If I buy a new-build home, what VAT and stamp duty (AJD) do I pay in Catalonia?

Question

José Manuel Alburquerque · Accepted Answer

If you buy the home from the developer on its first sale, you pay VAT at 10 %, or 4 % if it is officially protected housing (“vivienda de protección oficial”) under the special regime or publicly developed. You also pay stamp duty on the deed (the “impuesto de actos jurídicos documentados”, AJD), which in Catalonia is 1,5 % of the value. If you are 35 or under, are buying your principal residence and your income does not exceed 36.000 euros, AJD has a 100 % tax credit, meaning you do not pay it. You do not pay property transfer tax (the “impuesto de transmisiones patrimoniales”, ITP), which is the tax on second-hand homes. When a home counts as new for the tax authorities For the tax authorities, a home is new when it is sold for the first time by the developer who built or renovated it. That first sale attracts VAT. Subsequent sales attract ITP, even if the home has never been lived in. There is one case that often comes as a surprise. If the developer has let the home without an option to buy, or has used it themselves, for two consecutive years or more, its sale no longer counts as the first and attracts ITP. The exception is where it is bought by the tenant who was living in it. VAT 10 % for the home, together with up to two parking spaces and annexes, such as a storage room, sold with it. Commercial premises pay 21 %, even if sold together with the home. 4 % for officially protected housing under the special regime or publicly developed, sold by its developer. Homes under other protection schemes pay 10 %. If you buy off-plan, VAT is also paid on each payment on account you make. The developer charges it on its invoice and pays it over to the tax authorities. You do not file anything for VAT. AJD on the deed It is paid by the buyer. It is filed and paid with the “Agència Tributària de Catalunya”, the Catalan tax authority, using Form 600, within one month of the date of the deed, as with ITP. In Catalonia it is 1,5 %. It is calculated on the price excluding VAT or, if higher, on the “valor de referencia”, the reference value set by the Spanish land survey office, the “Catastro”. Since 27 June 2025 it has not been payable by buyers aged 35 or under who are acquiring their principal residence and have an income of up to 36.000 euros. Income is measured in the same way as for the reduced ITP rate for young people. Even so, they must file Form 600 within the time limit and claim the tax credit on it. AJD on the mortgage deed is paid by the bank, not by you. For example, for a new-build home costing 300.000 euros, with a lower reference value, a 40-year-old buyer pays 30.000 euros in VAT to the developer and 4.500 euros in AJD, making 34.500 euros in total. If the buyer is 35 or under and meets the income limit, they pay only the 30.000 euros of VAT. The same 40-year-old buyer would pay 30.000 euros in ITP if the home were second-hand. In the rest of Spain VAT is the same, except in the Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla, which have their own taxes. The AJD rate is set by each autonomous community.