The mistake you should avoid once you've paid your mortgage in Spain

Many foreigners dream of buying property in Spain. However, unless you can afford to buy it outright, you’ll likely need a loan from the bank.

Taking out a mortgage is a long-term commitment. It means paying monthly instalments over many years in order to own your own home and paying interest on it.

At the end of 2024, the average interest rate stood at 3.25 percent for mortgages in Spain, according to Business Insider.

However, while you might think that all you need to do is pay it off, there’s another step in Spain that few know about.

After twenty or thirty years of paying off your mortgage, you’ll actually need to make another final payment to finalise the loan -- as well as doing just one last bit of paperwork.

READ ALSO: The Spanish mortgage vocabulary you need to know

This surprise step has been circling Spanish media sites since well known Spanish notary María Cristina Clemente, known on social media as @notariabuendia., warned on social media about the final step that people often skip to definitively settle their Spain mortgage.

The mistake you should avoid once you've paid off your mortgage in Spain

This secret last step involves cancelling the mortgage in the Land Registry, so that the mortgage no longer exists in public records. Otherwise, until you remove this entry from the register, the property will continue to be listed as mortgaged even if it's paid off to the last penny.

Note that the responsibility to do this does not lie with your bank, but with you as the borrower. Since the information is not automatically updated in the Land Registry, you will have to take care of this yourself, especially if you want to apply for a new mortgage on the property in the future, sell the house or prove that the property is debt free.

The procedure involves asking the bank for a certificate of zero debt (certificado de deuda cero) which legally proves that the mortgage is fully paid off.

Business Insider notes that this should be completely free as per Banco de España rules, but that some banks do charge between €100-€200.

You can use the SIGNO notarial platform to complete the procedure. The bank must upload the necessary documentation, including the zero debt certificate.

Once you have all the documents in order, you can then go to the notary — either in person or through the Citizen Notary Portal, in the section on ‘Payment letters and cancellation of guarantees’ — and sign the public deed of mortgage cancellation.

This part definitely does involve a fee: the notary and registration fees will cost you around €450 in total.

Only then is your mortgage officially closed in Spain.

READ ALSO: