Moving to Madrid from the UK: the Housing Side

Most guides about moving to Spain were written before 2021 and never updated. If you are British, that matters more than it sounds, because the single biggest change of the last decade applies to you and not to the people who wrote them. This is the housing side of the move, written by someone who does this in Madrid every week: what is different from home, what trips people up, and the order I would do things in.

1. You are now in the same queue as everyone else

Freedom of movement is gone. For short visits you can come without a visa, within the standard Schengen limit of 90 days in any 180. To actually live here you need permission arranged in advance, and there are several routes depending on whether you work, are retired or work remotely.

I am a property adviser, not an immigration lawyer, and these rules move. Check the current requirements with the Spanish consulate or a good immigration solicitor before you plan anything around them. What matters for housing is the knock on effect:

• You will need an NIE, the foreigner identity number. Almost nothing happens without it: no purchase, no utilities in your name, no bank account worth having.
• Landlords will ask for different papers than a British landlord would. They want to see that you can pay and that you are staying legally.
• The order matters. Some things need the NIE first, and getting that wrong costs weeks.

I have written the paperwork sequence out in full in NIE, empadronamiento and a bank account.

2. Forget the buying process you know

This is where British buyers lose the most money, because the process looks similar enough that you assume it works the same way. It does not.

The document that tells you the truth about a property is the nota simple from the Land Registry. It shows who really owns it, the registered size, and any mortgages, charges or rights of way attached to it. It costs very little and you should never buy without one.

And the part that catches everyone: the agent showing you the flat is paid by the seller. There is no single national listing system either, so the same property can be advertised by several agencies at different prices. I have written about what that means for you in working with a buyer’s agent in Madrid.

3. Your credit history and your payslips do not travel

Whatever you have built up at home does not exist here. No credit file, no rental history, no relationship with your bank of twenty years.

For renting, expect to be asked for a work contract, recent payslips and sometimes a guarantor. If you are self employed, newly arrived or not yet working here, you may be asked for several months of rent up front instead. That is normal and negotiable.

For buying with a mortgage, non residents are typically asked for a larger deposit than residents are. Speak to a broker who actually places non resident cases before you fix your budget, because the answer changes what you can look at. There is more detail in getting a mortgage in Spain as a foreigner.

4. The money is a moving target

You are earning or holding in pounds and buying in euros, and on a property purchase the exchange rate is not a detail. A few percent either way on a three or four hundred thousand euro purchase is a meaningful sum, and it can move between the day you agree a price and the day you sign.

Two practical points. Ordinary high street transfers are rarely the cheapest way to move a large sum, so it is worth comparing before you commit. And you will need a Spanish account: utilities, community fees and the local taxes are all set up by direct debit here.

5. Where British families tend to land

There is a clear pattern, and it is driven almost entirely by schools. The international and British schools sit mostly in the northwest, so families cluster along that corridor: Pozuelo, Majadahonda, Las Rozas, Boadilla and Aravaca. Houses with gardens, quiet, very car dependent, and a commute into the centre that is fine if you time it and miserable if you do not.

Couples and people without school age children usually do better in the city itself. Chamberí is the one I suggest most often: central, residential, everything on foot. Retiro and Salamanca if the budget allows, Malasaña or Chueca if you want noise and life on the doorstep, and you should visit those last two at eleven at night before you sign anything.

One practical warning: school places are applied for well in advance and the popular ones fill up. If a specific school is the reason you are moving, confirm you have a place before you choose where to live, not after. I have seen it happen the wrong way round more than once.

The full breakdown by area is in where to live in Madrid.

6. Rent first. Almost always.

People arrive having decided to buy straight away, usually because renting feels like wasted money. In this situation it is not.

You do not yet know how the commute feels in February, whether the school run works, whether you want to be able to walk home from dinner. A year of renting costs a fraction of what it costs to buy in the wrong neighbourhood and sell again two years later, once you add the purchase costs, the taxes and the agent.

Rent for a year, learn the city properly, then buy. Almost everyone who has done it the other way round tells me the same thing afterwards.

7. The order I would follow

1. Sort out your right to be here. Everything else waits on this.
2. Get the NIE.
3. Open a Spanish bank account.
4. If schools matter, secure the place first and let it decide the area.
5. Rent for a year, in the area you think you want.
6. Live there. Do the commute. Change your mind if you need to.
7. Then buy, with the ground under your feet.

Questions I get asked a lot

Can I buy a property in Spain as a British citizen? Yes. Buying property and having the right to live here are two separate things, and owning a home does not by itself give you residency.

Do I need to be in Madrid to look? No. I view properties and walk you through them on video call while you are still in the UK, which is most of what I do for people who have not moved yet.

What about my driving licence? The arrangements between the UK and Spain have changed more than once since Brexit, so check the current position before you assume anything. It is worth sorting early, because in the outer areas of Madrid life without a car is hard.

Is it cheaper than London? Madrid is considerably cheaper than London for both renting and buying, though the gap has narrowed. What surprises people more is the running cost of a house out west in winter, which is nothing like a flat in the city.

General practical information from a property adviser, not legal, immigration or tax advice. Tax residency and cross border tax are their own subject: speak to a qualified adviser before you move. Visa rules and market conditions change.