Spain Votes on 29 November: What the Election Means for Property Buyers

Spain will hold a general election on 29 November 2026. For property buyers, nothing has changed today. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced the vote on 5 October, three days after Congress rejected his government's two housing decrees. Purchase taxes on open-market homes are unchanged, and the bill for a 100% tax on non-EU buyers lapses when parliament is dissolved. The holiday-let measures, however, are back: on 6 October the government re-issued them in a new decree that is already in force and now awaits a vote in Congress (see the update below).

Below: why the election was called, what the failed decrees would have changed, what happens to the 100% tax, which rules apply to buyers today, and what to watch until election day. We will update this article as the campaign develops.

Update, 12 October 2026: the tax measures are back

On 6 October, four days after Congress rejected them, the government approved the housing measures again in two new royal decree-laws, published in the BOE on 7 October. The tax measures are in RDL 29/2026, in force since 8 October. Its content is almost identical to the rejected RDL 26/2026. The one change in the measures described below concerns the limit on discounted purchases: it now runs to the end of 2030 instead of 2028, and applies to firms that buy homes or bad mortgage debt well below value and to large corporate landlords, rather than to every company whose business includes buying property.

The stressed-zone condition matters on the coast. Stressed zones are declared by each regional government. None of the regions where we work (the Valencia region, Murcia, Andalusia and the Balearic Islands) has declared one, according to the official lists published in the BOE up to the second quarter of 2026. Until they do, the tourist-let IBI surcharge cannot be applied there.

The measure we missed on 5 October: imputed income

Both the rejected decree and the new one change the tax that non-resident owners pay on a home they do not rent out. Today the imputed income is 1.1% of the cadastral value (2% if the town's values have not been revised since 2012). From 2027 it becomes a scale on the cadastral value: 1.1% up to €100,000, 1.5% on the next €400,000, 2% up to €1 million and 3% above that. The tax itself stays at 19% for EU and EEA residents and 24% for everyone else.

For a typical coastal apartment, nothing changes, and the bill falls where cadastral values are old. The increase is felt on villas and high-value homes. The decree defines the scale on the total cadastral value of an owner's homes; how the Tax Agency will apply it to non-residents, who are taxed property by property, has not yet been explained, so check your own case with a tax adviser.

What happens next

With parliament dissolved, the decrees go to the Standing Committee of Congress (Diputación Permanente), which under Article 86 of the Constitution has 30 days from their approval on 6 October to validate or repeal them, so the vote must take place by early November. As of 12 October no date has been set. The two decrees are voted separately; according to a count published by Público, the one with the tax measures would pass by 35 votes to 34 if the Basque PNV votes in favour, as it did on 2 October. If it is validated, it stays in force until a new government changes it. Polls give PP and Vox a majority on 29 November; both voted against the decrees. The imputed-income scale only starts to count from 2027, so a new government would have time to change it before anyone pays it. The VAT is different: if the decree is validated, it applies from 1 December, before a new government can take office.

Why Spain is voting: the housing decrees failed

A royal decree-law takes effect immediately but must be validated by Congress within 30 days. If Congress votes it down, the decree is repealed. That is what happened to both texts on 2 October.

What the failed decrees would have changed

The larger decree, RDL 26/2026, carried the tax measures that mattered to property owners. Each one had a start date that had not yet arrived, so none of them was ever charged:

• 10% VAT on short lets. From 1 December 2026, renting a furnished home for stays of up to 30 nights would have stopped being VAT-exempt and been taxed at 10%, unless the home was the owner's own main residence (Article 7).
• IBI surcharge on tourist flats. In officially "stressed" housing zones, town halls could have raised the annual IBI property tax on registered tourist lets by up to 50%, up to 100% for owners of two or more, and up to 150% for owners of four or more (Article 8).
• IBI surcharge on long-term empty homes. Up to 50–100% for homes left empty without justification for over two years. Second homes were explicitly treated as justified for up to four years of continuous vacancy (Article 8).
• Limits on discounted purchases by companies. Entities whose business includes buying property would have been barred, until the end of 2028, from buying homes for less than 70% of their appraised value (Article 1). This did not apply to private individuals.

The second decree, RDL 27/2026, dealt with long-term rental contracts for tenants' main homes. Neither decree targeted foreign buyers as such, but RDL 26/2026 also changed the imputed income tax that non-resident owners pay from 2027; see the update above.

What happens to the 100% foreign-buyer tax

The 100% tax on non-EU, non-resident buyers was announced in January 2025 and filed by PSOE as a bill in Congress in May 2025. It was never debated. Under Article 207 of the Rules of the Congress, when parliament is dissolved every bill still pending lapses, whatever stage it has reached. With the dissolution for the 29 November election, the 100% tax stops existing even as a bill: it would have to be filed again from scratch in the next parliament. Buyers living in the EU were never covered by it. Our full story of the 100% tax explains what was proposed and who it would have affected.

Even as proposed, the tax would not have applied to new-build homes bought directly from a developer, because those sales pay VAT rather than transfer tax. See our guide to buying new-build property in Spain.

What applies to buyers today

1. Purchase taxes are unchanged

A resale home pays regional transfer tax (ITP): 9% in the Valencia region (11% above €1 million), 8% in Murcia and 7% in Andalusia. A new build bought from a developer pays 10% VAT plus regional stamp duty. Nothing in either decree touched these rates. Our guide to property taxes in Spain sets out every tax for residents and non-residents.

2. Holiday lets: plan for 10% VAT from 1 December

If you are buying to rent to holidaymakers, plan for 10% VAT on stays of up to 30 nights from 1 December 2026, unless the Standing Committee repeals the decree. The IBI surcharge needs a stressed zone, which the Valencia region, Murcia, Andalusia and the Balearic Islands have not declared. The licence rules remain those of each region and town hall. See our guide to renting out property in Spain.

3. The election decides how long the decree lasts

A royal decree-law validated by the Standing Committee stays in force until a new law or decree changes it. Whoever forms the government after 29 November can keep, amend or repeal these measures; until then, the rules described here apply.

If you want to see what fits your budget under the rules in force today, ask for a personal selection.

How the rules for foreign buyers have moved since 2025

What to watch until 29 November

Parties usually publish their full programmes once the campaign begins. We will update this article with what each major party proposes on housing and foreign buyers, quoting their own documents, as soon as they are published, and again after the result. Two dates before then: the Standing Committee vote on the decrees, and a 24-hour general strike over housing called by the main unions for 11 November, when public services and transport may be disrupted; if you have a signing booked for that day, confirm it with your notary.