Luxury Villa Purchase in Jávea

A villa in Jávea is not a larger version of an apartment purchase. The price is higher, but so is the number of things that can go wrong, and most of them are invisible in the brochure.

Our office is in Jávea itself, a few minutes from the Land Registry and the Xàbia town hall, where most of the documents that decide a villa purchase are kept. And we are genuinely independent of the sale: we do not act for estate agents, developers or sellers, and we are not paid by them. Our only client in the transaction is you.

The townJávea’s villa areas, one by one

Every part of Jávea raises its own questions. We know which ones to ask because we deal with them every week.

• Portichol, Cap Prim, Cala Blanca, the Montañar, Ambolo, GranadellaFirst-line plots, where the Spanish Coastal Law and the public boundary line fixed for that stretch of coast decide what may ever be altered, extended or rebuilt.
• The slopes of the Montgó and Cap de la NauPlots inside or beside protected natural areas, where planning rules are stricter than the size of the house suggests and where an old licence does not always cover what stands today.
• Cap Martí, Tosalet, Balcón al MarEstablished urbanisations, where the usual question is whether the fenced plot, the registered plot and the licensed house are the same thing.

Legal due diligenceWhat we check before you sign

This is our work as lawyers: documents, registries and public administrations. It is done before the private contract, not after.

• TitleThe Land Registry of Jávea and the Cadastre against the deed: who owns the property, what surface is registered and whether the two descriptions match.
• Licences and infringementsThe building licences on file at the town hall, the certificate that no planning infringement is pending, and whether a declaration of new build is needed for anything added later.
• Planning statusThe classification of the land and what it allows, and whether the plot is affected by protected natural areas or by plans still pending.
• Coastal positionOn first-line plots, the demarcation line and the protection easement, with a certificate from the Coastal Authority where the position of the house requires it.
• Charges and debtsMortgages, embargoes, community debts, IBI and utilities, so that nothing is inherited with the house.
• Who is sellingIdentity and capacity of the seller, marital regime, company representation and powers of attorney.

Technical inspectionWhat we advise you to have an architect check

Some things are not in any registry. On a villa purchase we always advise a prior inspection by an architect, in addition to the legal checks.

• What stands on the plotWhether the house, pool, annexes and terraces match the deed and the licences.
• BoundariesWhether the fenced boundaries match the registered plot.
• Structure and installationsThe condition of the structure, the pool and the installations.
• Year of constructionThe real age of each part of the building, which decides what can still be regularised.

You choose and instruct the architect directly: your own trusted architect or, if you do not have one, Sergio Tomás Arquitectos in Jávea, an independent practice with long experience of this kind of report. We then read the architect’s report alongside the deed and the Land Registry, so that what you pay for, what is registered and what is built are one and the same thing.

ExamplesWhat this looks like in practice

Situations of the kind we deal with regularly on this coast, described in general terms.

1. A first-line villa in Portichol, €3.2 million. The terrace and the pool deck sat inside the coastal protection strip. The house was perfectly saleable, and the buyer was warned before the private contract that the extension towards the sea he had in mind would never be licensed. He bought, at a price that reflected that, and with the Coastal Authority certificate in the deed.
2. A villa on the Montgó slopes with a guest house, €2.4 million. The main house had its licence; the guest house and the garage had been built years later and never declared. The seller was sure it was “all legal after so many years”. We obtained the town hall certificate, the architect confirmed the age of each part, and the missing declaration of new build was signed in a separate deed before the sale. Without that, the buyer would have inherited the problem and paid for it on resale.
3. A plot in Cap Martí, €1.9 million, bigger on the ground than on paper. The fenced garden was clearly larger than the registered plot: a strip of the neighbouring land had been absorbed decades ago. The Land Registry and the Cadastre did not match, and neither matched the fence. The architect measured it, the boundaries were corrected with the neighbour before completion, and the buyer paid for what he was actually getting.
4. A villa in Balcón al Mar, €4.5 million, sold by a company. The seller was a foreign company with several shareholders and a director without powers to sell. Nobody had noticed. We asked for the corporate resolutions and a proper power of attorney before a euro changed hands; it delayed completion by three weeks and avoided a deed that could later have been challenged.
5. A house in the Granadella area, €2.8 million, with an old planning file. A planning infringement file from years before was still open at the town hall, invisible in the Land Registry. It appeared in the no-infringement certificate we always request. The seller closed it before completion, at his cost, and the buyer signed with a clean file.

They guided me expertly through a property purchase, showing deep knowledge of Spanish law, attention to detail, and clear communication throughout. Reliable, efficient, and trustworthy.★★★★★Lisa Damen · Google review

Buying through a company

Some buyers hold a Spanish villa through a non-resident company, usually for succession or privacy reasons. It can make sense, and it can be an expensive mistake. It changes how the purchase is taxed, how the property is later sold, how it is inherited and what has to be declared each year. We tell you plainly which of the two applies to your situation before you decide, not after.

Succession

Under the European succession regulation (EU Regulation 650/2012), you may be able to choose the law of your nationality to govern your estate. For a buyer from Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, the United Kingdom or the United States, that choice, and how your Spanish will is drafted alongside your home-country will, decides what happens to the villa and what your heirs will pay.

How we work

We are independent lawyers. We do not act for estate agents, developers or sellers, and we are not paid by them. The great majority of our purchases are completed without the buyer travelling to Spain: with a power of attorney, we handle the process through to signature at the notary. We reply within 24 hours.

For the purchase process step by step, see our Jávea property lawyers page; for first-line property, our guide to buying under the Coastal Law.

The lawyers who will handle your purchase

José Manuel Tomas

Conveyancing, Inheritance and Donations · Admitted to the Valencia Bar in 1992 (no. 6407) · Alicante Bar no. 9382

Manuel Lopez de Andujar

Inheritance, Conveyancing and Contract Law · Valencia Bar no. 7773

Juan Poch

Conveyancing, Inheritance and Matrimonial Law · Alicante Bar no. 3607

María Salvá

Inheritance, Conveyancing and Civil Law – Dénia · Alicante Bar no. 3699

Antonio Rodríguez de Sola

Inheritance, Conveyancing and Civil Law – Dénia · Alicante Bar no. 3374

Disclaimer. The information on this page is general in nature and does not constitute legal advice. Every property and every transaction is different, and the applicable rules may change. No decision should be taken on the basis of this page alone without obtaining advice on your specific case. Tomas Ballestero Lawyers accepts no liability for actions taken in reliance on this general information.