Procuradores' auctions: what they are and how they differ from the BOE

Besides the BOE Portal de Subastas (the auction portal of the BOE, Spain's Official State Gazette), Spain has a second channel through which property coming out of legal proceedings is sold: the Portal de Subastas Electrónicas de los Procuradores (the online auction portal of the procuradores, the court representatives who act for the parties in proceedings), run by the Consejo General de Procuradores (their national governing council). The law allows the sale of the asset to be entrusted to a "specialist entity" instead of auctioning it on the BOE, and the procuradores' professional associations are one such entity. It is also used for voluntary auctions by private individuals and companies. It's a smaller market, with less competition and its own rules, which is why it's worth knowing how it works.

What a procuradores' auction is

In proceedings begun since 3 April 2025, selling the seized asset through a specialist entity instead of by ordinary court auction requires the enforcing creditor and the debtor to agree on it in a convenio de realización (an agreement on how the asset will be sold; article 640 of the Ley de Enjuiciamiento Civil, or LEC, the Spanish Civil Procedure Act), which is approved by the letrado de la Administración de Justicia (the court clerk) and, if it's a property, needs the express consent of the creditors and third-party holders registered after the charge being enforced. In proceedings begun earlier, the previous wording of article 641, now left blank, still applies: it allowed the clerk to order it at the request of the enforcing creditor, or of the debtor with the enforcing creditor's consent. The Consejo General de Procuradores has its own platform for this: it publishes the asset, organises the sale and pays the price over to the court. The legal outcome is the same as at a BOE auction (an award approved by the court and the cancellation of later charges), but the commercial procedure is different.

Alongside those court sales, the portal holds voluntary auctions: owners (private individuals, companies, estates, insolvency administrators) who decide to sell a property by online auction with a starting price and a deadline. Here there's no court and no debt involved: it's an ordinary sale with a different pricing mechanism.

How it differs from the BOE

• The conditions are set by each auction's pliego (terms and conditions): the deposit to bid, the duration, the method of payment and the deadline. The 20% and the twenty days of the LEC don't apply automatically; you have to read the rules of each one.
• There are usually more details and viewings. The procuradores organise the sale as an estate agency would: photos, documentation and, often, the chance to view the property. On the BOE, almost never.
• Fewer bidders. It's a much less well-known portal, and that shows in the competition.
• The seller can be a private individual. In voluntary auctions there are no court proceedings, so there are no charges cancelled by the sale: you buy as in any ordinary purchase, with the nota simple (the Land Registry extract) in front of you.

What to check before bidding

1. The pliego de condiciones (the terms and conditions): the deposit, the payment deadline, the costs the buyer bears and whether the entity charges a commission.
2. The origin: a court sale (with a court and charges that are cancelled) or a voluntary one (an ordinary sale). It changes everything else.
3. The registry documentation: the nota simple or the certificación de cargas (the registry's certificate of charges), and in court sales the full case file.
4. The occupancy situation and whether you can view it.
5. The real market value, because the starting price is set by the seller or the court, not by the market.

Who it makes sense for

For the buyer who already follows the BOE and wants to widen their radar to a channel with less noise, and for anyone who can't stand buying without seeing the flat: at many procuradores' auctions you can view it. The price you end up paying isn't necessarily lower than on the BOE, but the information is better and the competition smaller.

Further reading: the rules of the ordinary court auction, to compare each pliego against, in the guide to court auctions; and the other channels that don't go through the courts, in non-judicial auctions.