C

Capital gains

This is a tax borne to the seller of a property, which varies greatly between a Spanish resident and a non-resident.
The taxable amount is the difference between the old escritura value and the newly declared value, when the property is sold. There is no fixed amount of capital gains tax, as the percentage is determined by the age and status of the seller, length of time of the property’s ownership, date of initial purchase, future investment etc.. Our staff are able to advise the seller on the amount of Capital gains tax they will be facing, but we always recommend
the services of a tax consultant.

Contrato privado de compra-venta

This is a private buy-sell contract, which is drawn up when you have decided upon the property you wish to purchase. It is between the buyer and the seller and states the property’s details, both parties’ address, status, nationality and identification numbers. This contract includes the price of the property, the payment schedule and the proposed Notary date. It also states what is included in the sale in terms of furniture and fittings. It is signed by the buyer and the seller, or by the representing company in their absence. At the time of signing, you will need to pay a deposit for the property and then you will be obliged to cater to the stated payment schedule and complete in the specified time.

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D

Declaración de Obra Nueva

When purchasing a new build property in Spain, it is normal procedure to sign the title deeds for the plot before a brick is laid on it. This gives security in the way that, whatever is put on that plot afterwards, belongs to the plot owner. So once the plot has been purchased, the new buyer must make the declaración de obra nueva, which is a declaration of the new construction. Once the new build property is finished, a new escritura will be signed including the plot and the new build together.

Development – guarantee

Experience means security. We can guarantee our clients a building plot with the rights to be developed. In Spain, the
developing of building land – with exception of municipial building work – has to be done by private companies. This
includes all infrastructure, such as roads, mains water and electricity supply, and the connection to the local, main
sewerage, all of which HOffMANN INTERNATIONAL does for you.

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E

Escritura

Escritura

The Escritura Publica is the registered title deed of a property. It is inscribed in the Registro de la Propiedad, and is the only ironclad guarantee of title in Spain. In this title deed you will find a description of the property and the details of the owner. If any mortgages or court charges exist against the property, they will be registered here as marginal notes. Before offering any property for sale, we make the necessary checks to ensure that everything
is in order for the protection of ourselves and our clients.

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F

Fixed price guarantee

We guarantee our prices. Every price you are given by us is a fixed price, which means that the price can not be increased after the signing of the purchase contract and after any payments are made.
Our fixed prices are based upon our detailled Building Specifications. The photos in this catalogue show villas we have already built for our previous customers. All of these villas were individually planned, built and finished, according to our client’s wishes. Some of the models include details which are not part of the standard Building Specifications, but were requested by the clients and so we gave quotations for the extra details and the clients were charged separately from the standard prices.
Our fixed price includes:
• Preparation of the project plans
• Fees for the building permission
• Premium for the Building Insurance until the hand over
• Supervision of the building work
• Study of quality-controls
• Costs for all official documentation and certificates
• Transaction of all formalities in reference to the construction
of the house and the connections for water
and electricity supply
• Official paperwork and certificate for the electrical
installation from the Spanish Ministry of Industry (Indústrias)

Free-of-charges guarantee

HOffMANN INTERNATIONAL guarantees to you, that all plots and houses and rights of residence we sell to you, are
100% free of any encumbrances.

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G

Guarantee

HOffMANN INTERNATIONAL undertakes a 10 year guarantee for all structure damages, such us damage on foundations,
supporting walls, floors, or damage which results from these. This is the reason for us setting up a 10-year-policy with
an insurance company, even before the construction work starts. In order to bring this policy into force, the insurance company is obliged to have all statics, quality of the materials and expert realisation controlled by an official for technical control (OCT), which is an additional and independent office separate from our own control.

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I

Impuesto sobre bienes inmuebles - IBI

Or IBI for short, is the municipal real estate tax on a second hand property. The IBI receipt is a very important paper which is presented to the Notary before the appointment to sign over the title deeds. This is so that it can
be checked to make sure that it has been paid up to date. A new property bought from a developer will not have an IBI receipt, yet it will be the buyers responsibility to register the property for this tax.
The IBI receipt will show the property’s catastral reference number and also the valor catastral, the official assessed value of the property. This is a very important figure because various taxes are based on it. The assessed value is almost always considerably less than the real market value, but it has been steadily raised over the last few years.

Impuesto Sobre Bienes Inmuebles - IBI

Tax base is the land value to be at least 70% of actual value. The tax rate, depending on the type of property generally 0.3 to 0.7%.

IVA

Which stands for Impuesto sobre el valor añadido, and means value added tax and the Spanish equivalent to VAT. This
is paid when purchasing a new build property and is based on the declared value stated in the escritura. When purchasing a plot through a developer, the IVA is set at the commercial rate of 18%, unless the plot is privately owned (not by a company), which would then make the tax 7%. The government decided that they wanted to subsidise the housing market by reducing the IVA on new builds to only 8%, which equals the rate of transfer tax payable when buying a resale property.

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M

Mortgage guarantee

We can help you with setting up a solid mortgage with a Spanish bank, under the usual conditions that the bank requires. We will take care of all of the necessary steps, from helping with the application form up to the ppointment with the Notary. This service is also included in our fixed price commitment, which omits any more additional costs to you.

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N

NIE, NIF

Firstly, NIE stands for Número de identificación extranjero, which identifies you to the Spanish tax authorities and is
included on your residence permit (residencia), should you apply for one. The number is necessary for practically any transaction in Spain, such as paying your taxes. Even a non-resident who has any relation with the Spanish tax system, either by owning a property or by drawing interest from a bank, also needs this NIE. To obtain this identification number, your property consultant can assist you in doing it privately, or you can use the services of a gestoría to lead you through the process. The gestor is licensed by the government as an official middleman between you and the State, and provides, for a reasonable fee, many useful services. Whereas NIE refers to the identification number for foreigners (extranjeros), the NIF is exactly the same but issued to Spanish residents and stands for Número de identificación fiscal, meaning fiscal identification number.

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O

Ownership-guarantee

We guarantee the orderly transfer of ownership of the property you bought from us and guarantee that each property
will be transferred correctly by signing the Title Deed (Escritura) at a Notary and with it’s inscription in the Land
Registry, to secure your proof of ownership.

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P

Patrimonio

In addition to the yearly income tax declaration, the Spanish resident, and non-resident property owner, is liable for Spanish tax on capital assets – patrimonio tax. The name “wealth tax” may not sound like proper legal terminology, but it is an adequate translation of the Spanish name, as it’s exactly that: a tax on all your assets and property. Do not be alarmed, however. A resident of Spain has an exemption of a certain figure, which rises
by 40-50% when the asset is the principle residence. This means that a husband and wife whose principle asset in Spain is their home are exempt from the tax up to a certain figure if both of their names are on the title deed.
In Spanish, the name is impuesto extraordinario sobre el patrimonio, the extraordinary tax on assets. This tax started in 1978 as a special measure to force many Spanish citizens who had been hiding their wealth, especially property, to bring these assets into the open.

Plusvalía

Is a tax payable by the buyer of a property and a shortened term for arbitrio sobre el incremento del valor de los
terrenos, which refers to the municipal tax on the increase in the value of land since its last sale.
In the case of an apartment or a townhouse in a new urbanisation, where little land is involved and where there has been no real increase in value because such a short time has passed since it was developed, the tax can be very low. It will be much higher if you buy a house with several thousand square metres of land, which has not changed hands for 20 years and which has been recently re-zoned from rural to urban land, thus jumping greatly in value.

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Q

Quality – guarantee

The visible evidence of our building quality, is the amount of villas and houses built and owned by our satisfied clients. But quality is not only a visible concept - quality starts with giving personal advice, especially when you, as our client, explain your personal ideas and wishes to us. In conversations between you and our experts, ideas
flourish, and dreams start to take shape. This is how your individual villa is developing. A villa with its own character,
unique, individually planned and built, under the supervision our architect and engineers.
We guarantee that quality and realisation correspond exactly to our detailled Building Specifications, and to any
additional detailed specifications, ordered by you. All of your plans are prepared by our architect and before
the building permission is given, they are checked by the main architects institute. Quality of all materials used for
the construction is permanentely controlled by an independent engineer’s office.
With the dedication of the HOffMANN INTERNATIONAL team and the permanent control of materials and realisation
– you are given the highest level of quality you could wish for, so much so that you’ll probably never need to use
the guarantee we give you.

Quality is the best assumption for satisfied clients

Good details are the key to a quality result, which is why we endeavour to offer you quality through every detail. This means that if you detect any visible reclamations within the 12 months following your completion, they will be rectified by us without incurring any costs to you.

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R

Registro de la Propiedad

Escritura

This is the Spanish property registry and is an extremely important office for the property purchaser. When we guarantee that our properties are sold free of all charges, liens and mortgages, this is where you would find out if that was the case, as all such information is registered under the property, as well as the rightful owner. For a small fee, the registro will give you a nota simple (summary of the property’s entry into the registry books) for any property. This check-up avoids any eventual problems with property transfers.

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S

Security – guarantee

To avoid unpleasant surprises, we guarantee complete customer security. HOffMANN INTERNATIONAL offers you this,
step-by-step, right from the beginning. We offer clear contracts, without hidden traps and with no small print. Our contracts clearly state, exactly what you are about to buy.

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