Spanish mortgages for US citizens: the complete guide

Last reviewed August 2026

Yes, Americans can get a mortgage in Spain. You do not need to be a resident, you do not need a visa, and you do not need Spanish income. What you do need is to understand how Spanish banks read an American file, because it is different from a US mortgage application in almost every way that matters: your credit score is invisible, your dollars get treated cautiously, and a US law called FATCA quietly decides which banks want your business at all.

This guide covers all of it: the numbers, the paperwork, how a Spanish closing differs from an American one, the tax picture on both sides of the Atlantic, why buying through your LLC is usually the wrong move, and how to do the whole thing without leaving the US.

Can Americans get a mortgage in Spain?

Yes. Spanish banks lend to non-residents of every nationality, and being American does not change your eligibility. What matters to the bank is your income, your existing commitments and the property itself.

On top of the price, budget roughly 9 to 14% of it again for taxes and costs depending on the region. All of it is itemised before you commit to anything, and the worked example below puts real numbers on a real purchase.

Does your US credit score matter to a Spanish bank?

No, and this surprises almost everyone. Spanish banks cannot pull US credit files and do not use FICO scores. Spain does not even have a credit score of its own; banks check a debt register and a defaults blacklist, neither of which knows you exist. Our guide to how credit works in Spain covers the system properly.

For an American application, you supply your own recent US credit report, and an underwriter reads it the Spanish way: they are looking for missed payments, defaults and heavy revolving debt, not a number. A clean history helps; an 820 score by itself changes nothing. What replaces the score is paper: your income, your tax returns and your existing debts, reconstructed from documents.

Why are some Spanish banks cautious with American clients?

The honest answer is FATCA, the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act. It requires banks everywhere in the world to identify accounts held by US persons and report them to the IRS. That reporting carries real compliance costs, and some smaller Spanish banks have decided American clients are not worth the administration, so they decline them outright. The larger Spanish lenders are fully set up for FATCA and take American files as a matter of routine.

Expect to be asked for your Social Security Number and possibly an IRS Form W-9 when your Spanish bank account is opened; that is normal, not a red flag.

How do Spanish banks read dollar income?

Your Spanish mortgage will be in euros while your income is in dollars, and the bank has to think about what happens if the exchange rate moves against you. In practice banks assess dollar income conservatively; some effectively count a portion of it rather than all of it when they run affordability against the 40% debt-to-income ceiling Spanish banks work to. That is the same treatment every non-euro earner gets, and a solid US salary normally absorbs it comfortably.

You have legal protection here too. Spain’s mortgage law (Ley 5/2019) is one of the more borrower-friendly regimes in Europe, and for loans with a genuine foreign currency element it gives the borrower a statutory right to convert the loan into the currency of their income or residence. The same law requires the bank to give you a binding written offer, the FEIN, followed by a 10-day reflection period before you can sign, so nobody gets rushed into a Spanish mortgage.

A worked example: a dollar salary buying a EUR 400,000 home

For instance, a couple in Texas with a joint take-home income of 10,400 dollars a month (about EUR 8,900), buying a EUR 400,000 apartment on the Costa del Sol to use as a vacation home now and possibly more later.

Two things to notice. The debt-to-income test passes easily even with dollar income assessed conservatively. And the EUR 156,000 covers everything: the 30% of the price the mortgage does not reach, plus every tax and fee. There are no hidden extras beyond that number if the file is set up properly.

Should you buy through your LLC?

Asked by American buyers more than any other nationality, so here is the straight answer: almost certainly not, if you want a mortgage.

• Spanish banks do not mortgage residential property to foreign LLCs. Non-resident lending is built around individuals with provable personal income. Put the property in an LLC and the financing conversation is over before it starts.
• The liability logic does not transfer. The LLC habit comes from US rental portfolios. For a Spanish holiday home, Spanish law already limits your exposure in the ways that matter, and the lawyer checking the purchase is protecting you personally.
• The tax treatment gets messy, not better. Spain taxes property held by non-resident entities on unfriendly terms, and the US side adds its own reporting for the entity. Two accountants instead of one, for no financing and no real protection.

Nearly every American client of ours buys in their personal name, or jointly with a spouse, and that is what the rest of this guide assumes. If you have a genuine structuring need (an estate plan, several investment properties), raise it in a first call and we will bring the legal team in properly.

How is buying in Spain different from an American closing?

The mechanics will feel foreign, so here is the translation table.

What documents will you need?

Spanish banks want to reconstruct your finances from paper, and for a US applicant the file usually looks like this:

What taxes should American buyers plan for?

No surprises is the rule, and for Americans there are two tax systems in the picture, because the US taxes its citizens wherever they live and wherever the property is.

The Spanish side

• When you buy: resale property carries a regional transfer tax (ITP), 7% in Andalusia and from 6% up to 13% at the top end elsewhere; new builds carry 10% VAT plus stamp duty of around 1.2%. Notary, registry and legal fees add roughly another 2%.
• Every year: IBI, the municipal property tax, plus Spain’s imputed income tax on a non-resident’s property even if it sits empty; for non-EU owners including Americans that is charged at 24% of a small notional figure. If you rent the property out, rental income is taxed at 24% flat on the gross for non-EU owners, with no deduction of expenses, which belongs in your yield maths from day one.
• When you sell: capital gains tax at 19% for non-residents, with the buyer withholding 3% of the price against it, plus the municipal plusvalia.

The US side

• Owning the property does not itself trigger FBAR or FATCA asset reporting, but the Spanish bank account you will open alongside it can, once your foreign accounts together exceed 10,000 dollars at any point in the year. The filing is simple; forgetting it is expensive.
• Rental income goes on both returns. Spain taxes it first, the US taxes it too, and the US-Spain tax treaty plus the foreign tax credit exist precisely so you do not pay twice on the same euro. The same logic applies to capital gains when you sell.
• Talk to your CPA before you buy, not after. We handle the Spanish side and coordinate with them where useful.

What does a Spanish home cost to run each year?

American buyers consistently overestimate this, because they are anchored to US property tax. IBI, the Spanish equivalent, is charged on the cadastral value, an official figure usually well below what you paid, and for a EUR 400,000 apartment it typically lands in the hundreds of euros a year, not the thousands. A similar-value home in Texas often carries 6,000 to 8,000 dollars a year in property tax. Spain is not the expensive one here.

Why would a wealthy buyer take a mortgage at all?

At larger budgets, this is the section that matters more than the interest rate. Spain taxes wealth: non-resident owners can fall into the regular wealth tax net, and a state solidarity tax applies to Spanish net wealth above EUR 3 million, at 1.7% to 3.5% on the slice above, in every region including Andalusia. The key mechanic is that these taxes are charged on your net Spanish wealth, and a mortgage taken to buy the property reduces the taxable base. A EUR 4 million villa, two ways:

The capital stays invested in your US portfolio, the euro debt is serviced from income or returns, and the Spanish tax base shrinks. Debt taken at purchase clearly reduces the taxable base; a mortgage added years later has been argued both ways with the tax office, so it is a decision to make once, at purchase, with the numbers in front of you. Your tax adviser confirms the fit; the figures above are illustrations, not advice.

Should you borrow against your US home instead?

Many American buyers’ first instinct is to tap the equity in their US home, a cash-out refinance or a HELOC, and arrive in Spain as a cash buyer. Sometimes that is right: cash closes faster and negotiates harder. But run the comparison before you default to it.

• The rate gap is real. The average US 30-year fixed sits around 6.7% right now, and home-equity credit lines cost more still, while Spanish fixed mortgages are commonly agreed at around half that. Borrowing in euros against the Spanish property is currently much the cheaper money.
• Only a Spanish mortgage shrinks Spanish taxes. The wealth-tax mechanics above work with debt secured on the Spanish property. A HELOC on your house in Ohio leaves your Spanish taxable base untouched.
• Your US home stays clear. If you locked a low US rate years ago, refinancing out of it into money costing twice as much, to feel like a cash buyer in Spain, is an expensive comfort.

Some clients still choose US borrowing for speed on a competitive property, and that can be the right call. We put the two side by side with real numbers before you commit either way.

Can you buy from the US without flying to Spain?

Yes, and many of our American clients do exactly that. Two tools make it possible.

First, the NIE, the identification number every foreign buyer needs before signing anything. You can get it without travelling, either at the Spanish consulate covering your state (form EX-15, small fee) or by having our team in Spain apply on your behalf.

Second, a power of attorney lets your Spanish lawyer sign the purchase, the mortgage deed and everything between on your instructions. You can grant it at the Spanish consulate covering your state, or before a local US notary with an apostille from your Secretary of State, which Spain accepts because the US is in the Hague Convention. With those two in place you can reserve, sign the contract and complete at the notary, all while you stay in the US. It is entirely standard practice for American buyers.

How do you actually get the money to Spain?

At some point 150,000 dollars or more has to become euros in a Spanish account, and this step deserves more planning than it usually gets.

• Expect source-of-funds questions. Spanish banks apply anti-money-laundering checks to large incoming transfers. Send from an account in your own name and have statements showing where the money built up (salary, savings, a property sale). Routine when prepared, painful when not.
• Do not convert through a retail bank wire. Your US bank’s exchange rate can sit 2 to 3 cents worse than the market that day, and on EUR 156,000 that spread costs thousands of dollars. Specialist currency providers price far tighter.
• You can lock the rate the day you commit. Once the arras is signed you owe fixed euro amounts on fixed dates. A forward contract fixes today’s rate for those payments, so a swing in the exchange rate between contract and completion cannot move your dollar cost.
• You will need a Spanish bank account for the mortgage payments, utilities and IBI. We help clients open one as part of the process, remotely where the bank allows it.

What happened to the golden visa?

Spain ended its golden visa in April 2025; buying property no longer carries residency rights at any price. For most American buyers this changes nothing: US citizens visit Spain visa-free under the 90-in-180-days Schengen rule, which comfortably covers a vacation-home pattern. If you want to actually live in Spain, the real routes are the non-lucrative visa and the digital nomad visa, both covered honestly in our guide to staying in Spain longer than 90 days. Anyone still marketing Spanish property with residency attached is selling something that no longer exists.

What does the process look like, and how long does it take?

The mistakes American buyers actually make

Frequently asked questions