A Guide to Home Renovation in Spain

Before you purchase your restoration project, you need do some study and consider the following three factors: budgetary limits, physical constraints, and legal constraints. If you get in touch with us ahead of time, we’ll accompany you on a project inspection and write up a report so you can make an educated choice before you buy.

Guide to Spanish home renovations:

Budget, additions, and energy efficiency
In Spain, remodelling a property can frequently be far less expensive than buying or creating one from start.

However, as with any Spanish real estate purchase, renovating in spain it’s crucial to have all the information at your disposal before making a choice.

We at Build works are glad to serve as your advisor at this preliminary stage of considering your options because we have experience both building and refurbishing homes in Spain.

Here are all the things to think about when upgrading a home in Spain.

Why remodelling rather than building a new home in Spain may be preferable – renovating in spain is great fun but can be stressful!

Spanish home renovation
Given the decreasing quantity of new plots accessible for construction, remodelling a property in Spain might be a highly alluring idea.

The existence of high-quality land for sale in a community may entirely depend on its long-term development ambitions. This has increased prices in incredibly coveted places while simultaneously reducing the amount of land that is available.

Renovation is the only practical option to live in a modern, energy-efficient home in the rural areas of Andalucia, for instance, where there is essentially a ban on new construction on rustica land (more on this later).

Construction from scratch makes it far simpler to build an energy-efficient home than renovation. However, because a new build has a negative impact on the environment, rebuilding will do more to reduce your carbon footprint.

The price of home renovations in Spain
Spanish home undergoing renovation
It’s critical to evaluate all costs, not just the purchase price, when comparing the financial benefits of restoring a Spanish home with creating one from scratch.

Because you don’t know what you’re dealing with until you start, the cost of remodelling a Spanish home is more difficult to predict than the cost of a new construction.

For a decent project based on a building that is at least habitable, you can anticipate paying at least 100% of the acquisition price.

Naturally, you might easily spend more than 1,000,000€ on the renovation for bigger projects.

The cost of the renovation may frequently only be estimated with the greatest degree of certainty once construction has begun and an accurate evaluation of the current structure’s foundation and structural soundness has been made.

Whatever your spending limit, you should always allow room in your restoration budget to account for unforeseen foundation or building problems that emerge once work has started.

Ensure that you account for site preparation, foundations, professional fees, finishes, installations, landscaping, a garden, a pool, and taxes while gathering estimates to determine the price of renovating a home in Spain. These numbers can occasionally be overlooked in “back-of-the-fag-packet” assessments and come as an unwanted surprise afterwards.

Always ask for a fixed-price quote for a specific job or an estimate based on the information that is currently available (which can go up dramatically when the true scope of the project becomes clear). A price and a contract should be obtained before beginning any renovation work.

Every renovation undertaking is different. Get in touch with us for some actual expenses if you’d like to view a breakdown of a recent Spanish home remodel. In order to provide early estimates and brainstorm ideas, Build Works can also go on your behalf to visit suitable refurbishment homes in Spain.

How much should you budget to refurbish a home in Spain?
It is straightforward (though not necessarily simple) to determine how much you can afford to spend for a house in Spain that needs renovations:

value of the finished project minus the total cost of the refurbishment (including professional fees) – residual value: something in exchange for your work and effort (what you should pay for the property)

It takes a lot of analyses to determine a project’s financial feasibility in Spain before you decide to buy. The only way to accurately determine how much you should pay to renovate a home is to have a completely researched and costed specification; otherwise, you’re left utilising estimates as your benchmarks.

You should think about safeguarding the value of your investment. According to market research conducted by Build Works in Spain with an eye on foreign purchasers, individuals are willing to pay 20% to 30% extra for an energy-efficient structure.

Thankfully, an energy-efficient remodel need not be more expensive and could significantly increase the return on your investment.

How much of the current building can you save?
Regulations set forth by municipal authorities play a significant role in determining how much of an old building you may utilise (and its attitude, in many cases).

Depending on how much of the current building you wish to use, the cost, and the attitude of the authorities, will determine how much of it you use.

It’s crucial to check these things out before making any significant decisions because there may be aesthetic or historical reasons to maintain certain building aspects.

You will require a Spanish architect’s expert advice on what can be done after having him and his head builder assess the site.

However, they won’t truly understand the problem unless they break into the building’s foundation and structure to view what’s within, which might not be doable before the acquisition. Naturally, this is one of the riskier aspects of buying a house to remodel rather than buying or building a home.

Do it yourself, employ a professional builder, or hire a handyman?

The degree of a renovation in Spain might range from simple upkeep and painting to exterior and interior recladding or even building a new load-bearing frame inside an old historic building to accommodate contemporary functions. Renovating in Spain on your own can be costly.

There are many local handymen who are jobless and will volunteer to do the work for next to nothing wherever you decide to refurbish in Spain.

But take care! A neighbourhood handyman might not be too concerned about certain professional standards that must be upheld in order to repair a home effectively.

You run the risk of experiencing cold winters, sweltering summers, and even rising damp if you merely labour to basic standards.

Working with experts that can help you through Spanish legislation, speak your language, and have a track record of success will make renovating property in Spain a pleasant process.

renovating the home’s exterior
A rural home should blend in well with its environment. While modern architecture is common, it is mostly found in metropolitan areas, therefore when remodelling a country house in Spain, it is advisable to think “traditional.”

If modern architecture is your thing, you may still create a modern atmosphere while staying true to the structure’s past. In fact, if constructed with the right consideration and care, these structures may be quite attractive. An antique structure with charm and personality that may be preserved or improved may draw you in.

The outside space is equally as significant as the interior because expats frequently travel to Spain to take advantage of the lovely weather. In fact, we advise that you plan your house for both indoor and outdoor living. To prevent your building from overheating, use sizable shaded terraces, and create inviting areas for outside dining and barbecuing.

Extensions to buildings in Spain
The local authorities will have specific guidelines on the number of square metres you can build as a percentage of the entire plot area as well as closeness to boundaries if the building is on an urbano plot (property designated for development).

In other words, you probably can extend the structure if it is smaller than the entire area you are permitted to build on.

Some issues, such as whether the basement counts and how deeply it must be buried, are up to the local planning official (arquitecto municipal).

It is nearly probably impossible to expand homes on rstica terrain, which is typically inaccessible for construction. Verify the permissible square metres within the entire plot because a previous owner may have illegally expanded the property.

In Spain, breaking a building law bears severe consequences, with fines ranging from 30,000 to 600,000 euros. So, before you buy a home in Spain that you intend to renovate, get an architect to check with the town hall.

Spanish home renovation: Adding value through energy efficiency
Adding solar panels to a Spanish home remodelling
According to a 2019 EU Directive, all new structures must have zero carbon emissions. Buildings that comply with the new rule will certainly be more valuable than those that don’t even before 2019 arrives.

If you want to maintain the value of your property, renovating in Spain you should give energy efficiency serious consideration when remodelling. An energy-efficient building will be more valuable than an inefficient one.

Since June 2013, a notary cannot register a property transfer by sale or lease without a CEE (Certificado de Eficiencia Energetica). The property will be banded on a bar chart as a result of this energy certificate. The idea is that buyers will give a better-banded property a higher value because of the energy savings it offers.