Many older buildings in Spain still have asbestos-cement soil and waste pipes.
From 3 October 2026, property owners in Catalonia face another piece of paperwork when selling or renting: a certificate stating whether or not the property contains asbestos.
A new Catalan law on the eradication of asbestos introduces the requirement for property transactions and new rental contracts from the beginning of October.
What owners need to know
Cataloniaâs new Asbestos Eradication Law (Law 8/2026), published in July, comes into force on 3 October 2026.
Article 21 creates a new âcertificate of presence or absence of asbestosâ, which owners must provide when selling or renting a property.
This is therefore not just another document for vendors to add to the pile when selling a home. Landlords signing new rental contracts will also need one.
The requirement applies broadly to property rather than just homes, so owners of commercial premises and other types of real estate should also take note.
What does the certificate say?
The detailed regulations governing the certificates have yet to be approved, which leaves some aspects of the new system unresolved.
In the meantime, the law says certificates must at least establish whether visible asbestos is present or absent. Where it is present, the certificate must also describe the condition of the asbestos-containing materials and the risk they may pose to people.
The regulations will ultimately determine the precise characteristics of the certificate and who is qualified to issue one.
There is also an additional disclosure requirement worth noting. In consumer transactions, advertising for homes for sale or rent must disclose the presence or absence of asbestos in accordance with the certificate.
Another document to organise before selling
For anyone planning to sell or rent property in Catalonia from 3 October onwards, the practical message is simple: find out about the asbestos certificate before getting too far into the transaction.
As the implementing regulations have yet to fill in all the details, there is likely to be some uncertainty in the early stages. But the underlying obligation is already in the law.
Vendors in particular would be well advised to add this to the growing list of documents that should be organised before putting a property on the market. Finding out at the last minute that you need another certificate is rarely conducive to a smooth sale.
More paperwork for Catalan property owners
Catalonia is already one of the most paperwork-heavy regions in Spain when it comes to selling or renting a home. Alongside the Energy Efficiency Certificate required throughout Spain, vendors and landlords in Catalonia generally also need a valid habitability certificate. From 3 October they will have another document to organise: the new asbestos presence or absence certificate. Whatever the merits of the requirement, the practical consequence for owners is clear â getting the paperwork in order before going to market is becoming more important than ever.
Thinking of selling in Catalonia?
If you are considering selling a property in Catalonia, Spanish Property Insight can help you get your paperwork organised and prepare for the sale before you approach the market. You can also start with a free personalised market report showing the latest sales, price and demand trends in your area, so you have a clearer idea of the market you are selling into.
Get in touch using the form below to request your free market report and find out how we can help you prepare your property for sale.
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German demand for Spanish property continued to grow in the second quarter, but once again failed to keep pace with the wider foreign market. As a result, German buyersâ share of foreign demand fell to its lowest level in this series.
German buyers were involved in 1,640 Spanish property purchases in Q2 2026, up 3.1% compared with the same period last year. That was the second consecutive year of Q2 growth following declines in 2023 and 2024.
However, total foreign demand grew much faster, rising 11.3% year-on-year to 26,836 purchases. So although more Germans were buying, their relative importance to the foreign market continued to decline.
German buyers accounted for 6.1% of all foreign purchases in Q2, down from 6.6% a year earlier and 9.1% at the recent peak in 2022. That is also the lowest German foreign market share (FMS) in the period covered by this data, going back to 2017.
The first-half figures were slightly weaker. German buyers acquired 3,149 homes in H1 2026, down 2.1% compared with 3,216 in the same period last year.
Above average, but losing relative momentum
In absolute terms, German demand remains reasonably healthy. Q2 sales were 16% above the ten-year average of 1,410 transactions and 35% higher than in Q2 2017.
But that growth looks modest beside the foreign market as a whole. Using Q2 2017 as an index of 100, German demand now stands at 135, whilst total foreign demand has climbed to 172.
The picture is therefore quite different from booming markets such as the Netherlands. German demand remains substantial and is still growing on a quarterly basis, but other foreign nationalities are expanding faster and gradually taking a bigger slice of the market.
The rolling trend points to a broadly stable market
Looking at the four-quarter rolling total, which smooths out fluctuations in individual quarters, German demand appears broadly stable but slightly weaker than a year ago. German buyers were involved in 6,292 Spanish property purchases in the four quarters to the end of Q2 2026, down 2.8% compared with the equivalent 12-month total a year earlier. That follows a 9.2% recovery in the previous 12-month period. The rolling total remains well below the post-pandemic peak of almost 8,000 reached in 2022, but comfortably above the levels seen before the pandemic.
Spanish public railway company Renfe on Friday said it had suffered a cyberattack that compromised some user data, with media reporting that criminals used AI in a first for Spain.
Renfe said in a statement that the “cybersecurity incident” originated in servers of railway infrastructure manager Adif that were “previously compromised and interconnected with the company’s systems”.
“The attackers were able to access limited user information, consisting mainly of names and email addresses,” but “no conclusive evidence” suggests the data was made public, Renfe said.
“There is no evidence of access to bank or financial details, payment methods, IDs or other particularly sensitive information,” added the company, which transported more than 531 million people last year.
Renfe said the incident came after “several weeks” of attempted attacks that had been “detected and successfully blocked” and that rail services were running normally.
Spanish daily El Mundo quoted “sources close to the investigation” as saying a criminal organisation used “a system similar” to Anthropic’s AI to attack Adif’s website, which was unavailable on Friday evening.
El Mundo said it was the first cyberattack by AI on the website of a Spanish public company, with the incident lasting “several days”.
A Renfe spokeswoman declined to say how many users were affected by the breach or when it happened.
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The criminals seized 500GB of data, El Mundo and other outlets reported. According to La Razon, sources with knowledge of the case said “the modus operandi points to a foreign group”.
Global worries about the power of advanced AI tools are mounting after a string of hacking incidents involving models from ChatGPT developer OpenAI and its rival Anthropic.
Warnings have increased of possible hybrid attacks, including cyber incidents, on Western allies of Ukraine as Russia’s invasion grinds through its fifth year.
Miles de personas han participado este sĂĄbado en una manifestaciĂłn en Madrid convocada como un âultimĂĄtum al Gobiernoâ por la plataforma Sociedad Civil Española y apoyada por PP y Vox. En la cabecera de la protesta, que ha iniciado el recorrido en la plaza de Cibeles y ha concluido en el llamado Arco de la Victoria, compartĂan pancarta Marcos de Quinto, exdiputado de Ciudadanos, y Alejo Vidal-Quadras, ex presidente de los populares en Cataluña y uno de los fundadores del partido de Santiago Abascal, quien se dio un baño de selfies en la marcha mientras le gritaban âÂĄpresidente, presidente!â. El PP no enviĂł a su lĂder, sino a su secretario general, Miguel Tellado, y esa ausencia no pasĂł inadvertida entre el pĂșblico, que a cada poco coreaba: âFeijĂło, ÂżdĂłnde estĂĄs que no te veo?â.
Mark StĂŒcklin
