{"id":34116,"date":"2026-08-14T14:53:44","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T14:53:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/francortesarquitectos.com\/?page_id=34116"},"modified":"2026-08-17T23:24:36","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T23:24:36","slug":"guides","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/francortesarquitectos.com\/en\/guides\/","title":{"rendered":"Guides to building a house in Spain"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-group fcg\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n\n\n<style>\n.fcg{\n  --surface:#fcfcfb; --ink:#0b0b0b; --ink2:#52514e; --muted:#898781;\n  --grid:#e1e0d9; --axis:#c3c2b7; --ring:rgba(11,11,11,0.10); --band:#f0efec;\n  --c1:#2a78d6; --c2:#eb6834; --c3:#1baf7a;\n  color-scheme:light;\n}\n.fcg .fcg-caja{background:var(--surface); border:1px solid var(--ring);\n  border-left:3px solid var(--c1); border-radius:8px; padding:16px 18px; margin:24px 0}\n.fcg .fcg-caja p{margin:0; line-height:1.6}\n.fcg .fcg-caja p + p{margin-top:10px}\n.fcg .fcg-nota{background:var(--band); 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color:#fff; border-radius:11px;\n  padding:26px 28px; margin:32px 0 8px}\n.fcg .fcg-cta h2{color:#fff; font-size:20px; margin:0 0 11px; font-weight:650;\n  letter-spacing:-.018em; line-height:1.28}\n.fcg .fcg-cta p{color:rgba(255,255,255,.80); font-size:14.5px; line-height:1.62; margin:0 0 10px}\n.fcg .fcg-cta .btns{display:flex; gap:10px; flex-wrap:wrap; margin-top:18px}\n.fcg .fcg-cta a{display:inline-block; padding:11px 20px; border-radius:6px; font-size:14.5px;\n  font-weight:600; text-decoration:none; border:1px solid transparent}\n.fcg .fcg-cta a.p{background:#fff; color:var(--ink)}\n.fcg .fcg-cta a.s{border-color:rgba(255,255,255,.34); color:#fff}\n.fcg .fcg-cta a:hover{opacity:.86}\n\n\/* fuentes *\/\n.fcg .fcg-fuentes{font-size:12.5px; color:var(--muted); line-height:1.6;\n  border-top:1px solid var(--grid); padding-top:14px; margin-top:30px}\n.fcg .fcg-fuentes strong{color:var(--ink2)}\n\n@media(max-width:781px){\n  .fcg .fcg-cards, .fcg .fcg-cards.dos, .fcg .fcg-faq,\n  .fcg .fcg-check, .fcg .fcg-datos, .fcg .fcg-datos.dos{grid-template-columns:1fr}\n  .fcg .fcg-cta{padding:21px}\n}\n<\/style>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"fcg-caja\"><p><strong>What this is.<\/strong> 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.<\/p><p>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.<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Three things worth knowing before you read any of it<\/h2>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"fcg-cards\"><div class=\"fcg-card\" style=\"--tono:#2a78d6\"><div class=\"cab\">One<\/div><h3>The town hall decides, not the State<\/h3><p>The <em>ayuntamiento<\/em> 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.<\/p><p>The <em>Comunidad de Madrid<\/em> is the region and a different administration again: it writes the planning act, but it does not grant your permit.<\/p><\/div><div class=\"fcg-card\" style=\"--tono:#eb6834\"><div class=\"cab\">Two<\/div><h3>The law puts two technicians on every house<\/h3><p>The design and the site supervision are reserved to an <em>arquitecto<\/em>, and the supervision of the execution to an <em>arquitecto t\u00e9cnico<\/em>, sometimes translated as quantity surveyor. Articles 12 and 13 of Law 38\/1999 on Building Regulation require both, and both sign the completion certificate.<\/p><p>It is not an upsell. Fran Cort\u00e9s holds both qualifications, so in this studio the two roles are covered by the same team.<\/p><\/div><div class=\"fcg-card\" style=\"--tono:#1baf7a\"><div class=\"cab\">Three<\/div><h3>The house does not exist on paper until a notary says so<\/h3><p>A finished, occupied, insured house is still not registered property until a <em>notario<\/em> authorises the <em>declaraci\u00f3n de obra nueva<\/em> and the Land Registry records it. Until then you cannot mortgage it or sell it normally.<\/p><p>A Spanish <em>notario<\/em> 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.<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Where to start<\/h2>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/francortesarquitectos.com\/en\/guides\/self-build-in-spain\/\"><strong>Building your own house in Spain: the ten steps \u2192<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">First of all: what your plot lets you build<\/h2>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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 m\u00b2 and the by-law allows you 250, no design will solve it.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/francortesarquitectos.com\/en\/guides\/what-can-i-build-on-my-plot\/\"><strong>Setback, buildable area and site coverage: what fits on your plot \u2192<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The documents, one by one<\/h2>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Each of these documents blocks something if it is missing. They are in the order in which they turn up on a build.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"fcg-cards\"><div class=\"fcg-card\" style=\"--tono:#2a78d6\"><div class=\"cab\">Before you start<\/div><h3>Health and safety study<\/h3><p>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.<\/p><p><a href=\"https:\/\/francortesarquitectos.com\/en\/guides\/health-and-safety-study\/\"><strong>Read \u2192<\/strong><\/a><\/p><\/div><div class=\"fcg-card\" style=\"--tono:#eb6834\"><div class=\"cab\">Before you start<\/div><h3>Self-build mortgage<\/h3><p>How the money is released in stages and which document the architect signs for each tranche. The part no bank explains.<\/p><p><a href=\"https:\/\/francortesarquitectos.com\/en\/guides\/self-build-mortgage\/\"><strong>Read \u2192<\/strong><\/a><\/p><\/div><div class=\"fcg-card\" style=\"--tono:#1baf7a\"><div class=\"cab\">At the start<\/div><h3>Acta de replanteo<\/h3><p>What the setting-out record is, who really signs it, and why the City of Madrid stopped asking for it in 2022.<\/p><p><a href=\"https:\/\/francortesarquitectos.com\/en\/guides\/acta-de-replanteo\/\"><strong>Read \u2192<\/strong><\/a><\/p><\/div><div class=\"fcg-card\" style=\"--tono:#2a78d6\"><div class=\"cab\">At the end<\/div><h3>Certificate of completion<\/h3><p>Two technicians sign it, the professional body must stamp it, and it does not start the warranty periods. Three things almost everyone gets wrong.<\/p><p><a href=\"https:\/\/francortesarquitectos.com\/en\/guides\/certificate-of-completion\/\"><strong>Read \u2192<\/strong><\/a><\/p><\/div><div class=\"fcg-card\" style=\"--tono:#eb6834\"><div class=\"cab\">At the end<\/div><h3>Libro del edificio<\/h3><p>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.<\/p><p><a href=\"https:\/\/francortesarquitectos.com\/en\/guides\/libro-del-edificio\/\"><strong>Read \u2192<\/strong><\/a><\/p><\/div><div class=\"fcg-card\" style=\"--tono:#1baf7a\"><div class=\"cab\">At the end<\/div><h3>First occupancy licence<\/h3><p>In Madrid it is no longer a licence, and the <em>c\u00e9dula de habitabilidad<\/em> has not existed since 2018. Without this step there is no permanent electricity or water supply.<\/p><p><a href=\"https:\/\/francortesarquitectos.com\/en\/guides\/first-occupancy-licence\/\"><strong>Read \u2192<\/strong><\/a><\/p><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"fcg-cards dos\"><div class=\"fcg-card\" style=\"--tono:#2a78d6\"><div class=\"cab\">To close it out<\/div><h3>Declaraci\u00f3n de obra nueva<\/h3><p>The deed that makes your house exist for the Land Registry. What the notary requires and what the tax comes to in Madrid.<\/p><p><a href=\"https:\/\/francortesarquitectos.com\/en\/guides\/declaracion-de-obra-nueva\/\"><strong>Read \u2192<\/strong><\/a><\/p><\/div><div class=\"fcg-card\" style=\"--tono:#eb6834\"><div class=\"cab\">Tool<\/div><h3>Construction cost calculator<\/h3><p>Adds up every real item, with the building tax and the permit fee of your specific town hall. No registration.<\/p><p><a href=\"https:\/\/francortesarquitectos.com\/en\/tools\/construction-cost\/\"><strong>Calculate \u2192<\/strong><\/a><\/p><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"fcg-cards dos\"><div class=\"fcg-card\" style=\"--tono:#2a78d6\"><div class=\"cab\">Taxes<\/div><h3>ICIO and the permit fee<\/h3><p>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 \u20ac difference on the same house.<\/p><p><a href=\"https:\/\/francortesarquitectos.com\/en\/guides\/icio-building-permit-tax\/\"><strong>See the table \u2192<\/strong><\/a><\/p><\/div><div class=\"fcg-card\" style=\"--tono:#eb6834\"><div class=\"cab\">What it costs<\/div><h3>Our fees<\/h3><p>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.<\/p><p><a href=\"https:\/\/francortesarquitectos.com\/en\/architect-fees\/\"><strong>Read \u2192<\/strong><\/a><\/p><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"fcg-nota\"><p><strong>How these are written.<\/strong> 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.<\/p><p>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\u2019s by-law, which is what we do on every commission.<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"fcg-cta\"><h2>Are you building in Spain?<\/h2><p>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.<\/p><p>We work in the Madrid region and on the M\u00e1laga coast, and we are used to clients who are not in the country while the house goes up.<\/p><div class=\"btns\"><a class=\"p\" href=\"https:\/\/francortesarquitectos.com\/en\/contact\/\">Talk to the studio<\/a><a class=\"s\" href=\"https:\/\/francortesarquitectos.com\/en\/tools\/construction-cost\/\">Work out what my house will cost<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rank_math_title":"Guides to building a house in Madrid and Spain","rank_math_description":"Practical guides to building your own house in Spain: permits, taxes, certificates and paperwork, written by the studio that signs them.","rank_math_focus_keyword":"building a house in spain guide","rank_math_canonical_url":"","rank_math_robots":"","rank_math_facebook_title":"","rank_math_facebook_description":"","rank_math_facebook_image":"","rank_math_twitter_use_facebook":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-34116","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/francortesarquitectos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/34116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/francortesarquitectos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/francortesarquitectos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/francortesarquitectos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/francortesarquitectos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34116"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/francortesarquitectos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/34116\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34127,"href":"https:\/\/francortesarquitectos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/34116\/revisions\/34127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/francortesarquitectos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}