Buying is open and straightforward. On the estate question, Spain is in a different position from the UK, Germany or Italy, and it matters.
This page describes what changes for a Spanish resident. Your own position needs Spanish and US advisers, and we make those introductions. Contact the desk at Miami Dossier for the current position on any building we cover.
There is no restriction on a foreign national owning residential property in the United States. No visa, no residency and no citizenship is required to buy, to own or to sell. Ownership and immigration are separate systems and buying property grants no right to live in the country.
The mechanics of buying are the same for a Spanish resident as for anyone else, and Miami is a familiar and comfortable market for Spanish buyers in ways that go beyond language.
The point of difference is the estate question. The United States has estate tax treaties with the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and Switzerland. It does not have one with Spain. That is a real distinction and it is almost never raised in a sales gallery.
United States real property is a US situs asset. On the death of a non-resident owner it can fall within the US estate tax net, and the exemption available to a non-resident alien is dramatically lower than the one available to a US person.
Where an estate tax treaty exists, it provides a framework for how that exposure operates and how it coordinates with the home country system. Without one, a Spanish buyer relies on domestic relief rules in both systems and on structuring, rather than on a treaty framework.
This does not mean a Spanish buyer should not buy. It means the holding structure carries more weight, and the decision is less forgiving of being left until later.
There is a second layer. Spanish inheritance and gift tax is administered regionally and treatment varies considerably by autonomous community, so the Spanish side of the analysis is specific to where you are resident rather than general to the country. Your Spanish advisers will know this; the point is that they need to be involved before you sign, not after.
We do not advise on any of this. We say it plainly because the alternative is a Spanish buyer discovering it years later, and that has a cost we would rather they avoid.
Florida imposes no state income tax. Federal tax applies regardless of state, and a Spanish owner letting a Miami residence has US federal reporting and filing obligations on that income.
Spain taxes its residents on worldwide income, so the same income enters the Spanish system. There is an income tax treaty between the two countries governing how relief is coordinated.
Spain also has significant reporting requirements for assets held abroad, and a Miami property and any structure holding it will engage them. The penalties for non compliance have historically been severe and the rules have been litigated and amended, so this is squarely a matter for current Spanish advice rather than for anything read online.
On sale, the US withholding regime on dispositions of US real property by foreign persons applies at closing and is reconciled later. It affects proceeds and should be planned for.
Foreign national lending in Florida is open to Spanish buyers. Larger deposit than a domestic borrower, no US credit history required, pricing above domestic, terms varying by lender and moving with the environment.
Preconstruction sequencing is the risk: deposits committed at contract and paid across construction, financing arranged at closing, and typically no financing contingency in the agreement. Establish the funding position before committing deposits.
A euro buyer purchasing a dollar asset across a staged deposit schedule holds a currency position. Convert at each instalment, fix scheduled payments forward, or already hold dollars. We do not forecast currency and would not trust anyone in this industry who claims to.
Spanish buyers usually arrive clear on location, frequently on Brickell or the Beach, and comfortable with the city. Language is not a barrier here in the way it is in most US markets, and that ease is real.
What we would add to most Spanish enquiries is the structuring conversation, earlier than it is usually raised, for the reason set out above.
And the running cost picture. Coastal Florida association budgets are large and volatile, driven mainly by property insurance, and special assessments are a real feature of the market rather than an aberration. That is a different ownership economics from what most Spanish buyers are used to and it should be read from documents, not assumed.
This is the single most useful thing we can tell a Spanish buyer, and it is the one thing a sales gallery has no reason to mention. Contact the desk at Miami Dossier and we will introduce you to US counsel who work with Spanish advisers regularly.
We are a brokerage and this is not tax or legal advice in either country. Contact the desk at Miami Dossier and we will go through the current position on any building we cover, including the parts a sales gallery would rather skip. Where a question is legal, tax or structuring, we introduce you to advisers who handle that properly rather than answering it ourselves.