Property purchase lawyer in Mallorca for international buyers

What a property purchase lawyer does for you in Mallorca

A purchase in Mallorca involves the estate agent, the seller, the notary, the Land Registry, the tax office, the town hall and, often, a bank. None of them represents you. The agent is paid by the seller on completion and the notary is a neutral public official who certifies the deed. Your lawyer is the only professional whose job is to protect the buyer and to connect all those pieces.

Stage	What we do	Why it matters
Before the offer	Land Registry extract, Cadastre, listing review	Confirms who owns the property and what is registered
Reservation	Review or draft the reservation document	Keeps the fee refundable if checks fail
Due diligence	Licences, planning, debts, community, rental licence	Finds illegal works and hidden debts before you commit
Arras contract	Negotiate conditions, deadlines and retentions	Protects the 10% deposit
Preparation	NIE, bank account, power of attorney, mortgage review	Lets you buy remotely and on time
Completion	Check the deed, attend the notary, control payments	Ensures you pay only against a clean title
After completion	Transfer tax, Land Registry, utilities, IBI	Your title is registered and the property is in your name

Due diligence before you pay a deposit

Most problems in a Mallorca purchase are visible in the documents if someone reads them together: a terrace or pool built without a licence, a holiday rental licence that does not cover the real number of beds, a mortgage or seizure still registered, unpaid community levies or a rustic plot where nothing can be extended. We compare the Land Registry extract, the Cadastre, the town hall file and the advert, and we report in writing what we found and what it means for you. See our legal due diligence service and the specific guide to villa due diligence in Mallorca.

Contracts that protect the buyer

Agents often present a standard reservation form and then an arras contract prepared by the seller's side. We rewrite them around your position: refund of the deposit if due diligence or the mortgage fails, a completion date that matches your finance, retentions for debts and the non-resident tax if the seller lives abroad, and clear seller warranties. Read more in our guide to reservation and arras contracts and the difference between a private contract and the public deed.

Buying without travelling to Mallorca

Many of our clients live in the UK, Germany, Scandinavia or the United States. With a power of attorney signed before a notary in your country, or at a Spanish consulate, we obtain your NIE, open the bank account if needed, sign the contracts and attend the notary on your behalf. You approve every decision by email or video call. See NIE, power of attorney and bank account.

Completion at the notary and registration

Before the signing we check the final draft of the deed, the seller's latest registry position, the receipts for IBI and community fees and the exact payments to be made. At the notary we verify each bank draft or transfer. Afterwards we file the transfer tax, present the deed at the Land Registry and follow it until your title is registered. See what happens at the notary and the full conveyancing timeline.

Villas, fincas, apartments and new builds

• Villas and fincas: rustic land rules, licences for every building, pools, wells, access and coastal law. See rural property in Mallorca.
• Apartments and townhouses: community of owners, debts, approved works and rental restrictions. See the Palma apartment checklist.
• New builds and off-plan: building licence, bank guarantees for stage payments and the ten-year insurance. See new-build property in Mallorca.
• Investment property: tourist licences and rental yields. See buying with a tourist rental licence.

Fees agreed in writing before we start

Before any work begins you receive a written proposal with the scope of the service and our fees, so you know the cost from day one. Our guide to legal fees for buying property in Spain explains how fees are usually calculated and what they should include, and the guide to purchase costs and taxes covers the rest of the budget.

We are the property practice of Castell.law, part of the Castell group of law firms in Palma de Mallorca, and we also act on purchases in Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera.