Essentials · 8 min
Buying a House in Spain as a Foreigner: Our Experience
We asked to rent our house first and the owner said no. Buying it took a Starlink test, a bank we gave up on, an exam at the notary and a very full room.
Start here
Three ways in
01 — Paperwork
Essentials
NIE, residency, taxes, housing. The admin, in the order you'll actually meet it.
02 — Getting out
Everything Spain
Cities, coastlines and day trips we've done with the family, and what they cost.
03 — The family
Places
Three years of life here, written as it happened. Start at year one.
Latest
Older posts →
Living in Spain Without a Winter Depression
We didn’t know we had a winter depression in the Netherlands until our first winter in Spain, when it simply didn’t show up.
Valencia with Kids: Our Weekly Trips into the City
We found Valencia before we ever moved to Spain. Now we live near Torrent and go in about once a week - here’s what our son loves, where we park, and when we take the metro instead.
Health Insurance in Spain: Public vs Private Healthcare
Spain wouldn’t register us as residents until we had private health insurance. Three years on we have SIP cards too, and one hour in a public waiting room plus twenty minutes at a private one explain why we kept both.
The paperwork shortcut
Every guide, in the order you need it
Checked and dated, so you know what still applies before you book an appointment.
01Buying a House in Spain as a Foreigner: Our ExperienceUpdated Nov 202602Health Insurance in Spain: Public vs Private HealthcareUpdated Oct 202603Empadronamiento: Proof of Address in SpainUpdated Oct 202604Renting in Spain as a Foreigner: How We Found OursUpdated Oct 202605How to Import an EU Car into Spain Without a GestorUpdated Oct 2026
Jasper van Rijbroek
I'm a PHP and NodeJS developer who was born in Amsterdam, NL but now lives in beautiful Valencia, Spain. I work remotely full-time and enjoy blogging about everything related to this wonderful country. Let me know if you have any questions about Spain — I'd be more than happy to help!