I set up a Spanish limited company specifically to buy and manage an investment property in Alicante province. I did it as a UK-based, non-resident buyer, working with a gestor and a sourcing agent on the ground in Spain. From first contact to fully registered company took seven weeks. Here’s exactly what happened, what it cost, and what you need to know if you’re thinking about doing the same.
Why set up an SL at all?
Most UK buyers purchasing property in Spain buy in their own name. It’s simpler, cheaper to set up, and works perfectly well for a holiday home or a straightforward buy-to-let. But if you’re approaching Spanish property as a serious investment — particularly if you’re thinking about multiple properties, or you want to separate your personal finances cleanly from your rental income — a Sociedad Limitada is worth considering.
The SL is the Spanish equivalent of a UK limited company. It gives you limited liability, a clear separation between personal and business finances, and a legal entity that can hold, manage and eventually sell property in its own name. Rental income flows to the company rather than to you personally, and the company pays Spanish corporate tax rather than you paying non-resident income tax as an individual.
What I set up is sometimes called a Special Purpose Vehicle — a company created for a specific, defined purpose. In my case, that purpose is buying and managing one investment property. The activity is registered at the Registro Mercantil under CNAE code 6820, the specific classification for a company that owns and rents out property it holds on its own account. The articles of association also include broader property purchase, sale, rehabilitation and management activities, which gives flexibility for the future.
Whether an SL is right for you depends heavily on your personal tax situation, how many properties you plan to hold, and your long-term investment horizon. It is not a decision to make without professional advice. But if you’ve decided to go down this route, here is what the process actually looks like.
What you need before you start
You will need your Spanish NIE — the Número de Identificación de Extranjero, your Spanish tax identification number as a foreign individual. You cannot form a company in Spain without one.
You’ll also need your passport, and €10,000 — the minimum share capital required for an SL under Spanish law. This money is paid into the company at formation and becomes the company’s capital from day one. In practice, I declared the share capital at the notary rather than evidencing a prior bank transfer, which is legally permitted — the founder takes personal responsibility for the reality of the deposit. But it is real money that belongs to the company, not yours to withdraw freely.
You also need a registered address in Spain. A Spanish company cannot exist without a Spanish domicile — this is a legal requirement, not optional. If you don’t have a physical office or property in Spain yet, you’ll need to arrange a registered address service before or during the formation process. More on this below.
Step 1 — Choose and reserve your company name
Before anything else can happen, your chosen company name needs to be confirmed as available and reserved at the Registro Mercantil Central in Madrid. This is a national check handled centrally, regardless of where in Spain your company will be based.
The process works like this: you submit up to three name choices in order of preference, and the Registro Mercantil Central decides which one you can have. If your first choice is already taken, they move to your second, and so on. My gestor applied on my behalf and the certificate came back within two days confirming the name was available and reserved for six months.
The certificate has a three-month validity for the purposes of the notary appointment. If you don’t use it within three months, you need a fresh one.
The name must include “Sociedad Limitada” or the abbreviation “S.L.” in full. You can’t just register a trading name. The name reservation costs approximately €25, charged directly by the Registro Mercantil Central.
Step 2 — The notary appointment and the escritura
Once the name certificate was confirmed, the notary appointment was arranged. I attended in person in March 2025.
The document signed is called the Escritura Pública de Constitución de Sociedad Limitada y Nombramiento de Administrador — the public deed of incorporation and appointment of director. Mine ran to over 40 pages including all the supporting certificates, annexes and subsequent registry notifications added later.
The articles of association were prepared in advance by my gestor, so I didn’t arrive to a blank document. This is one of the practical reasons you want professional support — the notary needs everything ready before the appointment, not drafted on the day.
One thing I hadn’t thought about in advance: the notary needed to be satisfied that I understood what I was signing. He spent part of the meeting chatting with me informally in Spanish — partly about something as mundane as Netflix — to assess whether I had sufficient Spanish to understand the document being read to me. I was nervous and had been fairly quiet for most of the appointment, but we happened to be talking when he re-entered the room and that conversation was enough. Afterwards, my gestor told me that if I hadn’t been able to demonstrate sufficient Spanish, the notary wouldn’t have let us proceed without a professional translator present — apparently a client had needed one recently and someone had been found in the street outside at the last minute. It’s not something that came up in anything I’d read beforehand, and it’s worth being aware of.
I signed as both sole shareholder and sole director — in a single-owner SL these roles are held by the same person.
The company formation is exempt from the Spanish stamp duty equivalent — the Impuesto de Transmisiones Patrimoniales y Actos Jurídicos Documentados. The relevant form was filed with zero tax liability. No stamp duty to pay on forming a company.
The notary fee for the escritura was approximately €200.
Step 3 — Provisional tax number, same day
At the notary appointment, the notary applied electronically to the Agencia Tributaria for a provisional NIF — the company’s tax identification number. This was issued the same day.
The provisional NIF lets you open bank accounts and begin operating before the company is formally registered at the Registro Mercantil. It is later replaced by the definitive NIF once registration is complete, which carries the same number and is confirmed by the Agencia Tributaria.
Step 4 — Power of attorney
The day after the escritura was signed I returned to the same notary to sign a second document: a notarised power of attorney granting my sourcing agent’s representative the authority to act on behalf of the company in Spain.
As a UK-based owner, you cannot attend every signing, meeting or administrative appointment in Spain. A notarised, registered power of attorney to a trusted local representative is the practical solution — and something you will almost certainly need if you are buying property remotely. It allows them to sign purchase contracts, attend appointments, represent the company before authorities, and manage the property process without you needing to fly out for each step.
The notary fee for the power of attorney was approximately €100. It was submitted to the Registro Mercantil and formally registered about six weeks later.
Step 5 — Banking
After signing the escritura I opened a Spanish business bank account in person at a local branch, as required at that stage of the formation process. The account initially opened under “en constitución” status and was converted once the company was registered.
My experience with the traditional Spanish bank became complicated for reasons I won’t go into fully here — I’ll cover Spanish banking for non-residents in a separate article. What I’ll say is that Spanish business banking fees are significantly higher than anything I was used to in the UK, and operating as a non-resident adds friction.
I ended up moving to Revolut Business as my primary operating account, and I’d recommend considering it from the start. The Basic plan costs €10 per month, there are no fees on transfers between your personal Revolut account and your Spanish business account, and the app makes it straightforward to manage the company from the UK. I applied online and the account was approved within a couple of days.
One important note on timing: I couldn’t complete the Revolut Business application until the company’s definitive NIF was showing live on the Registro Mercantil’s electronic register. Their in-app due diligence checks the register directly — the provisional NIF is not sufficient. So this step comes after registration is complete.
Step 6 — Registered address
As mentioned above, a Spanish company must have a Spanish domicile — this is a legal requirement. I arranged a registered address service before the escritura was signed, so the address could be included in the formation documents.
When looking for this type of service, what you need is a local business address that can receive official correspondence and scan and forward it to you by email. The latter feature is particularly useful as a non-resident — you need to receive notifications from the Agencia Tributaria, Registro Mercantil and other bodies promptly, and you can’t be checking a physical letterbox in Alicante from London.
I found a provider offering exactly this as part of an annual package. I didn’t initially realise the scanning service was included — it was flagged to me by my sourcing agent after the account was set up. Worth asking about when you enquire.
The annual cost was approximately €230 including IVA.
Step 7 — Registration at the Registro Mercantil
The notary submitted the escritura electronically to the local Registro Mercantil approximately nine days after signing. The company was formally registered just under three weeks after submission.
Once registered, the definitive NIF was issued. My gestor holds the physical copies of all the company documents in Spain — practically useful given I’m not there for most of the year.
The Registro Mercantil registration fees were approximately €160.
Step 8 — The filings you won’t have expected
Two compliance filings happened in the background that I wasn’t fully aware of until my gestor mentioned them.
The Aforix declaration, formally the Inversiones Exteriores filing, is a legal requirement for non-residents establishing a Spanish company. It must be filed within one month of signing the escritura. My gestor filed it within two weeks of signing, well within the deadline. Missing this carries penalties, so confirm your gestor is handling it before you leave the notary appointment.
The Titularidad Real — beneficial ownership declaration — must be filed with the Registro Mercantil Central within one month of registration, under Spanish anti-money laundering legislation. Again, the gestor handled this.
Both were included in the overall formation fee. I wouldn’t have known to ask about either if my gestor hadn’t flagged them proactively. This is exactly why you need professional support rather than attempting this yourself.
The team you need
Three types of professional are involved in setting up a Spanish SL as a non-resident buyer.
A sourcing agent with local knowledge can introduce you to the right gestor and coordinate the process from the UK side. They are also the natural person to hold a power of attorney and act on your behalf in Spain while the property search and purchase progresses. Not essential for the company formation itself, but invaluable for what comes next.
A gestor — a Spanish registered advisor — handles the legal and administrative formation: name reservation, notary preparation, registration, the Aforix filing, beneficial ownership declaration, digital certificates for the company, and ongoing monthly accounting and compliance. This is not a role you can skip or replicate yourself as a non-resident.
A notary is required by law to draw up and witness the escritura de constitución and the power of attorney. Your gestor will typically have a working relationship with a local notary and will arrange the appointment.
What it cost
| Item | One-off cost |
| Name reservation | ~€25 |
| Notary fees (escritura + power of attorney) | ~€330 |
| Registro Mercantil registration fees | ~€160 |
| Gestor formation fee | ~€450 |
| Disbursements passed through gestor | ~€490 |
| Total setup cost (excluding share capital) | ~€1,300 |
| Item | Ongoing cost |
| Registered address with mail scanning | ~€230/year |
| Gestor monthly fee | ~€100/month |
| Revolut Business Basic plan | €10/month |
The €10,000 share capital sits in the company — it isn’t a cost, but it is committed from day one.
The timeline
| Stage | When |
| Initial consultation; NIE submitted; name reservation applied | Week 1 |
| Name certificate confirmed | Week 1 |
| Escritura signed; provisional tax number issued | Week 2 |
| Power of attorney signed; business bank account opened in person | Week 2 |
| Escritura submitted to Registro Mercantil; registered address arranged | Week 3 |
| Company formally registered; definitive tax number issued | Week 4 |
| Revolut Business account approved online | Week 5 |
| Tax number and bank details forwarded to gestor | Week 6 |
| Power of attorney formally registered | Week 10 |
Total: approximately seven weeks from first contact to fully operational company.
A note on using a gestor
You could technically set up an SL yourself using Spain’s CIRCE system — the notary mentioned it at signing. In practice, for a non-resident buying property through a company, I would not attempt it without professional support. The Aforix filing alone is easy to miss, the notary may require evidence of Spanish language competency, and the ongoing compliance — quarterly tax returns, annual accounts, beneficial ownership declarations — requires professional handling throughout. Budget for a gestor from day one and factor the monthly fee into your investment calculations from the start.
The figures in this article are based on my own experience setting up a Spanish SL in early 2025. Costs will vary depending on your gestor, notary, and specific circumstances. This article is not financial or legal advice.