ITP in Catalonia in 2026: how the progressive 10–13% scale works and what you actually pay at €650k, €900k and €1.5M

In short. Since 27 June 2025, resale property in Catalonia is taxed on a progressive scale: 10% on the first €600,000, 11% from €600,000 to €900,000, 12% from €900,000 to €1,500,000 and 13% above that. The bands work like income tax, so a €900,000 apartment carries €93,000 of ITP (10.3%) and a €1,500,000 one €165,000 (11%). Large holders and buyers of whole residential buildings pay a flat 20%. The tax is due within one month of the deed, on the higher of the price and the Cadastre reference value.

What ITP is, and when it applies

ITP — Impuesto sobre Transmisiones Patrimoniales — is the transfer tax the buyer pays when acquiring a resale (second-hand) property in Spain. It is a regional tax: the state sets the framework, each autonomous community sets its own rates, and the money goes to the regional treasury. In Catalonia that is the Agència Tributària de Catalunya (ATC), which is why the rates in this article apply to Barcelona, Sitges, the Maresme and the Costa Brava but not to Mallorca, Madrid or Marbella.

ITP applies to resale purchases only. A new-build bought directly from the developer is subject to VAT at 10% plus stamp duty (AJD) at 1.5% instead. That distinction matters more than it used to, and we come back to it below.

The mechanics are simple. The buyer self-assesses the tax on Form 600, files it with the ATC and pays it within one month of the date of the notarial deed. In practice the buyer’s lawyer or a gestoría does this in the days after completion. The Land Registry will not register the property in your name until the tax has been settled, so ITP is not a cost you can defer or negotiate around. It is part of the price of the keys.

What changed in 2025, and why it lands precisely on the premium segment

Until June 2025 Catalonia taxed resale property at 10% up to one million euros and 11% above. Decree-Law 5/2025 of 25 March replaced that with four bands, in force since 27 June 2025:

Below €600,000 nothing changed. The entire increase falls on the part of the price above €600,000 — which is to say, on exactly the segment in which international buyers in Barcelona operate. This was not accidental. The reform was presented as a housing-affordability measure, and its logic is that a buyer at €1.5 million can absorb an extra €10,000 of tax. Whether one agrees with the logic or not, that is the arithmetic, and it is worth seeing before the reservation contract rather than after.

How the scale is applied: by band, not on the whole price

This is the point most often misunderstood, including in some of the Polish- and English-language guides we have read. Crossing a threshold does not push the whole price into the higher rate. Each band is taxed at its own rate and the amounts are added, exactly as in income tax.

Take a €1,000,000 apartment. The first €600,000 is taxed at 10% (€60,000). The next €300,000 is taxed at 11% (€33,000). The remaining €100,000 is taxed at 12% (€12,000). Total ITP: €105,000, an effective rate of 10.5% — not 12%.

Worked examples: €650,000, €900,000, €1,500,000

The three price points we see most often among our international clients, plus two above them for completeness. The right-hand columns show what the same purchase would have cost under the pre-June-2025 rules and the difference the reform makes.

Two things stand out. At €650,000 the reform is close to irrelevant: €500. At €900,000 it is a rounding error on the deal but a real number in your bank account: €3,000. From €1.5 million upwards it becomes a line item worth planning for — and above €2 million the effective rate keeps climbing towards 13%, without ever quite reaching it.

Remember that ITP is only the largest of the acquisition costs, not the only one. Notary, Land Registry, legal fees and, where relevant, a sworn translator and the NIE procedure come on top. We set those out in our guide to the costs of buying a property in Barcelona; a full reconciliation of a €900,000 purchase in Sarrià, line by line, is the next article in this series.

The floor under the tax: the Cadastre reference value

Since 2022 the taxable base for ITP is not simply the price you paid. It is the higher of the price and the valor de referencia — a reference value published for every property by the Spanish Cadastre, derived from notarial sales data in the area. If you negotiate a price below the reference value, you still pay ITP on the reference value.

For most transactions in the premium segment the price sits above the reference value and the rule is invisible. It bites in three situations we see regularly: a hard-negotiated purchase from a motivated seller; a property in poor condition, because the reference value knows nothing about the state of the kitchen; and older buildings in central districts where reference values have caught up with the market faster than asking prices. In each case the sensible move is to check the reference value on the Cadastre’s electronic office before the arras contract, not after the deed. The value can be challenged, but the tax is paid first and argued about later.

The 20% rate: who it catches, and who it does not

The same 2025 reform introduced a flat 20% ITP for two categories of purchase. Most private buyers will never meet it. Some of our clients, particularly those buying through companies or looking at whole buildings, meet it directly.

Large holders. A buyer — individual or company — who already owns more than ten residential properties, or more than 1,500 m² of residential floor space, in Catalonia. In municipalities declared “tensioned residential market zones”, which include Barcelona and most of its metropolitan area, the threshold drops to five or more residential properties. Garages and storage rooms do not count towards the total, and for an individual the habitual residence is excluded from the count. The status is assessed at the moment of purchase, and the ATC’s interpretive criteria of February 2026 confirm that companies in the same group are counted separately.

Whole residential buildings. Any building containing two or more dwellings, whether or not it has been divided horizontally, is taxed at 20% regardless of who buys it. There is one exception that matters to families: an individual buying a building of up to four dwellings, all of which will be the habitual residence of the buyer and relatives up to the second degree, occupied within twelve months and kept for three years. A single-family house is not a “building of dwellings” and is not affected. In a mixed-use building the 20% applies only to the residential part.

The practical consequence for investors is clear. A project like Casa Alesan — a whole Eixample building bought for restoration and division into apartments — would today carry ITP at 20% on the residential floor area, roughly double what it would have paid before June 2025. That does not make such projects unviable, but it changes the acquisition model, and it is a conversation to have with your lawyer before the first offer, not at the notary.

Where the maths flips: resale versus new-build

A new-build bought from the developer pays 10% VAT plus 1.5% AJD — 11.5% flat, at every price. Resale pays the progressive ITP scale. Until June 2025 resale was always the lighter tax burden. Now the two lines cross.

At €650,000 the resale effective rate is 10.08% against 11.5% for new-build. At €1.5 million it is 11.0% against 11.5% — still lighter, but barely. At exactly €2 million the two are identical: €230,000 either way. Above €2 million a resale purchase carries more tax than an equivalent new-build. For a buyer weighing a restored Modernista apartment in the Eixample against a new development in Diagonal Mar or Sant Gervasi, the tax differential that used to favour the older building has, at the top of the market, quietly reversed. It is rarely the deciding factor; it is worth knowing.

Reduced rates — and why they will not apply to you

Catalonia keeps a set of reduced ITP rates: 5% for buyers under 35, large or single-parent families, people with a recognised disability and victims of gender violence; 7% for officially protected housing; 4% or 3% in designated rural municipalities. Every one of them is tied to a habitual residence and, for the personal categories, to an income cap in the region of €36,000 a year. A buyer in the premium segment will not qualify, and no amount of structuring will change that. We mention them so that nobody plans around a rate that is not available.

The same €1.5 million elsewhere in Spain

Families comparing Barcelona with Mallorca or the Costa del Sol often ask how the tax compares. On a €1.5 million resale purchase, Catalonia charges €165,000. The Balearic Islands, with their own progressive scale from 8% to 13%, charge €150,000. Andalusia, at a flat 7%, charges €105,000. Madrid, at a flat 6%, charges €90,000.

Catalonia sits, in other words, at the top of the Spanish range for a €1.5 million resale apartment — €15,000 above Mallorca and €60,000 above Marbella. That is real money and we do not pretend otherwise. It is also a one-off cost against a decision that usually turns on schools, airports, healthcare, resale liquidity and how you want to live — which is why we will be writing about that comparison separately, rather than reducing it to a tax table.

Three practical points for a foreign buyer

The money has to be in Spain. ITP is paid from a Spanish bank account, in euros, within a month of the deed. Together with the balance of the price, notary and registry fees, it should be provisioned in your Spanish account before the notary date. A buyer transferring funds from abroad should build the ITP into the transfer plan, not treat it as an afterthought — an international transfer that lands in the last days of the one-month window is a stressful way to save nothing.

Keep Form 600. ITP is not deductible against income tax in Spain or, in our experience, creditable against tax at home. But it is added to your acquisition cost. When you eventually sell, the capital gain taxed in Spain (starting from 19% for EU residents) is calculated on the price paid plus the costs of acquisition, ITP included. On a €900,000 purchase that is €93,000 of future taxable gain you will not pay tax on. The filed Form 600 and the payment receipt are the evidence.

Have the NIE before you need it. Form 600 is filed under your NIE. Buyers who leave the NIE until the last weeks before completion discover that the tax filing, the bank and the notary are all waiting on the same number. Our guide to the NIE sets out the timing.

Frequently asked questions

Does the 13% rate apply to the whole price of a property above €1.5 million?

No. Only the part of the taxable base above €1,500,000 is taxed at 13%. The first €600,000 is taxed at 10%, the next €300,000 at 11% and the next €600,000 at 12%. A €2,000,000 purchase carries €230,000 of ITP, an effective rate of 11.5%.

Who pays ITP in Catalonia, the buyer or the seller?

The buyer. The seller pays the municipal Plusvalía and any capital gains tax. ITP is self-assessed by the buyer on Form 600 and paid to the Agència Tributària de Catalunya within one month of the notarial deed.

Is ITP calculated on the purchase price or on the Cadastre reference value?

On whichever is higher. Since 2022 the reference value published by the Cadastre acts as a floor under the taxable base. If your price is below it, you pay tax on the reference value and can contest it afterwards.

Do I pay ITP on a new-build apartment in Barcelona?

No. A first transfer from the developer is subject to VAT at 10% and stamp duty (AJD) at 1.5%, a flat 11.5%. ITP applies to resale purchases. Above €2 million, the resale ITP is now higher than the new-build VAT and AJD combined.

Does the 20% rate apply if I buy through a company?

Only if the company is a large holder — more than ten residential properties or more than 1,500 m² of residential floor space in Catalonia, or five or more properties in a tensioned zone such as Barcelona — or if it buys a whole building of two or more dwellings. A company buying a single apartment that does not meet those thresholds pays the ordinary progressive scale.

Sources and update note

Rates and rules as set out in Decree-Law 5/2025 of 25 March of the Generalitat de Catalunya (in force for ITP since 27 June 2025), the Agència Tributària de Catalunya’s Resolution 3/2025 on large holders and whole-building transfers, and the ATC’s interpretive criteria on the 20% rate published in February 2026. Reference-value rule per Law 11/2021. Regional comparison figures as published by the respective autonomous communities for 2026. Verified September 2026; tax rules change, and the figures in this article should be confirmed with your lawyer before you sign.