Every buyer, and every foreign seller
If two of you buy together, you both need a NIE, even if only one pays. A foreigner selling a property here needs one too, and so does anyone who inherits a home or receives one as a gift.
Living abroad: form EX-15
A buyer whose home is outside Spain counts as a non-resident and requests the NIE by itself on the EX-15, giving the reservation or a notary’s letter as the reason. For the province of Valladolid, policia.es places NIE assignment with the brigade on C/ Gerona s/n, booked through the cita previa for Valladolid; the Spanish consulate covering your area takes the request too, and firms that request a NIE at a distance can file it for you.
If you already live here, you hold a NIE through your green certificate or your TIE. That is the number to give the notary.
Signing without travelling
Through a poder notarial (a notary-made power of attorney), a person of your choosing can sign in your place: a relative, a lawyer, a gestor (an agent who handles paperwork). You can grant it before a Spanish notary or consul, or before a notary at home, in which case it then has to be apostilled and translated by a sworn translator. Word it precisely: the property, the purchase, any mortgage.
What the keys do not give you
Owning property here does not make you a resident. The golden visa, which once linked residence to buying property, no longer exists: Spain abolished it in 2025. To move here, Europeans register for the green certificate, and others need a visa or an authorisation of their own, such as the visa for residence on your own means.
After the signing
- The deed is registered at the Registro de la Propiedad
- Utilities go into your name, with your NIE
- Non-resident owners file Spanish tax returns of their own, often through a tax adviser
- The IBI, the municipal property tax, arrives each year
- If you move here later, the padrón at your town hall