Larraín Nesbitt Lawyers is a Marbella-based independent law firm specialized in property conveyancing, taxation, litigation, probate and succession. Expert native English-speaking lawyers and economists blend legal and practical advice providing tailored assistance on your matter. Our range of services cover the greater Marbella area, Sotogrande and Costa del Sol.

The firm focuses advising foreign investors on acquiring residential property in Spain both from a legal and fiscal point of view. Our no-nonsense approach to business coupled with our commitment to clients ensures easy-going transactions. We pride ourselves in putting our clients’ interests at the forefront of everything we do.

Larraín Nesbitt Lawyers, your legal partner in Spain.

Last Article:

Why you need a digital certificate in Spain

Raymundo Larraín Nesbitt, June, 1. 2026

Marbella-based Larraín Nesbitt Abogados (LNA) has over 23 years of experience at your service. We offer a wide range of 60 legal and corporate services. Our team of native English-speaking lawyers and economists have a long track record of successfully assisting expats all over Spain.

You can review here our client’s testimonials.

By Raymundo Larraín Nesbitt
Director of Larraín Nesbitt Abogados
1^st of June 2026

Introduction

Spanish Authorities are working hard to transition the country into the digital era, which includes its administration. Traditionally, working with Spain’s Public Administration required heavy doses of patience, resilience and wasted time.

Fortunately, modern times have forced upon the Administration new ways to engage with Society, which include the Digital Certificate (certificado digital).

Basically, a digital certificate cuts neatly through all the pesky red tape, empowering you to communicate directly with Spanish Public Administrations without jumping through all the hoops and hurdles of waiting in long queues only to be greeted at the counter by a civil servant with the dreaded: “Vuelva usted mañana.” (Come back tomorrow).

Attaining a digital certificate is embracing the digital era. This allows you to spend more time with the people, or things, you value more.

In a way, digital certificates devolve back to Society control over their time and how they manage their own personal affairs, freeing them up from the chains of bureaucracy.

I’m certain Kafka would approve.

Benefits of a digital certificate

A digital certificate is now required when dealing with Spanish Public Administrations (at a local, regional and national level).

If you, for example, rent your property in Spain, regional Tourism Authorities will only communicate with you through an electronic platform that requires this digital certificate. Once you attain a Tourism Licence, Tourism Authorities notify you electronically through a specific platform. A digital certificate allows you to safely communicate and receive any electronic notifications from them in a timely manner, even when you are abroad! No longer will official letters get lost in the post or be eaten by your neighbour’s dog! This translates into avoiding steep fines, penalties, and nasty surprises.

The digital certificate can then be downloaded to your computer or any electronic device, allowing you to communicate remotely, even from abroad Spain.

This enables fast, responsive communication, dramatically cutting down pesky admin red tape, allowing you to manage your time more efficiently.

As a recap, digital certificates save time, money and aggravation. A win-win on my book.

Saves you time. Speed and access are the keywords. It prevents long queues and unnecessary trips to government offices, acting as a "fast track" for any administrative procedure.
Saves you money: You also no longer need to pay a middleman to do all the legwork, as you are empowered to deal directly with the Spanish Administration, on a one-to-one basis.
Saves you aggravation: you no longer need to trawl through government websites looking for appointments or waste whole mornings at a government office only to be told by a civil servant to return another day.
Adds layers of security: safely sign electronically contracts or other legal documents from your own home. This electronic signature is accepted nationwide.

Key administrative tasks

Essential to deal with bureaucracy: It is the primary tool to interact and deal with Spanish Public Administrations (at a national, regional or local level), including tax agencies, social security, and local town halls (Ayuntamientos).
Enables you to sign documents electronically: It allows you to sign contracts (buying or selling property), rental agreements, or any legal document with full legal validity without being physically present. This saves you a lot of time, money, and adds a layer of security.

Working examples

File taxes online: It enables you to file and pay tax returns online, view tax debt, and pay fines in real time (saving you delay interests and fines).
Immigration: Registering, or renewing, your TIE or residencia permit.
Holiday rentals: Deal with Tourism Authorities online. Communicate with the Guardia Civil reporting your guests, and accommodations electronically, making your life easier.
Driving: Managing and renewing your vehicle documentation with the DGT (Dirección General de Tráfico), Spain’s Driving Agency,
Empadronamiento: Enrol, or update, in your town hall census. Register or update your home address.
Required for self-employed or freelancers (Autónomos): It is generally needed to register and operate as a self-employed individual in Spain.
Banks: sign financial documents from home without needing to attend your local branch.
Other.

Attaining a digital certificate is fast and easy through us

At Larrain Nesbitt Abogados (LNA) we get you a digital certificate in under 10 days, removing all the associated pain.

We offer this service: Digital certificate

Fees vary depending on whether the digital certificate is needed for a physical person or a legal person (company).

Requirements to attain a digital certificate:

Hire us
Specific power of attorney
You need a NIE number

We offer this service: Digital certificate

At Larrain Nesbitt Abogados (LNA) we have over 23 years of experience specialising in property conveyance and taxation. We also assist clients with immigration & residency visas (digital nomad visa), and inheritance procedures (probate). You can contact us by e-mail at info@larrainnesbitt.com, by telephone on our UK line (+44) 0754 3838 218 or Spanish line (+34) 952 19 22 88, or by completing our contact form.

Please note the information provided in this article is of general interest only and is not to be construed or intended as substitute for professional legal advice. This article may be posted freely in websites or other social media so long as the author is duly credited. Plagiarising, whether in whole or in part, this article without crediting the author may result in criminal prosecution. Ní neart go cur le chéile. VOV.

Larraín Nesbitt Abogados, small on fees, BIG on service.
2026© Raymundo Larraín Nesbitt. All Rights Reserved.

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Last Blog Entry:

Spanish property prices continue their upward trend

Raymundo Larraín Nesbitt, June, 19. 2026

Marbella-based Larrain Nesbitt Abogados has over 23 year’s taxation & conveyancing experience at your service. Our team of native English-speaking lawyers and economists have a long track record successfully assisting expats all over Spain. You can review here our client’s testimonials.

By Raymundo Larraín Nesbitt
Lawyer – Abogado
19^th of June 2026

Introduction

Last July 2025, we published this article: Property prices in Spain reached all-time highs. Can they continue to rise?

We got a lot of flak because in it we claimed we were in a new property bubble. The main criticism was that there was no property bubble this time because there was no greed-driven credit bubble, and demand - both domestic and foreign - remains strong. These two points are, of course, true.

Sure, the causes may be completely different from the 2008 bubble (a supply crunch), granted, but the end result is exactly the same: a sharp increase in property prices in a short space of time across the board. Call it what you want (semantics), but if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.

Real examples speak louder than words:

Property bought in 2021 in Estepona for 200,000, sold now in 2026 for 420,000
Property bought in 2017 in Malaga for 450,000, sold now for 950,000
Property bought in 2014 in Madrid for 165,000, sold now for 400,000
Property bought in 2017 in Madrid for 350,000, sold now for 850,000

In the above-linked article, we explained in detail the underlying reasons why property prices were so high and why we thought the trend would continue unabated over the next few years.

Here we are one year on, and property prices have increased by two digits nationwide!

Moreover, particularly concerning is the news that resale property has broken a historic record, with an annual increase of 13.5% over the last year. This is stunning. It can be explained because there is a severe shortage of off-plan property, which pushed sale prices to new records, prompting buyers to opt for resale instead, again pushing up resale prices in a contagion.

But the Bank of Spain sees no property bubble and is even of the opinion that property prices are still 18% undervalued (?). It should be noted that the previous Chairman, who responsibly warned about the real estate market overheating, was quickly replaced in November 2024 by the government with an ex-government minister, who has proven to be more complacent with the government’s narrative.

All this against a backdrop of Spanish wages barely increasing 5% in real terms over the last 30 years, whilst house prices have increased by 300%.

Spain has a serious housing problem, and all Spanish Authorities are burying their heads in the sand, pretending nothing is happening.

The government approved a batch of laws to counter the increase in prices, and all of them have fallen flat on their face or even backfired spectacularly (Spain’s Supreme Court eliminates the new Rental Tourism Registry), adding more confusion and red tape. None of them worked and has in fact further compounded and aggravated the problem.

You would think, in view of the growing housing problem, that it would be an all-hands-on-deck situation. Well, you’d be wrong.

The government approved last month a new law that will regularise over 900,000 illegal immigrants. To which you need to add in a minimum of a further million when they apply to regroup their families that live abroad. In truth, knowing how these immigrants typically have 4 or 5 family members, we could be speaking of an extra 4 or 5 million people.

Spain already faces a huge housing deficit of about 1,000,000 housing units, and on top of it, the government is now going out of its way, and then some more, to add fuel to a dumpster fire by bringing in an extra one or two million people in a short space of time.

The population of Spain in 2016 was 46 million, and by the end of 2026, we will have 50 million with this new regularisation procedure underway. That's almost a 10% population increase in under a decade, bonkers.

Spain is the country that builds fewer homes in all of the European Union. Clearly, what’s needed, besides lowering taxes, is to build more homes. Currently, Spain builds under 90,000 units a year, when realistically it should be building over 300,000 units a year. Spanish Authorities refuse point-blank to increase the number of built homes for ideological reasons, and the housing problem is only getting worse with each passing year.

It’s truly shocking, but the increase in interest rates by the ECB may actually provide a welcome respite to the Spanish real estate market by cooling it off.

The fact is that a progressive government, following its political agenda of lofty ideals, has approved and implemented a series of well-meaning laws that have proven counterproductive, and as a result, have catapulted property prices through the roof!

In plain English, paradoxically, a left-wing government has enabled and paved the way for property owners (and landlords) to become rich faster than any phoney get-rich scheme! Property prices in Spain will continue to rise unchecked until the matter is addressed decisively by this or another government.

Ironically, there is no faster way to get rich than to buy real estate in Spain.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

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Last Press Entry:

Dubai exodus to Mallorca thanks to the Digital Nomad Visa

Majorca Daily Bulletin, May, 21. 2026

The Majorca Daily Bulletin is the leading English-language newspaper in the Balearic Islands, providing the local expatriate community, residents, and visitors with the latest news, sports, and lifestyle features in English.

The MDB kindly quoted one of our articles: Dubai exodus to Mallorca thanks to the Digital Nomad Visa

Original article: Iran war: Fleeing from Dubai? Spain’s Digital Nomad visa offers ultra-low taxation

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