Moving Back to the UK: What to Do With Your Spanish Property

If you own a home on the Costa Blanca and you are moving back to the UK or Ireland, you have four realistic options: rent it out long term, run it as a holiday let, leave it empty, or sell. For most people who do not plan to return, selling or long-term renting is simpler than holiday letting, and leaving it empty is the one that quietly costs money every year.

Quick facts

• Empty homes still pay tax: non-residents owe a deemed-income tax on a Spanish home that is not rented out, filed on Modelo 210.
• UK and Irish owners are treated differently: Irish residents get the EU rate and can deduct some costs on rental income. UK residents are taxed at the higher non-EU rate on gross rent.
• Holiday lets are tightening: Valencian registration is valid for 5 years, needs a municipal compatibility report, and flats now need community approval.
• Residency has a cut-off date: Spain treats tax residency by whole calendar years, so when you leave matters.
• Selling as a non-resident: the buyer withholds 3% of the price and pays it to the tax office as an advance on your tax.
• You can sell from abroad: a notarial power of attorney with an apostille lets someone sign for you in Spain.
• Rules checked: October 2026. Tourist-rental rules in particular are still moving.

The four options side by side

Option	Main upside	Main catch
Keep and rent long term	Steady income, no tourist licence needed	Tax on rent from Spain, plus tax on the same income at home. Tenant rules can make a later sale harder.
Holiday let	Higher potential income	Registration, community approval, local management, and rules that differ by town.
Leave it empty	You keep your own use of it	IBI (annual property tax), community fees, insurance and upkeep, plus deemed-income tax, with no rent coming in.
Sell	Clean break, no ongoing costs	Taxes on the sale, and the paperwork has to work from another country.

Option 1: keep it and rent it long term

Long-term renting is the lowest-friction way to keep the property. You do not need a tourist licence, and tenants stay put for months or years.

The tax is the part people miss. The Spanish tax agency taxes non-resident landlords on the full rent received. Only residents of EU and EEA countries (with effective tax information exchange) can deduct expenses, and their rate is 19%. Everyone else pays 24% with no deductions. After Brexit, that puts UK residents in the 24% group and Irish residents in the 19% group, as set out on the Spanish tax agency's page on rented property. You may also owe tax on the same income at home, usually with credit for what you paid in Spain.

Also think about exit. A property with a tenant is harder to sell, and a lease can limit who your buyer can be. Our guide to selling a property with tenants in Spain covers that side.

Option 2: holiday let

Holiday letting from abroad is possible, but the rules have tightened and they are not the same in every town. In the Valencian Community, a tourist home means a whole property let for stays of 10 nights or fewer. The Generalitat's October 2025 FAQ sets out what that now involves:

• A favourable municipal report confirming the use is compatible with local planning.
• A unique cadastral reference (the property's individual tax-registry number) for the home.
• Registration that lasts 5 years, then needs renewing.
• For flats and other properties in a community, express approval by three fifths of the owners since 3 April 2025.

That last point has teeth in Torrevieja. A published resolution dated 16 February 2026 backed a Torrevieja land registrar who refused a tourist registration number. The licence was granted after 3 April 2025, and the community had only certified that nothing forbade tourist use. It had not approved it. Flats already operating before that date are treated differently, but you should not assume yours qualifies.

On municipal limits, Alicante city has approved a two-year suspension of new licences for individual tourist flats in residential buildings, and has said it wants permanent rules in place by the end of 2026. I did not find an equivalent moratorium for Torrevieja, but that is not the same as confirmation. Ask the town hall directly before you plan around it. And remember you would need someone local to handle check-ins, cleaning and problems while you are in another country.

Option 3: leave it empty

This feels like the do-nothing option, but it is not free. You keep paying IBI, community fees, insurance, utilities and repairs. A closed-up flat by the sea also ages faster than people expect.

On top of that, Spain taxes non-resident owners on deemed income. For an urban property that is not rented out, the base is 1.1% of the cadastral value (2% if the value has not been revised recently), with no expenses deducted, then taxed at 19% or 24% depending on where you live. The tax agency's worked example uses a cadastral value of 60,000 euros, which gives deemed income of 660 euros and tax of 125.40 euros at 19%. At 24% the same figures give 158.40 euros. It is modest, but it comes every year, and the filing window for Modelo 210 has been changed by a 2026 order, so ask your gestor (administrative agent) which dates apply.

Option 4: sell, and the timing question

Spain treats tax residency in whole calendar years. According to the tax agency's Modelo 030 FAQ, if you leave in the first half of the year and spent no more than 183 days in Spain, the change can take effect on 1 January of that year. If you were there more than 183 days, it takes effect on 1 January of the following year. You tell the agency using Modelo 030.

Why does that matter for a sale? Because the tax treatment changes with your status on the day you sell:

• Still a Spanish tax resident: the gain goes on your Spanish income tax return. Residents over 65 selling their main home do not have to declare the gain, and the agency counts a home as your main home if it was one at any point in the two years before the sale.
• Already non-resident: the gain is taxed at 19% under the non-resident regime, and the buyer withholds 3% of the price and pays it in as an advance. The reinvestment relief for a new main home is limited to EU and EEA residents, so UK residents should not count on it.

Neither route is automatically better. It depends on your age, your gain, and whether the home counts as your main home, so get a gestor or abogado to run the numbers before you pick a leaving date. For how the 3%, the plusvalía municipal (local land-value tax) and capital gains fit together, use the seller net-proceeds calculator rather than guessing. If you are tax resident in the UK, HMRC generally taxes worldwide gains and gives credit for Spanish tax paid on the same gain, according to HMRC's international manual.

Selling remotely with a power of attorney

You do not have to fly back to sign. A poder notarial (notarial power of attorney) lets a person you trust sign the sale deed at a Spanish notary on your behalf.

1. Get the right type: a specific power for this sale is usually safer than a general one. It should name the property and cover signing the deed, receiving the money and dealing with the tax paperwork.
2. Sign it before a notary or solicitor: GOV.UK says documents like powers of attorney must first be certified by a UK notary or solicitor.
3. Add the apostille: GOV.UK's legalisation service lists the standard paper apostille at 45 pounds plus postage, taking up to 25 working days, with a faster e-apostille at 35 pounds.
4. Check translation and format: the Spanish notary may want a sworn translation, and may prefer a paper original. Ask them before you pay for anything.

Build in time. Between the notary appointment, the apostille and any translation, this can take weeks. Our list of documents needed to sell property in Spain shows what else to gather, and the guide on whether you need a lawyer to sell explains why one is worth having when you are not in the country.

Before you sign anything

Tax residency, the 3% retention, deemed income and tourist-rental registration all depend on your own facts. Ask a gestor or abogado to confirm your situation, ideally before you set a leaving date. The rules described here were checked in October 2026, and Valencian tourist-rental rules in particular are still changing.