[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":120},["ShallowReactive",2],{"content:cities:en":3,"content:service:obra-nueva:en":42,"content:lexikon:en":107,"content:pseo:en":108},[4,17,29],{"slug":5,"name":6,"state":7,"facts":8},"benidorm","Benidorm","Costa Blanca, Spain",[9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16],"The city is built around two urban beaches, Levante and Poniente, separated by the rock of the old castle; the viewpoint on top of it is the Balcón del Mediterráneo, and the old town occupies the isthmus between the two bays.","The vertical skyline is a planning decision rather than an accident: the plan approved in the middle of the twentieth century chose tall buildings with open ground between them instead of closed city blocks, which is why the seafront is a line of towers.","Buyers here read the city by district before they read square metres: Levante and Rincón de Loix to the north-east, the old town in the centre, Poniente to the south-west, inland neighbourhoods such as Salto del Agua, and the western edge where the built-up area continues into the separate municipality of Finestrat.","Tourism runs all twelve months, with a winter season of residents from northern Europe, so shops, the urban buses and medical services stay open outside the summer — which is not true of every town on this coast.","Services in English, German and Dutch are normal rather than exceptional here — doctors, banks, trades, bars — which is the practical reason many foreign buyers start their search in this city rather than in the smaller towns around it.","The TRAM narrow-gauge tram has its terminus in the city, linking Alicante in one direction and the Marina Alta and Dénia in the other. The AP-7 motorway and the N-332 coast road give road access, and Alicante-Elche airport is a little under an hour away.","The housing stock mixes buildings from the nineteen-sixties and seventies with recent schemes, so buying here means looking at the age of the building, the state of the communal installations and any approved derrama — a levy voted for works — before looking at the view from the terrace.","A large part of that stock is used only a few months a year, and it shows in the owners' associations: tight budgets, poorly attended meetings and repair decisions that drag on. The minutes of the last meeting say more about a building than its advert does.",{"slug":18,"name":19,"state":7,"facts":20},"villajoyosa","Villajoyosa",[21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28],"Villajoyosa and la Vila Joiosa are the same town: the second is its name in Valencian, and both appear in official documents, so a buyer will meet either spelling. It belongs to the Marina Baixa comarca in the province of Alicante, and its centre lies about eight kilometres along the coast from Benidorm.","The fishing port is still working and the lonja still auctions the day's catch, which is why the town's economy does not rest entirely on the summer season.","Chocolate has been made here industrially since the nineteenth century: the Valor factory and its museum are in the town, and cocoa sits alongside fishing, retail and construction in the local economy.","The painted houses along the old seafront are the image the town is known by; tradition holds that each fisherman painted his own so he could recognise it from the sea. The quarter is a protected ensemble, so façade, joinery, roof and colour are conditioned by the town hall — which changes the budget and the timetable of any renovation there.","The Roman past is visible: the Torre de Sant Josep, a funerary monument, stands just outside the centre, and the municipal museum displays the finds from the Roman town the modern one sits on.","The TRAM tram stops in the town: one direction leads to Benidorm, the other to Alicante. The N-332 runs through the municipality, the A-7 and AP-7 give access inland, and Alicante-Elche airport is around forty kilometres away.","Hospital Marina Baixa, the public referral hospital for the whole comarca, is inside this municipality — a detail that weighs for anyone buying to live here all year rather than in August.","For a buyer the practical difference from Benidorm is scale: the seafront is not vertical, the buildings are lower and new construction is far scarcer, so each individual scheme counts for more in the decision and comparable sales are harder to find.",{"slug":30,"name":31,"state":32,"facts":33},"alicante","Alicante","Province of Alicante, Spain",[34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41],"Alicante, Alacant in Valencian, is the capital of the province of the same name and the seat of its Diputación and of the provincial offices of the state administration, so a good part of the comarca's formalities end up passing through the city.","Santa Bárbara castle crowns Mount Benacantil in the middle of the city; at its foot lie the old town and the Santa Cruz quarter, narrow streets with almost no vacant plots left, where what moves is refurbishment rather than new building.","The port sits directly against the city centre and combines freight, cruise calls and regular passenger lines; the Explanada promenade and the Postiguet beach district lean straight onto it.","Alicante-Elche Miguel Hernández airport is in the neighbouring municipality of Elche, about ten kilometres from the centre, and it is the air gateway for the whole Costa Blanca, including Benidorm and Villajoyosa.","The city hosts the European Union Intellectual Property Office, and the main campus of the University of Alicante is immediately to the north in San Vicente del Raspeig; both sustain a demand for housing that does not depend on the tourist season.","Alicante Terminal station has high-speed services to Madrid and local services towards the south of the province and Murcia, and the TRAM along the coast to Benidorm leaves from the city centre.","New construction concentrates in the northern extensions and around Playa de San Juan, several kilometres from the centre and linked to it by tram, while in the consolidated districts the activity is replacement and renovation of existing buildings.","For a buyer, Alicante is the least seasonal market in the province: there is demand for primary homes all year, which is why its districts are compared on schools, transport, parking and services before they are compared on distance to the beach.",{"slug":43,"title":44,"teaser":45,"metaTitle":46,"metaDescription":47,"h1":48,"intro":49,"forWhom":50,"includes":55,"howItWorks":71,"model":84,"faq":87,"related":103},"obra-nueva","What «obra nueva» means","Spanish law calls a home new because nobody has ever owned it, not because it looks modern. That one line decides which tax you pay, which guarantees you inherit and where your money has to sit while the building goes up.","New-build in Spain: the law, the tax, the guarantees","New-build in Spain: what first transfer means, why the home is taxed under IVA instead of ITP, which guarantees the LOE gives you and how deposits are secured.","What makes a home a new-build in Spain, and what «obra nueva» changes for a foreign buyer","A new-build in Spain is not a modern flat: it is the first transfer of a home nobody has ever owned, sold by the company that promoted it. That definition, not the age of the building, decides which tax you pay, which guarantees follow the home and how your money must travel.\n\nThe Spanish term you will see on every document is obra nueva, and its opposite is segunda mano — second hand. Neither word describes the finishes. A building completed years ago that never had an owner is still a first transfer; a flat gutted and rebuilt by a private owner is not, however convincingly the advert says «a estrenar», brand new.",[51,52,53,54],"Buyers comparing a flat advertised as «a estrenar» with one sold by a developer, without knowing whether the two are the same kind of purchase at all.","Buyers who will pay instalments before the building exists and want to know where that money is legally required to sit in the meantime.","Buyers who have heard that new housing «pays more tax» in Spain and want to know which tax, who sets the rate and who files it.","Buyers who want to know whom they complain to, about what, and for how many years once the keys are handed over.",[56,59,62,65,68],{"title":57,"text":58},"New-build, resale and the words in between","Spanish law sorts homes by their place in the chain of transfers, not by their age. Primera transmisión is the sale that goes from the promotor to the first owner of that home; everything after it is segunda mano, however immaculate the flat. «A estrenar» (never lived in), «reformado» (renovated) and «como nuevo» (as new) are commercial descriptions of condition, not legal categories, and none of them moves a flat across that line. The consequence shows up in money twice: the tax you file and the guarantees that travel with the home are different on each side.",{"title":60,"text":61},"The seller of a new home is the promotor, not the builder","The promotor is the party that decides to build, puts up the land and the capital and answers for the result. It is not the constructora, which carries out the works under contract, and not the comercializadora or the agency, which show the home and are paid to introduce you. English has no clean equivalent: «developer» is close, «promoter» is a false friend, and the word on your contract will be promotor. Whoever opens the show flat may well not be the party that signs with you. The contract names one company, with its registered name, its tax number and its registry details, and that company — not the brand on the brochure — carries the obligation.",{"title":63,"text":64},"Why a new-build is taxed under IVA and not ITP","A resale home is taxed under Impuesto de Transmisiones Patrimoniales, ITP, which the regional government collects. A first transfer instead carries IVA, Spanish VAT, and the deed is additionally subject to Actos Jurídicos Documentados, AJD, a stamp duty on the notarial document. These are not two names for one thing: they are filed on different forms, with different administrations, and the rates are set by each region and each moment, so the number is confirmed by your adviser and not by a web page. Notary, Land Registry and the gestoría that files the paperwork are paid in both cases and are separate from all of it.",{"title":66,"text":67},"Guarantees start with the building, not with your purchase","The Ley de Ordenación de la Edificación, the LOE, is the building act, and it fixes three guarantee periods counted from the recepción de la obra — the formal handover of the finished works: one year for finishing defects, three for anything affecting habitability (damp, insulation, installations) and ten for anything structural. The promotor answers to the buyer alongside the builder and the technicians who signed, and a new home also carries compulsory insurance for structural damage. These guarantees belong to the property: sell inside the period and the next owner keeps what is left. The libro del edificio, the building book, is where the project, the materials and the required maintenance are written down.",{"title":69,"text":70},"Money you hand over before the flat exists","While the works advance you pay for something that is not yet in your name. Spanish law is explicit about that gap: cantidades a cuenta — sums paid on account — must go into an account kept separate from the rest of the promotor's assets and used only for the works, and must be covered by a bank guarantee (aval) or an insurance policy for the amount handed over plus interest. If the home is never delivered, repayment is claimed from the guarantor, not from anybody's goodwill. So what you ask for is not an explanation: it is the individual certificate issued in your name and the number of the account each payment enters.",[72,75,78,81],{"title":73,"text":74},"Land, zoning and the licencia de obra","Before a sales plan exists there is a plot with a specific classification in the town's plan general: which use is allowed, how much floor area and how many storeys. On that basis the ayuntamiento, the town hall, grants the licencia de obra, the building permit, which is an administrative file with a number. Both can be consulted without asking the seller's permission. A well-made 3D visualisation proves neither of them.",{"title":76,"text":77},"The obra nueva declaration, horizontal division and the Registry","During construction a dirección facultativa — the architect and the technical architect — certifies what is built. At the end they sign the certificado final de obra, and with it the declaración de obra nueva and the división horizontal are executed before a notary. That is the moment the flats stop being parts of a plot and start to exist as separate properties in the Registro de la Propiedad, each with its floor area and its cuota de participación, the share of the building that fixes its vote and its service charge.",{"title":79,"text":80},"The licencia de primera ocupación","Once the building is finished the town hall checks that what stands matches what was authorised and issues the licencia de primera ocupación, the first-occupancy licence. It is the document that turns completed works into a home that may be lived in, connected to the utilities and transferred by deed in the normal way. Without it there is a building standing up and an administrative problem, and the two should not be confused. Ask for the number and the date, not for reassurance.",{"title":82,"text":83},"When a home stops being obra nueva","The first transfer exhausts the status. The second sale of the same flat is a resale even if nobody ever slept in it, and it goes back to ITP. One detail gets missed: the guarantee periods run from the recepción de la obra, not from the date of your deed. Buying a home finished some time ago and never sold means inheriting the years of cover that are left, not starting them from zero.",{"title":85,"text":86},"What you can check yourself, and whom you ask for the rest","Public information is consulted without anyone's permission, and two registers that foreigners usually merge are in fact separate. The Catastro is the tax authority's description of the physical property — reference number, surface, boundaries, a map — and it says nothing about who owns it. The Registro de la Propiedad is the legal register of ownership and charges, and its nota simple, a short extract anyone may request, names the registered owner and lists mortgages, seizures and annotations. Zoning and buildable volume sit in the plan general published by the town hall; the licencia de obra is a municipal file with a number; and the company that will sign with you is checked in the commercial register of the country where it is incorporated.\n\nThe rest is asked of the promotor, because it is his: the dimensioned floor plan of your home with the surfaces broken down, the memoria de calidades (the written specification of materials and installations), a copy of the aval or insurance policy for the sums paid on account issued in your name, the certificado final de obra and the licencia de primera ocupación once they exist, and the libro del edificio at handover.\n\nOne more thing a foreign buyer should know before the day of signing. The notario is a public official who checks the deed and the identity of the parties and warns both sides; he is not your lawyer and does not negotiate for you. If you want someone on your side of the table, that is a separate abogado, hired by you. This list is not a guarantee we give you and replaces neither of them. When a document «is not ready yet», that is not a matter of trust: it is information about the stage the project has reached, and it should be read that way. The check applies to any promotor, this one included.",[88,91,94,97,100],{"q":89,"a":90},"Is a renovated flat a new-build?","No. If the home has already had an owner, the sale is a later transfer, however complete the renovation. The advert may fairly say «a estrenar», since nobody has lived there since the works, and the purchase is still filed under ITP and still comes without the guarantees of new construction.",{"q":92,"a":93},"Is a home nobody has lived in always a first transfer?","Only if the seller is the promotor and this is the first time that home changes hands. If the promotor transferred it earlier to another company, a bank or an investor, what you are buying is already the second sale. The useful question on a viewing is not how old the building is, but how many times the flat has been sold.",{"q":95,"a":96},"Do the guarantees run from the day I buy?","No: from the recepción de la obra. That is why it is worth looking at the date on the certificado final de obra and on the handover record before valuing a finished home that has been unsold for a while. The libro del edificio holds those dates, and with them you know how much of each period is still alive.",{"q":98,"a":99},"What is an NIE and do I need one?","The NIE is the Spanish tax identification number for foreigners. You cannot sign the deed, file the purchase tax or register ownership without it, so it is applied for early rather than in the week of signing. You will also need a Spanish bank account, because the deed has to identify each means of payment — amount, date and originating account — one by one.",{"q":101,"a":102},"What if the building is never finished?","That is what the guarantee on sums paid on account is for: repayment is claimed from the bank or the insurer that issued the certificate in your name. Which is why that paper is requested before the first payment and not after. Without it there is a transfer to a company and no route back.",[104,105,106],"itp-o-iva-en-obra-nueva","libro-del-edificio-y-garantias","licencia-de-primera-ocupacion",[],[109,113,116],{"service":110,"city":18,"title":111,"h1":112},"pisos-en-venta","Villajoyosa or Benidorm, for a buyer","Villajoyosa or Benidorm: how the two towns differ and what that means if you are choosing",{"service":43,"city":18,"title":114,"h1":115},"What a developer must show you before you reserve","New build in Villajoyosa: the six documents to see before you hand over a reservation",{"service":117,"city":5,"title":118,"h1":119},"inmobiliaria","Who sells you the flat and who signs the contract","Estate agency in Benidorm, developer or builder: who sells you the flat and who answers afterwards",1791227523714]