Buying occupied property in Spain: risks, discount and getting it back

Short answer: buying an occupied flat is legal and can work out considerably cheaper, but along with the flat you also buy the problem. You won't be able to see inside it, almost no bank will lend you the money for it, and how long it takes you to recover it depends on who is inside and with what papers. Before making an offer you need to know which of the three cases I describe below you're dealing with.

How many occupied flats are for sale

On RadarPro, a share of the homes for sale is marked as occupied. Almost all of them come from the banks: among the flats sold by servicers there are many more occupied ones than among portal listings. Hipoges and Solvia are among those with the most.

And how much cheaper are they? They are usually listed below the vacant flats in the same municipality, more so those listed on portals than the bank-owned ones.

Be careful about reading that as a clean discount. Part of the difference is that these flats tend to be in worse condition, and the range is huge: there are occupied bank-owned flats listed above the vacant ones in their municipality. Being occupied doesn't make it a bargain.

Do the maths with an example. A 70 m² flat in an area where vacant flats sell at €2,000/m² would be worth €140,000 vacant. If the occupied one is on offer at €105,000 (25% less), that €35,000 margin has to pay for the lawyer and the procurador (the court representative), the months it takes you to recover it without collecting a single euro of rent, and a renovation you haven't been able to see. Sometimes there's money left over. Sometimes it falls short.

The three types of occupation (and why they change everything)

• A tenant with a contract. They're not a squatter ("okupa") and you can't simply throw them out: when you buy, you take over their contract. The Ley de Arrendamientos Urbanos (LAU, Spain's Urban Leases Act, art. 14) requires the buyer to respect the tenancy during the first five years of the contract, or seven if the previous landlord was a company, even if you buy in good faith relying on the Registry. If the contract provides for a longer term, you respect it in full, unless you are protected by article 34 of the Ley Hipotecaria (the Mortgage Act); in that case, only until those five or seven years are up.
• The former owner or their family. This is the most common case with bank-owned and auction flats: the debtor goes on living in the house after losing it. They have no right to stay, but they have to be removed through the courts or by agreement.
• Someone with no right at all. An illegal occupation, or someone who lives there because the previous owner tolerated it (what the law calls precario, occupancy on sufferance). They have no right to stay either. It's the case with the most legal routes and also the most unpredictable.

If the flat is let, the analysis is different: you buy it with rent coming in from day one and what matters is the contract. We explain it in the guide to the LAU for investors. Here we focus on the other two cases.

How you recover the home

If you buy it at a court auction

This is the shortest route, because you're not starting from scratch: possession is requested within the auction proceedings themselves. If the flat is empty, the court simply puts you in possession (art. 675.1 of the Ley de Enjuiciamiento Civil, the Spanish Civil Procedure Act or LEC). If it is occupied, you request the eviction of anyone occupying it "merely de facto or without sufficient title". The court summons them to a hearing within ten days and the judge decides by order, with no appeal (art. 675.2 and 3). You have one year from when you acquire the flat to request it; after that, it takes a separate lawsuit.

Before bidding, read the notice in the BOE (the Boletín Oficial del Estado, Spain's official gazette). If the court knows the possession status, it states it, and the creditor may have asked before the auction for a declaration that the occupants have no right to stay (art. 661). If that declaration appears, you're halfway there. And beware of the opposite: the notice saying nothing doesn't mean the flat is empty. You'll find the rules for the rest of the process in the guide to court auctions, and what you inherit in prior charges at an auction.

If you buy it from a bank or a private seller

Here there are no proceedings already open: you start the recovery yourself as the new owner, with a lawyer and a procurador. There are three routes:

• Desahucio por precario (eviction of an occupant on sufferance; summary oral proceedings, juicio verbal, art. 250.1.2 LEC): against whoever lives in the house with no contract or title. It's the normal route against the former owner.
• Immediate recovery of possession (art. 250.1.4 LEC), the so-called desahucio exprés (fast-track eviction). It is designed for those who have been deprived of their home without their consent, and it can only be used by owners who are private individuals, non-profit organisations and public social housing bodies. The court asks the occupants to produce a title within five days and, if they don't have one, orders the eviction (art. 441.1 bis). If you buy as a private individual, you can use it; if you buy through a company, you can't.
• The criminal route. Since 3 April 2025, unlawful occupation (usurpación, art. 245 of the Código Penal, the Spanish Criminal Code) and breaking into a home (allanamiento de morada, art. 202) can be tried by fast-track trial (art. 795 of the Ley de Enjuiciamiento Criminal, the Criminal Procedure Act, as amended by Ley Orgánica 1/2025). It fits a recent occupation that has been reported to the police. With someone who has been inside for years and claims some right, the normal course is to go through the civil courts.

In all these proceedings, if the house is the main residence of whoever occupies it, the court automatically notifies social services so they can assess whether the household is vulnerable (art. 441.5 LEC). It doesn't prevent you recovering it, but it's one more step and it lengthens the timescales. Count on months, not weeks, and ask a local lawyer how backed up that particular court is.

What you must never do

Change the lock, cut off the electricity or water, or go in on your own, even if the flat is already yours. It can end with a complaint against you for coercion or for breaking into a dwelling, and it complicates the court case. Recovery always goes through the court or through an agreement.

The agreement: paying them to leave

Many investors prefer to negotiate: a sum of money in exchange for the occupant leaving the house and handing over the keys on a set date. With the former owner it usually works out cheaper and quicker than going to court, and it gives them something to start again with. Three rules: everything in writing, the money is paid on handover of the keys and not before, and keep a record of the condition of the home on that day, with photos or with a notarial certificate if the sum justifies it.

Before making an offer: the checklist

• Ask the servicer in writing what it knows: who lives there, since when, whether there is a contract and whether court proceedings are already under way and at what stage. If they have already started an eviction, ask whether you can continue it yourself as the new owner instead of starting another. If you're going to negotiate the price, it helps to know how to negotiate with a bank.
• Ask for the nota simple (the Land Registry extract). It tells you the charges and whether there is a registered tenancy, which changes what you have to respect. How to read it, in the nota simple from the Registry.
• Debts to the owners' association. The buyer is liable, with the flat itself, for whatever is owed for the current year and the three previous years (art. 9.1.e of the Ley de Propiedad Horizontal, the Spanish law governing owners' associations). Ask the property manager for the certificate of debt before signing. Ask about the IBI (the local property tax) too.
• Plan on paying cash. Without being able to go inside, the valuer can't carry out a full valuation, and most banks won't lend on an occupied flat.
• Do the full sums: price, purchase taxes, lawyer and procurador, the months with no income and a renovation done blind. If, with all that, the margin isn't worth it, it's not a bargain.
• Look at the building and talk to the neighbours or the caretaker. They almost always know more than the servicer.

How to find them on RadarPro

In the search tool you can filter by status and keep only the occupied ones, or remove them altogether if you don't want this risk: see the occupied flats on RadarPro. Each one comes with its valuation, so you can see at a glance how far below its valuation it is. If they come from a bank, in which property company manages each bank's flats you'll find who you're going to be negotiating with, and in the guide to embargoed flats, what's worth checking before you buy one.