Running costs of a home in Spain in 2026: what you pay every year

The purchase is done and the keys are in your hand. Then comes the part nobody dwells on at the notary: every year, the home costs money. Not a fortune, but not nothing either, and it is better to know every item in advance than to be surprised by a letter.

In short

For a typical apartment, a non-resident owner pays about €1,500–2,000 a year before electricity and water: community fees, IBI property tax, the municipal waste charge, insurance and non-resident income tax. Almost every item is known before you buy. For a villa, add pool and garden upkeep, and a higher IBI. Non-resident tax is 24% of a notional income for UK owners and 19% for Irish and other EU owners.

Community fees

If you buy an apartment in a development, you automatically become a member of the owners' community, the comunidad de propietarios. Think of it as a residents' association, with a pool.

The fees pay for cleaning the grounds, communal lighting, lifts, the gardener, the pool, sometimes security. The general meeting of owners sets the amount, and it depends directly on what the development has. Most fees fall between €40 and €120 a month. A block with no shared facilities sits at the lower end; a development with gardens, two pools and a concierge at the upper end or above.

What to check before you buy. Ask for a certificate that there are no debts to the community. Under the Horizontal Property Act, the home answers for the previous owner's unpaid fees for the current year and the three before it. Your personal money is not at stake, but the property itself is.

Ask, too, about derramas: one-off levies the meeting raises for major works, such as repainting the façade, replacing a lift or renewing the pipes. In an older building that has not been refurbished for a while, there is a real chance of one arriving soon after you buy.

IBI: the main annual tax

IBI (Impuesto sobre Bienes Inmuebles) is the Spanish equivalent of council tax on property. Every owner pays it, resident or not.

The calculation is simple: cadastral value × the town's rate. The cadastral value is the state's official valuation, and it is well below the market price you paid. You will find it on the previous owner's IBI bill or at the Catastro, Spain's official property valuation register.

Each town sets its own rate, within limits set by law: for urban property, between 0.40% and 1.10%. Provincial capitals, towns with public transport and some others may add fractions of a percentage point to those limits. In the city of Alicante the rate for 2026 is 0.619%.

It is paid once a year, usually in summer or autumn; each town sets its own dates. Almost everywhere there is a discount for paying by direct debit from a Spanish bank account, so set one up and forget about it.

The waste charge: everyone pays since 2025

This is a change many owners have not noticed yet.

Waste collection used to be the town's own business: some charged for it, some did not, some folded it into IBI. Since April 2025, under Law 7/2022, every municipality in Spain must charge a separate fee for waste management, including villages of fewer than five thousand people. The fee has to cover the full cost of the service: no more, but no less.

In practice: if your town never sent this bill, it does now. If it did, the bill has probably gone up.

A study of 131 municipalities put the average at about €100 a year per home. The spread between towns is wide, so treat that as an order of magnitude, not a quote.

Whether the owner or a tenant pays is set by each town's bylaw. Some let the owner pass the charge on to a tenant, but the town still holds the owner responsible.

Electricity, water and internet

The logic here surprises people used to paying only for what they use.

Spanish electricity and water bills include a fixed part: a charge for the contracted power and for the meter itself. It is billed even if you did not visit all year and never switched on a light. Hence the familiar complaint: "I wasn't there, and the bills keep coming."

How much depends on the contracted power, the tariff and the town. If you spend a month or two a year in the home, the fixed part will be most of the bill.

Internet and TV are optional, from €25–30 a month. Many owners pause or cancel while away, but providers' terms differ, so ask when you sign up.

Home insurance

Insurance is not required by law. It is required by the bank: if you have a mortgage, a buildings policy is a condition of the loan.

The average home insurance premium in Spain in 2026 is about €265 a year. Basic policies cost €100–150, mid-range €150–250, and premium cover more. The price depends on the region, the age of the building, the type of home and the cover chosen.

One point for owners who visit rarely: check whether the policy covers damage in a home left empty for long periods. Some insurers limit that.

Non-resident tax: the one people forget

This is the item owners forget most often.

If you are not tax resident in Spain and you own a home you do not let out, the Spanish tax office still treats it as giving you an income, a notional one: you have the use of the home, so you are saving on rent. The logic can be argued with, but it is the law.

It is worked out in two steps.

First, take the cadastral value and multiply it by 1.1%, if the cadastral values in your town were revised from 2012 onwards. If there has been no revision for longer, the figure is 2%.

Then tax is paid on the result: 19% for tax residents of the EU, Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein, 24% for everyone else. UK residents pay 24%; Irish residents pay 19%.

It is declared on form 210. The return for 2026 is filed in 2027, between 1 April and 31 December. A gestoría usually handles it for a modest fee, and few people enjoy dealing with the Spanish tax office themselves.

If you let the home, different rules apply: the tax is on the actual rental income. See renting out your Spanish property.

A villa: what comes on top

A detached house costs more to run, and not only because it is bigger.

A private pool: usually €100–150 a month for maintenance: chemicals, cleaning, the filter. You can close it down for the winter and pay less.

The garden: a gardener every week or two, or you with a strimmer. Summer watering shows up on the water bill too.

A higher cadastral value, which means a higher IBI and a higher non-resident tax.

Community fees may or may not apply, depending on whether the house is in a gated urbanisation with shared grounds. Where they do, they are usually lower than for an apartment, because there is less shared property.

A worked example

Take an 80 m² apartment in Torrevieja. Assume a cadastral value of €70,000: an illustrative figure; check yours on the IBI bill.

Plus electricity and water, depending on how often you are there.

Then the non-resident tax. Cadastral value €70,000 × 1.1% = €770 of notional income. At 24%, a UK owner pays €185 a year; at 19%, an Irish owner pays €146.

So this apartment costs a UK owner about €1,700 a year plus utilities, roughly €140 a month.

For a villa, add the pool and garden, and recalculate IBI and the non-resident tax from your own cadastral value, which will be higher.

What you can reduce, and what you cannot

IBI, the waste charge and the non-resident tax are fixed; there is nobody to negotiate with. The one thing you can do is pay by direct debit and take the discount where the town offers one.

Community fees depend on the development, and that is decided before you buy, not after. Pools, gardens and a concierge are pleasant, but every owner pays for them every month, including those who visit for two weeks a year. If the home is for occasional stays, a simpler development will save you real money.

Review the insurance every couple of years: the market is competitive, and switching can make a real difference. If the policy is tied to a mortgage, remember that by law you may bring a policy from another insurer with equivalent cover, and the bank cannot worsen the loan terms because of it.

The fixed part of the electricity bill can be cut by lowering the contracted power. If the air conditioning, oven and washing machine never run at the same time, you are paying for kilowatts you do not use.

What the purchase itself costs is in the real cost of buying in Spain, and the taxes at purchase in taxes and costs when buying property in Spain.

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