Worrying Non lucrative Spain visa requirements after owning a property in Spain for 15 years

Last Updated on March 18, 2026 by Bruno Bianchi

Question

My husband and I have owned a property in Spain for 15 years and we would like to make a permanent move next year. However the more I read about the Non lucrative Spain visa and its requirements the more its worrying me.
A. The tax implications if we sell our house here in UK (which we need to fund the move) will be taxed maybe up to 40%
B. The second year of NLV you are required to have double the funds than the first year
C. You cannot drive with a UK licence in Spain after December
D. Can we do our 90 days in Spain and apply over there?
Any advice anyone can give us is truly welcome and would appreciate some positive feedback as the dream is slowly dwindling

Answers

These are the answers of some Facebook group members

“D. Is no. You have to apply from outside the country.

1. Is that it depends on the timing of your arrival. You basically don’t want to be a tax resident in Spain in the same year you sell your UK home.
2. Double or show the same amount in regularly contributions into a checking account, preferably a Spanish one. So for example, if your double amount equals about 4000/month, then you want to make sure you’re showing that amount being deposited into an account from passive income. So you could keep your house money in one account and move it over incrementally for the paperwork purposes, if that’s your only income. {I’m not a professional, but this is how I understand it to be}.
3. You can go to driving school and do the whole process like everyone else has to do.

I’m not British. This process has always been this way for me and always will be”
 
“I cannot advise on all of your questions but I will say you should consider selling your home before becoming a tax resident. I sold my home but didn’t move to Spain until after July 1st of that year so that my tax residency would not begin until the following year.”
 
“I agree with the advice here about house sale. Move to Spain in the second half of the year after the house sale.”
 
“We sold our home in the USA in 2021 and made sure to not arrive to Spain until well after July 15 to be sure. We arrived Sept 16.”
 
“1. Sell the calendar year before you move or spend leas than 183 days in Spain the first year here.

1. There are ways around this by using a spanish bank account to show the monthly amount. This works in most provinces.

3.You will have 6 months to change your license by taking the driving course.

1. Nope only can apply from Uk”

 
“For our NLV renewal we didn’t really need a huge amount of money sitting in an account somewhere. It was suggested that rather than 400% of the IPREM for the first family member plus 100% for the second x 24 (for a total of 54,230.40€ + 13,557.60€ = 67,788€), we could simply show that we had 500% of the IPREM available to us each month.
We decided to put this to the test with our recent renewal. We have a Spanish account in which we kept more than the required 500% monthly IPREM — 2,824.50€. For our renewal, all we sent in was the balance sheet for this account for the past 6 months, showing that it was consistently above this amount.
I’m delighted to say that we we had a favorable result, and in less than two weeks! This was in Galicia. Here’s hoping it works for others on here!”
 
“You really need to look into taxes I was going to do the same next year I have decided not to do it and stay as none resident they will tax your pension and any private pension year 2 and 3 you need to have the minimum 27k for each of the 2 yrs 54k this puts you in a higher tax band 50k and over this also applies for year 4 and 5 this also is for any private pensions worth more than 50k again in higher tax band so over 5 yrs you will need over 130k just to get full residency plus you will taxed on any savings you have worldwide or any other assets such as shares or property subject to wealth tax and capital gains sorry to say the Spanish government is slowly going to force people to leave or stick with the 90/180 rules”

Useful links:

• Visit our recommended immigration & tax experts here.
• Make sure to visit Spainguru’s Resources page.
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Shaheen Samavati

Shaheen Samavati is a pivotal figure at SpainGuru, where she brings her profound understanding of Spanish immigration to the forefront. Her journey in Spain began when she arrived in Madrid to pursue her studies at IE Business School. Over the years, Shaheen has not only immersed herself in the Spanish culture but has also become a trusted resource for expats. Through her active participation in the "American Expats in Spain" Facebook group and her role as a content manager for Spotahome.com, she has consistently provided invaluable insights to the expat community.

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