In short: when you buy an occupied property you acquire ownership, not possession. Getting it back requires the eviction process in Spain to run its course up to a court-ordered removal (lanzamiento), and the biggest cost is the time your capital sits idle.
- A full eviction usually takes between 6 and 18 months, and up to 4 years in the most contested cases.
- Entering without a court order can be the criminal offence of breaking and entering (allanamiento), even if you are the owner.
- Direct costs range from €1,200 to €3,500 in fees and expenses (Melendos; Vivara).
- If the occupant's vulnerability is officially certified, the eviction can be suspended for 2 months (individual owner) or 4 (company or large landlord) (art. 441.5 LEC, Spain's Civil Procedure Act).
Buying an occupied flat is legal in Spain: ownership passes even if the seller does not have the keys. What does not pass automatically is physical possession. If the property is still occupied after the sale (by the former owner, a tenant in arrears or a squatter with no title, known in Spain as an okupa), a court eviction procedure is needed to remove them, with timelines the buyer cannot control and that are measured very differently depending on who you ask.
How big the squatter problem in Spain really is
Before getting into timelines and costs, it is worth sizing the problem with official data rather than estimates from websites selling squatter-removal services. Spain's Interior Ministry recorded 16,426 complaints of unlawful occupation (usurpación) and breaking and entering in 2024, according to its crime statistics portal. The figure needs careful reading: these are complaints, not homes or people, and a single home can generate several complaints over the course of the process. The series is not linear either: complaints went from 16,726 in 2022 to 17,000 in 2023, with a rebound in 2024 after an earlier dip, and as of this guide there is still no complete annual series for 2026. In parallel, at the end of 2024 there were around 20,464 occupied properties for sale on the Spanish market, about 2.6% of all homes for sale, a share that shows how many deals of this kind really exist beyond anecdotes or alarmist headlines.
What a court-ordered eviction (lanzamiento) is
The lanzamiento is the court act by which, under a judicial order and on a date set by the court, whoever occupies a property is physically removed and possession is handed to the owner or the party awarded the property. It is the last step of an eviction procedure: the desahucio is the full court case, and the lanzamiento is its physical enforcement.
The distinction matters because winning the case does not mean having the keys. Between the judgment and the actual eviction there is the setting of a date, the availability of the court enforcement officers and, in certain cases, legal suspensions because the occupant is vulnerable. No owner can replace that act with self-help: possession can only be recovered through the courts.
Why you cannot go in yourself, even as the owner
Even if you are the legitimate owner with a title deed or a court award decree, entering an occupied property without a court eviction order can amount to a criminal offence of breaking and entering on your part, and it also exposes you to the eviction being delayed by procedural defects. It is the most dangerous mistake in this market, both legally and physically. The court route, although slower, is the only safe one.
How long the eviction process in Spain really takes: the legal deadlines
The desahucio is the full court procedure; the lanzamiento is its final act. Depending on the grounds (non-payment, end of lease, vulnerable tenant, occupation without title), sources agree on a wide range: between 6 and 18 months in most cases (iuslex.legal; Lexway; RealAdvisor), towards the lower end in small and medium-sized courts and towards the upper end in large cities. In the most complex cases (occupation without title with appeals or claims of vulnerability), the process can stretch to 4 years, although the most recent legal reforms aim to shorten that extreme for specific cases of flagrant unlawful occupation (El Debate). In evictions for unpaid rent, article 440 LEC requires a ten-day demand for payment before the procedure continues. The removal must be carried out within 20 business days of the judgment, under article 250.1.2 LEC (Martín Parés Abogados).
Vulnerability protection, a factor that stretches timelines
Spain's 2023 Housing Law (Ley 12/2023) added to article 441.5 LEC a mechanism to suspend the eviction when the occupant's vulnerability is certified by social services: the suspension can be two months if the owner is an individual, or four months if the owner is a company or a large landlord (gran tenedor) (Otrosí). An investor who buys several properties through a company may be classed as a large landlord under the applicable regional rules, with longer timelines than a private owner.
What changes if the property is occupied by squatters with no title
If the occupation does not come from a lease but from entry without any title (what Spaniards colloquially call "okupación"), a different procedure applies, with civil or criminal routes depending on the case. Organic Law 1/2025, in force since 3 April 2025, aims to speed up the court response in certain cases of flagrant illegal occupation, in some cases to under a month, although in practice a civil eviction of squatters without those circumstances can still take around six months (Alexlegal.ai). One point that matters if you buy an occupied flat as part of an NPL or REO deal already underway: if the eviction was in progress before the purchase, the court steps already taken are not lost and can continue at the request of the new owner, without starting from scratch (Alexlegal.ai).
Hypothetical worked example
Hypothetical figures built to explain how occupation affects the result, not a documented real case.
| Item | Scenario without occupation | Scenario buying an occupied flat |
|---|---|---|
| Purchase price of the property | €70,000 | €55,000 (occupation discount) |
| Legal and administrative (gestoría) fees | €3,000 | €3,000 |
| Cost of the eviction procedure (lawyer, court agent or procurador, fees) | Not applicable | €5,500 |
| Months unable to use or sell the property | 0 | 8-12 months (estimated) |
| Refurbishment after taking possession | €12,000 | €15,000 (possible damage by the occupant) |
| Total investment | €85,000 | €78,500 |
| Market value after refurbishment | €115,000 | €115,000 |
| Illustrative gross margin | €30,000 | €36,500 (before the cost of the months of delay) |
Hypothetical example. The discount for buying an occupied flat (several market sources put it at 30% to 60% depending on condition and type of occupation) can offset the cost of the eviction in some cases, but this margin ignores the opportunity cost of having capital tied up for an extra 8-12 months, which in many analyses significantly reduces the real annualised return.
How to check occupancy before you buy
- Ask the servicer or the court directly about the possession status of the property before bidding or buying.
- Check whether an eviction procedure has already started and what stage it is at. If there is one, it can continue in your favour as the new owner, without losing the progress made.
- Assume that, unless you are told otherwise, many foreclosed properties come with no possibility of a prior viewing, which makes it hard to confirm occupancy 100% before buying.
- Budget the legal costs of the eviction with a realistic range: €1,500 to €4,000 in lawyer's fees, €500 to €1,500 in court fees and costs, and a post-eviction refurbishment cost that can reach around €1,000/m² if the property needs a full renovation because of the state the departing occupant leaves it in (RealAdvisor; El Debate).
What the process really costs and how it affects your final margin
Beyond the purchase discount, the direct cost of taking an eviction through to the actual removal is, according to the legal sources consulted, between €1,200 and €3,500 in fees and expenses (of which €800 to €1,500 goes to the lawyer and €250 to €450 to the procurador, the court agent who represents you), plus court fees, notifications, land registry certificates and, in some cases, a locksmith after the eviction (Melendos; Vivara). What weighs most on the real return is not that direct cost, which is relatively contained, but the time capital is tied up without generating income: observed average timelines run from 6 to 12 months in standard cases to more than 18 months when vulnerability is certified in overloaded courts, with an extra 30 to 45 days between final judgment and physical removal (Vivara). A purchase discount of 30-60% (see the worked example above) can easily absorb €1,200-3,500 of direct legal costs, but it does not automatically make up for the opportunity cost of 6-18 months of capital with no rent and no use. That is the real factor separating a profitable occupied-flat deal from one that only looks good on paper.
How to build this risk into your numbers before buying
Buying an occupied flat is the most underestimated operational risk when investing in NPLs or REOs in Spain: it does not always appear in the listing, it affects a share of deals that is far from anecdotal (around 2.6% of the stock for sale, according to the market sources consulted), and its legal resolution follows timelines the investor cannot control. Before buying a property in this market, also read cheap bank-owned flats: what REO properties are, where this risk is more common, and work out the real impact in returns and risks of the NPL/REO market.
If the appeal of this type of asset is the discount but you do not want to handle the eviction process or have capital tied up for months, at Reental we turn discounted real estate opportunities into fractional, liquid investment: discover the active projects at Reental.
Related articles
- Cheap bank-owned flats: REO properties
- Returns and legal risks of investing in NPLs
- Buying defaulted mortgage debt: what an NPL is
- Loan-to-Own: turning mortgage debt into property
- Judicial auctions: a guide to the BOE portal
- Bare ownership: the generational discount
Frequently asked questions
How long does a court eviction take on average in Spain?
The full eviction process, of which the lanzamiento is the final act, usually takes between 6 and 18 months depending on the grounds and the court, and up to 4 years in the most contested cases. There is no single or guaranteed timeline.
How many occupied homes are there really in Spain?
There is no official figure for occupied homes as such. The closest official data point is complaints: 16,426 complaints of unlawful occupation and breaking and entering in 2024, according to the Interior Ministry. Separately, several real estate market sources estimate that around 20,000 occupied properties are currently for sale in Spain, about 2.6% of all homes for sale.
Can I negotiate directly with the occupant so they leave sooner?
Yes, it is common practice and in many cases faster than the full court route, through voluntary exit agreements in exchange for financial compensation or an agreed deadline. It does not remove the need to keep the court route open as a backstop if the negotiation fails.
Will a bank finance the purchase of an occupied flat?
Rarely. Most lenders will not grant a mortgage on occupied properties because the valuer cannot appraise them normally. These deals usually require your own capital or alternative financing.
What happens if the occupant causes damage before leaving?
The new owner bears those costs unless there is an express agreement to the contrary in the deed or in the exit negotiation. It is a real risk worth budgeting for when calculating the margin of the deal, and it can push the refurbishment cost well above that of a home handed over empty.
Legal notice: This article is for information and educational purposes only. It does not constitute financial, tax or legal advice, nor a personalised investment recommendation. All investment involves risk, including the possible partial or total loss of the capital invested. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Before making any investment decision, consider your personal situation, objectives, time horizon and risk tolerance and, if necessary, consult a qualified professional.
AI transparency: This content was produced with the assistance of artificial intelligence tools and subsequently reviewed, verified and edited under human editorial responsibility.
Data and sources: iuslex.legal, Lexway, Martín Parés Abogados, Otrosí, Alexlegal.ai, Bourgeois Fincas, RealAdvisor, El Debate (with market data and Idealista data on occupied properties for sale), Spain's Interior Ministry (crime statistics portal: complaints of unlawful occupation and breaking and entering), Melendos, Vivara. The figures in the worked example are hypothetical.
