Spain Living Guide

Moving to Spain, Explained Properly

Free, independent guides for English speakers moving to or already living in Spain. Tax residency, visas, property costs, healthcare access, and the paperwork that has to happen in the right order or nothing else works.

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Who writes this

38 in-depth guides

Sourced from official Spanish law

No sponsored coverage

Updated for 2026

Browse by topic

Four areas. Every rate, deadline and legal requirement links back to its official source.

Finance & Taxation

Income tax, wealth and solidarity taxes, double taxation treaties, autónomo vs. SL, crypto reporting, pensions, and foreign asset declarations.

18 guides →

Property & Housing

Purchase and annual ownership taxes, renting as a foreigner, buying off-plan, and what coastal law really restricts near the sea.

12 guides →

Healthcare

Getting into the public system, the convenio especial, the S1 form for pensioners, insurance requirements that decide visa applications, transferring prescriptions, and emergency care.

6 guides →

Life in Spain

NIE, TIE and empadronamiento, driving licences, car insurance, cost of living by city, moving pets and belongings, and schooling.

16 guides →

Where to start

Four questions come up before all the others.

01

Which visa can I actually get?

Spain closed its property-based Golden Visa in April 2025. What remains are the Non-Lucrative Visa, the Digital Nomad Visa, and the Entrepreneur Visa. Your choice affects how you are taxed, so it is worth getting right first. See the three routes that remain.

02

How will Spain tax me?

Spend more than 183 days a year here and you generally become a Spanish tax resident, taxed on worldwide income and assets. That single fact drives the planning that should happen before you move. Start with how IRPF works.

03

What does a property really cost?

The advertised price is never the price you pay. Taxes, notary and registry fees typically add 10–14% on top, and the annual taxes continue whether you live there, rent it out, or leave it empty. Purchase taxes · Annual taxes

04

Will I have healthcare?

Spain’s public system is excellent, but access is tied to residence rather than contributions, and a significant exception leaves many foreign residents outside it in their early years. Public, private, and the convenio especial.

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How this site works

Written by Daniel Aznar, a Spanish engineer based in Valencia, as an independent research project. He is not a lawyer, a tax adviser, or an immigration consultant, and this site never pretends otherwise. Nothing here is professional advice: rules change, they vary considerably by autonomous community, and they depend on your circumstances. Use these guides to understand the landscape and to ask your asesor fiscal or lawyer better questions.

Every guide cites its source at the Agencia Tributaria, the Boletín Oficial del Estado, or the relevant ministry wherever it states a rate, a deadline, or a legal requirement, so you can verify it yourself. Figures are checked against the current published text of the law rather than copied from other websites. Where a rule varies by region, the guide says so instead of giving one national figure that would mislead most readers.

The site is funded by advertising, which keeps it free to read. It does not accept payment for coverage or recommend lawyers, banks, insurers or estate agents in exchange for commission. Found an error? Tell us and it gets fixed.