. Building your own house in Spain is two years of decisions and a long list of documents that nobody explains to you until one of them blocks something. They are set out here one by one, with the rule that governs each and with what actually happens in Madrid, which is not always what you read online.
They are written by the studio that signs those documents. Where we could not verify something against the rule itself, we say so instead of filling the gap.
Three things worth knowing before you read any of it
If you have built a house somewhere else, three features of the Spanish system will catch you out, and they run through every guide on this page.
The town hall decides, not the State
The ayuntamiento of the municipality where the plot sits grants the permit, sets the tax on the works, charges its own fee and takes as long as it takes. Two neighbouring towns can differ by thousands of euros and by months on the same house.
The Comunidad de Madrid is the region and a different administration again: it writes the planning act, but it does not grant your permit.
The law puts two technicians on every house
The design and the site supervision are reserved to an arquitecto, and the supervision of the execution to an arquitecto técnico, sometimes translated as quantity surveyor. Articles 12 and 13 of Law 38/1999 on Building Regulation require both, and both sign the completion certificate.
It is not an upsell. Fran Cortés holds both qualifications, so in this studio the two roles are covered by the same team.
The house does not exist on paper until a notary says so
A finished, occupied, insured house is still not registered property until a notario authorises the declaración de obra nueva and the Land Registry records it. Until then you cannot mortgage it or sell it normally.
A Spanish notario is a public official who answers for the legality of the deed. He does not act for you, and he is not the equivalent of a solicitor.
Where to start
If you are thinking about building and do not know where the process begins, the self-build guide walks through the whole thing in ten steps, from finding the plot to registering the finished house.
Building your own house in Spain: the ten steps →
First of all: what your plot lets you build
This is the question that comes before every other one, and the only one whose answer cannot be fixed later. If you buy a plot expecting 400 m² and the by-law allows you 250, no design will solve it.
Setback, buildable area and site coverage: what fits on your plot →
The documents, one by one
Each of these documents blocks something if it is missing. They are in the order in which they turn up on a build.
Health and safety study
When the basic study is enough and when you need the full one. And why a detached house nearly always needs a safety coordinator, appointed by you.
Self-build mortgage
How the money is released in stages and which document the architect signs for each tranche. The part no bank explains.
Acta de replanteo
What the setting-out record is, who really signs it, and why the City of Madrid stopped asking for it in 2022.
Certificate of completion
Two technicians sign it, the professional body must stamp it, and it does not start the warranty periods. Three things almost everyone gets wrong.
Libro del edificio
The building manual. Madrid has three rules of its own that hardly anyone explains, and without depositing it there is no first occupancy and no entry in the Land Registry.
First occupancy licence
In Madrid it is no longer a licence, and the cédula de habitabilidad has not existed since 2018. Without this step there is no permanent electricity or water supply.
Declaración de obra nueva
The deed that makes your house exist for the Land Registry. What the notary requires and what the tax comes to in Madrid.
Construction cost calculator
Adds up every real item, with the building tax and the permit fee of your specific town hall. No registration.
ICIO and the permit fee
What your town hall takes for letting you build, in thirty Madrid municipalities, with the by-law and the article behind every figure. Between the cheapest and the most expensive there is a 9,750 € difference on the same house.
Our fees
What the complete professional team costs in this studio, what is included, what is not, and why we bill per square metre rather than as a percentage of what you spend on the build.
How these are written. Every legal statement carries the rule and the article. Where the law says one thing and practice does another, we say so. And where a figure circulates online and does not stand up, we say that too: there is a fair amount of that in this field.
They describe Spanish rules, and mostly the Madrid region and its municipalities. They are not legal advice on your particular plot, and nothing here replaces reading your own town hall’s by-law, which is what we do on every commission.
Are you building in Spain?
Tell us where the plot is, what house you have in mind and what stage you are at. If you have not bought the land yet, better still: that is the moment when the most can be avoided.
We work in the Madrid region and on the Málaga coast, and we are used to clients who are not in the country while the house goes up.