Home affordability calculator

Around 30-35% of the price: a 20% deposit, because the bank usually finances at most 80%, plus the taxes and costs, which depending on your region and on whether it's new build or resale run roughly from 8% to 13%. On a €200,000 home that's between €56,000 and €66,000 in cash. Choose your region in the calculator and you'll see your figure. There are exceptions — some lenders reach 90-100% in specific cases, on worse terms — but planning on 80% is the prudent approach.

Almost always for one of two reasons. The first is savings: people work out the payment they can manage and forget they need a third of the price in cash before they start. The second is other debts: the bank adds up all your payments, so the car loan is cutting your buying power right now. The 'what limits you' line in the result tells you which of the two ceilings is holding you back.

It isn't a law, it's the usual criterion of Spanish lenders and it varies by profile: with high, stable income some accept a bit more, and with variable or temporary income they tend to be stricter. Take it as the benchmark you'll be judged against, not as a guarantee. And remember it's the bank's limit, not necessarily yours: living at 35% leaves little air.

From the general transfer tax rate of each Spanish autonomous region, updated to August 2026 and reviewed by our mortgage adviser, plus an estimated 2% for notary, registry, paperwork and valuation. Two caveats: it's the general rate, so if you're under 35, a large family or buying protected housing it's very likely a reduced one applies to you; and several regions use scales that rise with the price of the property, so on expensive purchases the real rate will be the high end of the range you see in the selector.

Use the one you're being offered, and if you haven't spoken to a bank yet, go with what you see in the market at the time. If you're weighing a variable-rate mortgage, also run the sum with two points more than current rates: it isn't a prediction, it's checking that the payment would still fit if rates rise over the thirty years the loan lasts.

It raises the ceiling, yes, but less than people expect and it's costly. Going from 25 to 30 years cuts the payment by around 10%, so your capacity rises by roughly the same, but you pay five more years of interest. And above all: if what limits you is savings and not salary, stretching the term changes absolutely nothing, because the deposit and the costs stay the same.

The data confirms it: the Bank of Spain puts the effort to access housing at around 8.7 times annual salary, against 6.2 a few years ago, and estimates an accumulated shortfall of some 750,000 homes between 2021 and 2025. It isn't your imagination. What you can control is arriving with your numbers clear: knowing your real ceiling before falling in love with a flat saves a lot of frustration.