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What to check before buying property in Spain
The listing shows the home. The nota simple says who owns it and what charges it carries. The valuation says what it is worth today. None of the three says what is under the ground, what sits 40 metres away, what happened on that parcel in 1984 or what is planned next door. That is in public records — free, official and almost never consulted. This guide walks through them one by one and tells you how to look yourself.
Why nobody looks
In a Spanish purchase everyone at the table is paid by the sale: the agent, the seller, often the gestoría. None of them has a duty to order a flood or soil search, and the notary checks only what the law makes them check. In the UK the buyer's solicitor orders environmental and flood searches by default; Spain has no equivalent. The result: 2012 flats on an inventoried former landfill, villas 40 m from the flood zone, plots with a 132 kV line 50 m away — and none of it in the listing.
A PropVer report gathers these records for one parcel and turns them into four words per layer: not consulted, no findings, attention or finding. But you do not need a report to start: every record below is public. What costs is knowing they exist, finding them and reading them together.
1. The cadastral reference: the key to everything
Every property in Spain has a 20-character cadastral reference (14 characters identify the parcel). With it you can see area, year of construction, use, the units a building contains and the parcel plan at the Sede Electrónica del Catastro. In the Basque Country and Navarre the cadastre is foral (run by the provincial Diputaciones) and the reference has a different format. How to find and read the cadastral reference →
2. Planning: what you can do with the parcel, and what the council can do
Classification (urban, developable, non-developable) and zoning (residential, industrial, facilities, open space…) decide value and use. A building fuera de ordenación cannot be extended; a parcel zoned as a general system can be expropriated; a developable sector next door changes the views and the noise within five years. The municipal cédula urbanística is the binding document. How to read the planning →
3. Flood zones: T10, T100, T500 and the preferential-flow zone
The national flood-zone system (SNCZI, MITECO) and, in the Basque Country, URA publish the maps of the 10-, 100- and 500-year floods and the preferential-flow zone. Inside the T100 insurers and lenders take it into account; inside the preferential-flow zone there are use restrictions. How to check flood risk →
4. Contaminated soils and activity inventories
The Basque Country publishes the inventory of soils with potentially polluting activities (Ihobe); Andalusia its REDIAM register; nationally there is the IED installations register and the landfill census. Being in the inventory does not mean the soil is contaminated: it means a change of use, an excavation or a sale triggers procedures and declarations. How to check the soils →
5. The history of the ground: aerial photographs since 1945
The American flights of 1945–46 and 1956, the Interministerial and National flights of the 1970s–80s, SIGPAC and PNOA let you see what was on the parcel each decade: fields, quarry, fill, industrial shed, housing. A 1984 fill under a 2012 block is information that exists nowhere else. How to read historic orthophotos →
6. Noise: the strategic maps
The strategic noise maps (SICA, MITECO) draw day (Lden) and night (Ln) contours for roads, railways, airports and large agglomerations. The WHO recommends no more than 45 dB at night; many urban façades are above 55. No midday viewing tells you that. How to consult noise →
7. Masts and power lines
The Ministry's Infoantenas portal publishes every mobile-phone site with its certified measured levels; high-voltage lines and substations are in open mapping. The report states distance, voltage and measured level; what that means for you is a question for a specialist, not for a report. Masts and the grid →
8. Building inspection and energy certificate
Buildings over 50 years old must pass the ITE/IEE; the Basque Country, Catalonia, Madrid and the Valencia region publish registers. An inspection not filed, or filed with grade-4 elements, is a special levy on its way. The energy certificate (CEE) is compulsory at sale and sits in regional registers. ITE, IEE and the energy certificate →
9. Radon
The Building Code (CTE DB-HS6) classifies municipalities into radon exposure zones; in zone II a new building needs constructive measures. For an old building, the zone tells you whether measuring is worth it. Radon: what the building code says →
10. Water, discharges and beaches
Reservoir levels of the supply system, documented restrictions and cuts in recent summers, authorised discharges within 500 m and the sanitary classification of nearby beaches. Water and discharges →
11. Protected areas and easements
Natura 2000, protected natural areas, the maritime-terrestrial and hydraulic public domain, livestock trails. A parcel inside an easement zone carries building and use limits that never appear in the listing.
12. What exists only on paper
Some things no open register gives you and you must ask for: the nota simple from the Land Registry, the community-of-owners debt certificate, the minutes of the last three meetings, the cédula urbanística and the licences. A PropVer report ends with that list so you can take it to the notary.
How to read all this without losing your mind
Three rules. First: every datum has a date and a source; a 2015 map does not describe 2026. Second: "not consulted" is not "no findings"; the absence of a register in a region does not certify absence of risk. Third: a finding is not a verdict, it is a question — for the seller, the insurer, the notary, a technician. The report gives you the question and who to ask.
Check it yourself
Check your property in two minutes
Address, cadastral reference, coordinates or a click on the map. If it is in the service area, the report is free during the beta.
Updated 2026-10-23.