Nordic buyers: Swedish, Norwegian, Danish and Finnish buyers in Spain

The short answer

A resident of Sweden, Norway, Denmark or Finland can finance a Spanish home with a Spanish mortgage. Lenders that work with non-residents regularly consider applicants from all four countries, and financing is typically 60–70% of the lower of price and valuation. It is never guaranteed.

The four countries look alike from Spain in one respect: their residents all pay Spanish non-resident tax at 19%. They differ in two others that matter more than buyers expect:

One tax rate for all four

The Spanish Tax Agency applies 19% to residents of the EU, Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein, and 24% to everyone else. Norway is not an EU member, but it is listed with the EU for this rate, so a Norwegian owner is taxed like a Swede, a Dane or a Finn.

If you keep the home for your own use, the tax is on an imputed income: 1.1% of the cadastral value in municipalities whose values were revised in a general valuation that came into force in the last ten tax periods, 2% otherwise. On a cadastral value of €120,000, that is €250.80 or €456 a year.

If you let the property, the tax is on the rent. Residents of the EU, and of EEA states with an effective exchange of tax information, can deduct expenses directly linked to it. A tax adviser will confirm how that applies to a Norwegian resident. Our guide to non-resident taxes after buying covers form 210, IBI and the tax on a future sale.

Four currencies, three positions

Finland uses the euro. A Finnish salary pays a Spanish euro mortgage with no conversion at all.

Denmark keeps the krone, but it has taken part in the European exchange rate mechanism, ERM II, since 1999. According to the European Central Bank, Denmark keeps a narrow ±2.25% band around a central rate of DKK 7.46038 per euro. On a €1,200 monthly payment, the band’s limits mean between about DKK 8,751 and DKK 9,154. The risk is small, but it is not zero, and the peg is a policy, not a law of nature.

Sweden and Norway have floating currencies. Each payment is a real conversion, and the cost moves with the market. With illustrative rates, not a forecast:

A one-krona move changes the cost by SEK 14,400 a year. The same arithmetic applies to the Norwegian krone. The European Central Bank publishes a daily euro reference rate for SEK, NOK and DKK, which lets you measure how far any quote sits from the market.

A euro loan can still be a foreign-currency loan

Spanish law looks at this from your side. Law 5/2019, article 4.27, treats a loan as being in a foreign currency when it is in a currency other than that of the member state where you live, or other than the one in which you receive the income or hold the assets you will repay it with.

So a euro mortgage for someone who lives in Sweden, Norway or Denmark, or is paid in SEK, NOK or DKK, qualifies. Article 20 then gives you the right to convert the loan into the currency in which you receive most of your income or hold most of your assets, or into the currency of the member state where you live, and to receive regular information on the amount owed. Because of these rules, some lenders are more cautious with borrowers who earn outside the euro, and some apply a buffer to that income when they test affordability. A Finnish applicant avoids the issue entirely.

The tax treaties

A double taxation convention decides which country may tax each type of income and how the other country gives relief. In all three treaties in force, income from property can be taxed in the country where the property is, so Spain taxes your Spanish imputed or rental income.

• Sweden. Signed in Madrid on 16 June 1976 and published in the Spanish Official Gazette on 22 January 1977.
• Norway. Signed in Madrid on 6 October 1999 and published on 10 January 2001.
• Finland. A new convention, signed in Helsinki on 15 December 2015 and published on 29 May 2018, replaced the 1967 one.
• Denmark. The Spanish Ministry of Finance records that Denmark terminated the 1972 convention with effect from 1 January 2009. No new treaty is listed.

For a Danish owner, that means no treaty rules on relief. Spain taxes the Spanish income under its own law; how Denmark treats it under Danish law is a question for a Danish tax adviser. For the other three countries, a tax adviser at home will confirm how the treaty applies to your return.

A worked example: €300,000 resale on the Costa del Sol

Take a €300,000 resale apartment in Andalusia, where the transfer tax is 7%:

The same home would pay 10% in Catalonia and 9% in the Valencian Community. Reduced rates exist in each region, but they are generally linked to a main residence and do not help with a holiday home. Try your own figures in the purchase costs calculator. Our guide to Marbella and the Costa del Sol adds the local detail.

Documents to prepare

The list varies by lender, but prepare:

• passport and, once issued, the NIE, the Spanish foreigner identification number;
• recent payslips and an employment contract;
• your latest final tax assessment: the Swedish slutskattebesked, the Norwegian skatteoppgjør, the Danish årsopgørelse or the Finnish verotuspäätös;
• for the self-employed or company owners, two years of accounts and tax returns;
• bank statements showing your income, savings and the deposit;
• the statement and terms of any mortgage or loan at home;
• the reservation or purchase contract.

Documents in Swedish, Norwegian, Danish or Finnish are rarely readable by a Spanish underwriter, so plan on explanations or sworn translations into Spanish. Ask the lender for its exact list before you commission anything. Our guide to foreign income and a Spanish mortgage explains how income from abroad is read.

Converting the deposit

A Swede or Norwegian converts the deposit, the taxes and the costs as well as the payments. On a €145,500 cash requirement, a few tenths of a percent in the exchange rate add up. Compare the all-in rate: a specialist currency provider can often cost less than a standard bank transfer, but only the euros that actually arrive tell you. Keep every confirmation, because the lender and the notary will ask where the money came from. Our guide to moving money to Spain explains how.

How RCG coordinates it

RCG Finance is a real-estate credit intermediary registered with the Bank of Spain under number E760, with an office in Salou. We prepare your file once and present it to the lenders that currently finance residents of your country and accept your currency. Our team attends the notary signing in person.

Around the mortgage, we coordinate:

• our partner lawyer, for the NIE, the Spanish bank account, a power of attorney if you cannot travel, translations and the review of the contracts;
• a currency exchange partner, to convert kronor into euros and provide transfer confirmations that form part of the payment trail the lender asks for.

We do not give legal or tax advice.

What to do next

Gather your documents with the non-resident mortgage checklist and size the cash with the purchase costs calculator. If you are still choosing where to buy, the areas guide compares prices and taxes along the coast.

When you are ready, our non-resident mortgage service takes the file to the lenders that work with Nordic residents.