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Legal notes in plain words — property, inheritance, residency and daily life in the Canary Islands, explained for international readers.
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Living in a tourist complex in the south of Tenerife: the single-operator rule, what an owner can and cannot do, and the window to 2028
A unit in a tourist complex is an accommodation unit, not a home: the Canary tourism Act binds every unit to one operator, the renovation Act forbids turning it into a dwelling, and fines run to 300,000 euros. What the courts decided in Arona and Gran Canaria, the question now before the Supreme Court, the decree-law that lets owners ask for a change of use until March 2028, the bill the Parliament rejected on 14 October 2026, the decree the Government announced, and ten papers to read first.
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Communities of owners in Spain: your rights as a foreign owner — the meeting, the majorities, the derramas and the debtor rules
A convocatoria in Spanish, a derrama for the lift and your name on the debtors' list: most foreign owners meet Spanish community law the first time the building asks for something. Who decides what and with which majorities, how you are notified and how you vote by proxy from abroad, why online meetings are still not in the law, what you pay and what happens when you do not, the five-year limit the Supreme Court confirmed, and the three-month clock to challenge a resolution.
The Canary cap on non-resident buyers: where it really stands
More than a third of Canary home sales went to foreigners in 2025, and the islands want the power to limit purchases by non-residents. Where the request stands after Brussels' answer, why a residents-only rule needs a treaty, what the Court of Justice allows, and the fifty-year-old defence rule that already sends non-EU buyers of rural land to the Ministry of Defence.
Selling as a non-resident: the 3 % retention and the plusvalía
Two taxes shape every non-resident sale: the 3 % the buyer must withhold for Hacienda, and the municipal plusvalía that legally lands on the buyer. The real arithmetic — deadlines, refunds and the paperwork that decides both.
The Arras Contract in Spain: What You Sign Before You Buy
The private deposit contract is the most consequential paper of a Spanish property purchase — and its species decides everything. The three kinds of arras, the financing clause, and the checks before you sign.
Okupas and your island home: what the law really says in 2026
A fast-track law, a stubborn 48-hour myth and one Supreme Court ruling every absent owner should know — the real state of play for island homes.
Spain's '100% tax' on non-EU buyers: where it really stands
The headline scared half of Europe. Eighteen months on, here is what is actually law when you buy in the Canaries — and what is not.