Selling on the Costa del Sol: taxes, costs and your net proceeds (2026)

Selling well on the Costa del Sol is mostly a matter of knowing your numbers before anyone makes an offer. The costs are not hidden, but they arrive in an order that surprises people, and two of them (plusvalia municipal and, for non-residents, the withheld retention) are routinely misunderstood. What follows is the seller side only: the taxes and costs you carry, not the buyer's. Figures such as municipal coefficients and market commission rates should always be confirmed for your own property and circumstances before you rely on them.

The seller cost stack at a glance

A Costa del Sol sale carries a small, predictable set of costs. Some are taxes fixed by law, some are regulated professional fees, and one (agency commission) is entirely a matter of what you agree. The table below is the whole stack in one view. The sections that follow explain each line and where the figures come from.

The headline price is not what you keep. The gap between it and your net proceeds is entirely knowable in advance.

Plusvalia municipal (IIVTNU)

Plusvalia municipal, formally the Impuesto sobre el Incremento de Valor de los Terrenos de Naturaleza Urbana (IIVTNU), taxes the increase in the value of the land (not the building) over the years you owned it. It is a municipal tax, so Marbella and Estepona each set their own rate and coefficients within the national legal ceiling. The seller is the taxable person and must declare it, in most municipalities within thirty business days of the sale, following the local ordenanza fiscal.

The 2021 reform and why it matters

This tax was rebuilt in late 2021. The Tribunal Constitucional, in Sentencia 182/2021 of 26 October 2021 (a question raised, notably, by the TSJ de Andalucia sitting in Malaga), struck down the old mandatory calculation method as unconstitutional for breaching the principle of economic capacity. Real Decreto-ley 26/2021 then filled the gap. Two consequences matter to any seller today.

• You can choose the lower of two taxable bases. The objective method multiplies the cadastral value of the land by an annual coefficient set within the legal cap; the real method uses the actual land gain (the difference between your acquisition and transmission values, prorated to the land's share of the cadastral value). You apply whichever produces the lower base.
• If there is no gain, there is no tax. If you sell for less than you paid, so there is no increase in land value, the tax is simply not due. There is no taxable event.

The municipal rate applied to that base cannot exceed 30% under article 108 of the TRLRHL, and the objective coefficients are capped by article 107.4. Within those ceilings, Marbella and Estepona set their own figures, so the exact coefficient and rate must be read from the current municipal ordenanza at the time you sell.

Sell at a loss and plusvalia is not due at all. That single point of the 2021 reform is still missed by many sellers.

A currency note on 2026 coefficients

There is a live wrinkle worth flagging. Real Decreto-ley 16/2025 of 23 December raised the maximum objective coefficients with effect from 1 January 2026, by as much as around 40% for some holding periods. The Congreso de los Diputados then rejected its convalidacion on 27 January 2026, and the rejection resolution was published on 28 January 2026. The practical result: from 28 January 2026 the applicable maximum coefficients reverted to the earlier (2024) table under RDL 26/2021, and the rise was not reinstated. For a 2026 sale, the pre-2026 maxima apply, but because the municipality sets the operative figure within the cap, confirm the exact current coefficient with the Marbella or Estepona ordenanza before you rely on any plusvalia estimate.

Capital gains: resident versus non-resident

Capital gains tax is where the largest divergence sits, and it turns entirely on your tax residence, not your nationality. In both cases the gain is the transmission value (sale price less seller-borne costs and taxes) minus the acquisition value (original price plus improvements, acquisition costs and taxes). The difference is the rate and the mechanism.

Fiscal residents (IRPF)

If you are a fiscal resident in Spain, the gain goes to the base del ahorro (savings base) and is taxed on a progressive scale that combines the state and autonomous halves. The savings scale is state-wide and is not ceded to the autonomous communities, so Andalucia does not modify it. The 2026 combined brackets are:

Note the top bracket. Ley 7/2024 raised it from 28% to 30% with effect from 1 January 2025, and it remains 30% for 2026. Older guides that still quote 28% are out of date. Residents also have two important reliefs on their habitual residence: the gain is exempt if reinvested in a new habitual residence within two years, and it is fully exempt for sellers aged 65 or over (or in a situation of severe dependency) selling their main home. Both are standard reliefs under Ley 35/2006 and should be confirmed against your own facts before assuming they apply.

Non-residents (IRNR)

A non-resident without a permanent establishment pays Impuesto sobre la Renta de no Residentes at a flat 19% on the net gain, regardless of country of residence, declared on Modelo 210. There is no progressive scale and, ordinarily, no habitual-residence relief, because the property is not the seller's main home in Spain. The 19% rate is stable and unchanged for 2026. The complication for non-residents is not the rate; it is the retention, and the next section is dedicated entirely to it.

The 3% retention (non-resident sellers)

This is the single most misunderstood item for foreign sellers, and it deserves its own space. When the seller is a non-resident without permanent establishment, the buyer is legally obliged to withhold 3% of the agreed price and pay it directly to the Agencia Tributaria on the seller's behalf, using Modelo 211, within one month of the sale. That 3% is not an extra tax. It is a payment on account of your final IRNR liability under article 25.2 of the TR Ley IRNR.

The reconciliation then works like this:

1. 1The buyer withholds 3% of the price at completion and files Modelo 211 within one month, handing you the stamped copy as proof.
2. 2You, the seller, then declare your actual gain and settle the real 19% liability on Modelo 210, within four months of the transmission date.
3. 3If your true 19% liability is lower than the 3% already withheld, or if you sold at a loss, you reclaim the excess through that same Modelo 210 filing.

The 3% is not a cost. It is your own tax, paid early by the buyer, and any excess is yours to reclaim on Modelo 210.

The practical lesson: on a long-held property with a large gain, the 3% may fall short of your real liability and you top up on the 210. On a modest gain or a loss, the 3% is more than you owe and the difference is refundable, though the refund takes time. Either way, keep every acquisition invoice, improvement receipt and completion cost, because they reduce the taxable gain and therefore the tax.

The energy certificate and the mortgage

Energy Performance Certificate (CEE)

A valid, registered energy certificate is mandatory before you advertise the property, not merely before completion. Under Real Decreto 390/2021, the energy label must appear in all sale offers and advertising, and a copy of the registered certificate and label must be annexed to the deed of sale. The certificate is valid for up to ten years (five years for class G), and in Andalucia it is registered with the competent Junta de Andalucia authority. Arrange it early; it is a common cause of listing delay.

Cancelling the mortgage at the Registry

Repaying your loan does not remove it from the record. The charge stays inscribed at the Registro de la Propiedad until it is formally cancelled, and a buyer will not complete over a live charge. To clear it, you request a certificado de deuda cero from your bank (issued free), execute a notarial cancellation deed, and register it. The costs are yours: the notary and registry aranceles, which are regulated (the registry has a low base minimum). Importantly, the Actos Juridicos Documentados tax on a mortgage cancellation deed is exempt, so there is no AJD to pay on the cancellation itself. The all-in figure is typically quoted in the low hundreds of euros; treat any quote as market-dependent and confirm it against the regulated aranceles.

A worked net example

Consider a non-resident selling an apartment, the most common DIEZ seller profile. The figures are illustrative and rounded, chosen to show the mechanics rather than to predict your own outcome. Assume a sale at 1,000,000 EUR, bought some years earlier for 750,000 EUR, with an outstanding mortgage of 200,000 EUR.

Read the capital gains line carefully. The 3% retention (30,000 EUR) is not an additional cost on top of the 37,164 EUR; it is part of it, paid early by the buyer. Because the gain here is substantial, the 3% did not cover the full 19% liability, so the seller tops up the 7,164 EUR balance on the Modelo 210. Had the property been sold at a smaller gain, the 3% might have exceeded the true liability, and that difference would be reclaimed rather than paid. Every figure above should be recalculated with your own acquisition documents, the current municipal plusvalia figures, and your agreed commission.

The timeline: before listing, at notary, after completion

Costs and obligations fall in a natural order. Knowing which arrives when avoids the two classic delays: a missing energy certificate and an uncancelled mortgage.

• Before listing: commission and marketing terms agreed with your agent; energy certificate obtained and registered; certificado de deuda cero requested if there is a mortgage.
• At the notary (completion): sale deed signed; mortgage repaid and, ideally, the cancellation deed executed; the buyer applies the 3% retention if you are a non-resident.
• After completion: buyer files Modelo 211 for the 3% within one month; you file plusvalia municipal (commonly within thirty business days) and your capital gains return (Modelo 210 within four months for non-residents; the annual IRPF declaration for residents); the mortgage cancellation is registered.

Two things in flux for 2026

Two further points affect the market you are selling into, rather than your own cost stack, but they are worth knowing. First, Spain's investor residence permit (the Golden Visa), including the 500,000 EUR real-estate route, was abolished by Ley Organica 1/2025 of 2 January, which repealed the investor-residence provisions of Ley 14/2013, with no new applications accepted from 3 April 2025. Permits granted or applied for before that date remain valid to expiry, but the incentive no longer exists for new buyers, so any pricing assumption that leaned on it should be retired.

Second, if your property is currently let short-term, the registration regime is unstable. Real Decreto 1312/2024 created a single rental registry and a required registration number to advertise short-term lets on platforms from 1 July 2025, but in May 2026 the Tribunal Supremo (Sentencia 620/2026) annulled the state single-registration procedure itself, holding that the State lacked competence to create it, while keeping the digital single window and the data-exchange obligations. If short-term rental income is part of your property's story to buyers, confirm the current status before relying on it.

None of this is complicated once it is laid out in order. The discipline that protects your net proceeds is simply doing the arithmetic before you accept an offer, keeping every document that reduces the taxable gain, and confirming the municipal and market figures against your own property rather than a generic table.