| Home sales in Catalonia fall 10,3% year-on-year in January | Notarial Association of Catalonia | | Home sales in Catalonia fell by 10,3% year-on-year in January, according to notary data. This decline reflects a slowdown in the real estate market, influenced by factors such as higher financing costs and reduced purchasing power. Despite this, prices continue to show some resilience, indicating an imbalance between supply and demand. The trend points to a more moderate market, with a lower volume of transactions but without significant price adjustments. | | | Tags: Purchase and sale - View source |
| | Notaries explain how to donate an apartment to a child without it having to be included in the inheritance distribution. | | It is possible to donate real estate to a child without it being included in the subsequent inheritance, provided it is done correctly. To do so, it is necessary to expressly state that the donation is non-collatable, thus preventing it from being considered in the future division of the inheritance. Furthermore, it is crucial to formalize the transaction before a notary and analyze its tax implications, as proper planning helps prevent conflicts among heirs and ensures the donor's wishes are respected. | | | Tags: Donations - View source |
| | Donations from parents to children reach a record high due to the housing crisis | | Donations from parents to children have reached record levels in Spain, driven by the difficulty of accessing housing. Faced with rising prices and challenging financing conditions, many families are resorting to transferring assets during their lifetime to facilitate property purchases. This trend reflects a shift in estate planning and intergenerational support. However, it also raises tax and legal implications, making it advisable to formalize these transactions properly to avoid future conflicts. | | | Tags: Donations - View source |
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| The notaries stand firm and demand access to the top | | The Spanish Association of Notaries is seeking to introduce internal democracy within the General Council of Notaries and to regulate maternity leave. Spanish notaries are requesting a greater presence in the governing and decision-making bodies of their own profession. They denounce a lack of access to the institutional leadership and demand a more representative, transparent structure that reflects the current realities of the notary profession. This request comes within a context of generational change and transformation of the sector, where the aim is to strengthen internal participation and adapt governance to new professional and social challenges. | | | Tags: Notary - View source |
| | Landlords are now signing rental agreements before a notary to avoid problems with non-payment. | | More and more landlords are choosing to formalize rental agreements before a notary to avoid conflicts with tenants. This practice strengthens legal security, as it allows for verification of the parties' identities, the contract's content, and its legality. Furthermore, it facilitates the resolution of potential payment defaults or breaches, as it provides a document with greater evidentiary weight. This growing trend reflects the uncertainty of the rental market and the desire to prevent future problems. | | | TagsHousing, Rentals - View source |
| | Almost no one knows it, but an expert notary is sending a warning to unmarried couples: inheritance can cause problems. | | Unmarried couples may encounter inheritance difficulties if they haven't properly planned their situation. Unlike married couples, the law doesn't always grant automatic rights to the surviving partner, which can lead to conflicts with other heirs. Therefore, it's recommended to make a will and take legal measures to protect both the assets and the relationship, preventing future problems and ensuring that the deceased's wishes are carried out correctly. | | | Tags: Domestic partners - View source |
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| Notaries warn of disinvestment in Barcelona: companies are selling around 1.700 more homes than they are buying. | | Data from the study 'Radiography of the Housing Market 2007-2025' reveals that the role of private individuals in the real estate market is increasing. Notaries warn of growing disinvestment in Barcelona's real estate market, where companies are selling more homes than they are buying. This phenomenon reflects a loss of attractiveness for investors, influenced by regulatory uncertainty and market trends. The data shows that the role of legal entities is limited, but their withdrawal could impact the available supply. This trend could exacerbate the housing shortage and further put pressure on prices in the city. | | | Tags: Living place - View source |
| | Notaries warn of a slowdown in home purchases as prices skyrocket | | Notaries are warning of a slowdown in the Spanish housing market despite continued price increases. Although 2025 saw one of the best years for transactions since 2007, data shows that activity moderated in the second half of the year, with year-on-year declines in the last quarter. At the same time, the average price per square meter reached record highs, which could be reducing the purchasing power of many households and signaling a possible waning of the real estate boom. | | | Tags: Living place - View source |
| | Investor withdrawal from housing in Catalonia | | Notaries point out that investors are withdrawing from the Catalan housing market and that there is no predatory buying of properties by large landlords. This disinvestment trend has been observed since 2010 and has accelerated in recent years. Only about 10% of purchases are made by legal entities (companies/investors), and their sales exceed their purchases. The notaries themselves warn that regulatory measures must be considered cautiously to avoid unintended consequences. | | | Tags: Living place - View source |
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| The 'real' price of housing in the city of Barcelona is already 5,5% more expensive than during the bubble, according to notaries. | | According to data from the new Notary Statistical Portal, the real price of housing in the city of Barcelona has surpassed the levels of the previous real estate bubble, reaching a historic record with an average price of around €4,587/m², representing a year-on-year increase of more than 10% and placing values approximately 5,5% above the peak of 2007. This trend reflects the strong pressure on the urban real estate market, with rising prices due to high demand and a shortage of supply, and underscores the usefulness of real notarial data for analyzing and making informed decisions about sales. | | | Tags: Living place - View source |
| | The online notary: how deeds and procedures work via videoconference | | In Spain, you can now complete deeds and other notarial procedures entirely remotely via videoconference and qualified electronic signature through the Citizen's Notarial Portal. This allows you to manage actions such as mortgage cancellations, granting powers of attorney, or executing commercial documents from home using your mobile phone or computer, with full legal validity and savings in travel and costs. The system includes biometric identification and security controls to guarantee the authenticity of signatures. | | | Tags: Procedures - View source |
| | Marriages before a notary increased by 10% in 2025 | | In 2025, civil marriages performed before a notary in Spain increased by 10%, rising from 23.180 in 2024 to 25.582 in 2025, according to data from the notary association. This method, legal since 2015, offers speed and legal security similar to that of the Civil Registry. Separations and divorces before a notary also increased (7%), as did marriage applications (3,4%), reflecting a growing preference for notarial management of civil status documents. | | | Tags: Marriages before a notary - View source |
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| Donations from parents to children are skyrocketing due to high housing prices: 'Young people need that help' | | The number of transactions registered by the General Council of Notaries rose from 32.623 in 2017 to 54.735 in 2024, a 67,8% increase in seven years. Faced with the sharp rise in housing prices and the difficulty young people have accessing housing, donations of houses and money from parents to their children to buy an apartment have increased significantly. This trend, supported by data from the General Council of Notaries reflecting thousands of donations in 2025, stems from the need for family support to become independent, although it comes with tax implications that should be considered. | | | Tags: Living place - View source |
| | New service that allows citizens and companies to consult basic data of their notarial documents online | | The Ministry of Justice website announces the integration of a new service into Carpeta Justicia – the digital portal for accessing the Justice Administration – allowing citizens and businesses to consult online basic information about their notarial documents in which they have participated, such as the type of transaction (purchase, will, power of attorney, etc.), their role in the transaction, the notary's name, document number, and date. This secure and personalized access complements the services of the Electronic Notarial Office and facilitates requests for simple or certified copies in accordance with current regulations, reinforcing the digitization and transparency of notarial information management. | | | TagsNotarial documents - View source |
| | Notaries' notice regarding the new housing law | | The dean of the Notarial Association of Catalonia warns that the new Housing Rights Law disregards the rights of property owners, even vulnerable ones, transferring social protection to the State and leaving property owners unprotected against issues such as squatting and unlawful occupation. Legal experts recommend urgent measures to restore legal certainty, such as expediting evictions and prioritizing precautionary measures, and emphasize the need to incentivize investment and build more housing to alleviate the market. | | | Tags: Living place - View source |
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| The Notarial Association of Catalonia presents the new phase of the magazine “La Notaria” | Lawyerpress NEWS | | The Notarial Association of Catalonia has launched a new phase for its corporate magazine, La Notaria, one of Spain's oldest legal publications (founded in 1858). The revamp includes Javier Serrano as editor, publication by Tirant lo Blanch, and a more attractive and modern design, while maintaining versions in both Spanish and Catalan. The aim is to offer current, high-quality content, reinforcing its role as a forum for reflection, with a digital presence for greater accessibility. | | | Tags: News - View source |
| | Goodbye to paper-only notarial documents: government agencies are streamlining these procedures | | Spain has eliminated the requirement to exclusively use paper notarial documents following the approval of Order HAC/305/2025, which introduces legally valid electronic stamped documents. These electronic documents are equivalent to physical documents and incorporate digital seals and security mechanisms that maintain all legal guarantees. Digitization streamlines procedures, reduces travel and paper use, and allows for the management of deeds, powers of attorney, and contracts in electronic format with the same legal validity as before. | | | Tags: News - View source |
| | Notaries confirm the resurgence of home sales after the summer | | The article indicates that, after a lull during the summer, home sales in Spain experienced a “resurrection” in September 2025. Total transactions reached 58.845 homes—5% more than in the same month of the previous year—and the average price stood at €1.940/m², marking a year-on-year increase of 6,3%. Sales of both apartments (+3,1%) and single-family homes (+10,7%) rose. This rebound suggests a recovery in real estate activity after months of slowdown. | | | Tags: Purchase and sale - View source |
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| A notary's important advice about wills: "It's better to inherit..." | | An important warning from a notary about wills. The article explains that, according to a notary, it is generally more advantageous to leave an inheritance than to make a lifetime gift. Although gifting seems appealing, it can involve higher taxes, as gift tax is payable and, in many cases, the donor is taxed on the capital gain under their personal income tax. Conversely, inheriting can be more advantageous from a tax perspective, reducing the risk of heirs renouncing their inheritance due to excessively high taxes. | | | Tags: Testament - View source |
| | The Law on the Digitalization of Notaries is reaping its first fruits after two years in force | | In the last two years—since the entry into force of Law 11/2023—notaries in Spain have massively adopted the digitization of their protocols. As a result, more than 14,6 million electronic deeds have been authorized and around half a million electronic copies with a Secure Verification Code (CSV) have been issued. This measure allows citizens and businesses to obtain official documents (deeds, powers of attorney, company formation documents, etc.) entirely electronically, reducing time, costs, and travel. At the same time, legal certainty is maintained: digital protocols have the same legal validity as traditional ones, are encrypted, and are only accessible to the corresponding notary. |
This transformation represents a significant modernization of the notarial service, facilitating corporate, real estate and administrative procedures with the efficiency of digital technology, without losing validity or legal guarantee.
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| | Notaries launch a free Housing Portal with real market prices | | The General Council of Notaries has launched a free statistical portal offering real-world prices in the Spanish real estate market, based on notarial deeds. This platform allows users to consult detailed data on the average price per square meter, average property size, number of transactions, and other sociodemographic statistics, with information broken down by geographic area. The aim is to provide transparency and a reliable source for citizens, professionals, and government agencies, facilitating decision-making in home sales, public policy, and real estate investments. | | | Tags: Notary - View source |
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| The General Council of Notaries indicates which nationality buys the most homes in Spain to live in: it represents the highest percentage of transactions in seven regions | | The General Council of Notaries reveals that in the first quarter of 2025, 71.155 home sales were registered in Spain by foreigners, representing 19,3% of the total. Foreign residents carried out 43.306 transactions (60,9%) and paid an average price of €1.912/m², a year-on-year increase of 10,3%. The nationality with the most home purchases was Moroccan, with 5.557 transactions, followed by Romanian and Italian. | | | Tags: News - View source |
| | Notaries sign a new protocol to act in catastrophes like the DANA storm and help businesses | | The General Council of Notaries has officially launched the “Notarial Emergency Plan,” a national protocol coordinating the actions of notaries in the event of natural or social disasters. The program includes the establishment of a Notarial Emergency Commission, online mechanisms for issuing damage or loss reports, and a commitment to maintaining active notarial services in extreme situations. The objective is to guarantee the legal security of affected citizens, homes, businesses, and entities. | | | Tags: News - View source |
| | The notary profession reveals the reality of the Spanish real estate market | | The General Council of Notaries has launched a new Statistical Portal offering monthly data on the Spanish real estate market based on over 170 million notarial documents. The report reveals that 717.000 homes were purchased in the last year, 91% of them resale properties, and that the average price per square meter has increased by 64% in twelve years. It also highlights the decline in young buyers and the increase in foreign demand, especially in cities like Barcelona. | | | Tags: Notary - View source |
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