How much does it cost to inherit a property in Madrid in 2026? Notary, Land Registry, taxes and lawyer

When a relative dies and leaves a flat, one of the first questions is how much it will cost to put it in the heirs' names. There are several pieces: certificates, the notary, the Registro de la Propiedad (Land Registry), two different taxes (Inheritance Tax, collected by the Comunidad de Madrid, the regional government, and the plusvalía municipal, collected by the town hall) and, if you hire one, the professional who handles the paperwork.

We go through each cost under the rules in force in October 2026 and finish with a complete example in the city of Madrid. You will see that, for children and spouses, the biggest item is usually not Inheritance Tax but the plusvalía and the notary.

Summary: the costs of an inheritance in Madrid

Sources: notary and Land Registry fee scales, Comunidad de Madrid Legislative Decree 1/2010, Ayuntamiento de Madrid, Life5 (2024), Mapfre (2023) and Housfy (2026).

1. Certificates: they cost little, but you cannot start without them

The death certificate is issued by the Registro Civil (Civil Registry) free of charge. With it you request from the Ministry of Justice the certificado de últimas voluntades (certificate of last wills), which shows whether there was a will and before which notary, and the certificate of life insurance cover, which reveals any life insurance or loan protection policies.

They are paid with the form 790 fee (€3.78 for the last wills certificate, according to Mapfre), can be requested once 15 working days have passed since the death and arrive in about five working days online. If there is a will, the authorised copy is charged by the page under the notary fee scale (€3.01 per page), so it is a small expense.

2. Declaration of heirs, if there is no will

If the deceased did not make a will, before anything is divided it must be formally recorded who the heirs are. A notary does this with a deed (acta) in which at least two witnesses give evidence and which cannot be closed before 20 working days have passed (art. 56 of the Notaries Act). Life5 puts its approximate cost at between €250 and €400 plus VAT. We explain it in depth in “Inheritance without a will in Spain in 2026: who inherits, declaration of heirs, cost and deadlines”.

3. The inheritance deed at the notary

The acceptance and allocation of the inheritance (also called the partition: the document that lists the assets and debts and decides what each heir receives) is signed before a notary. Its price is not set by each notary: it is fixed by the fee scale in Royal Decree 1426/1989. In inheritances, the scale is applied separately to what is allocated to each heir, so the same flat costs more to put in a deed if it is shared among several people.

The scale starts at €90.15 for the first €6,010.12 and continues with decreasing rates, from 4.5 to 0.3 per thousand. A 5% discount is applied, and pages from the fifth onwards (€3.01 per side), copies and VAT are added.

Our own calculation using the notary fee scale (Royal Decree 1426/1989).

According to TaxDown, in Madrid Inheritance Tax can be filed with a private document signed by the heirs, but only the notarial deed allows the flat to be registered and, later, sold.

4. Registration at the Registro de la Propiedad

The Land Registry charges according to its fee scale (Royal Decree 1427/1989): €24.04 for the first €6,010.12 of value and decreasing rates after that, with a maximum of €2,181.67, a 5% discount and VAT on top. For a flat worth €200,000 to €400,000, it usually comes to a few hundred euros. There is no legal deadline, but a buyer will ask for a nota simple (Land Registry extract) showing the heirs as owners; it costs about €9 plus VAT online (Housfy, June 2026).

5. Inheritance Tax in the Comunidad de Madrid

Each heir files their own self-assessment (form 650) within six months of the death. From the value of what they receive, debts, expenses and reductions are deducted:

• Debts and expenses: the deceased's debts proven in a public document or a private document with a reliable date, including the mortgage, and the costs of the final illness, burial and funeral (General Council of Administrative Agents).
• Kinship: €16,000 for children aged 21 or over, spouses and parents; those under 21 add €4,000 for each year they are short of 21, up to €48,000; siblings, nephews and nieces, uncles and aunts and relatives by marriage, €8,000.
• Main home: 95% of the value of the deceased's home, up to €123,000 per heir, for the spouse, descendants, ascendants or a collateral relative over 65 who lived with the deceased for the last two years. The inherited value must be kept for five years.
• Household contents (ajuar doméstico): presumed to be 3% of the estate, but the Tribunal Supremo (Supreme Court) clarified in 2020 that it is not calculated on cash, shares or income-generating assets.

Next, the Madrid tax scale is applied (from 7.65% to 34% in bands), a multiplier based on kinship and existing wealth (1 for children, spouses and parents with modest wealth) and, finally, the relief: 99% for groups I and II and 50% for group III since 1 July 2025. In group III it only covers what is declared on time or before a demand from the tax authorities (Hacienda).

Source: TaxDown examples (October 2026), which we have checked against the Comunidad de Madrid tax scale and multipliers. Inheritance of €300,000 without the main home reduction or high existing wealth.

The extension of another six months must be requested within the first five; if there is no answer within a month, it is deemed granted, with late-payment interest (Comunidad de Madrid e-office, 8 October 2026).

6. Plusvalía municipal on the inheritance

Inheriting a flat also triggers the tax on the increase in value of urban land, the plusvalía municipal (municipal capital gains tax). The heirs pay it within six months of the death (extendable to one year) and, if it can be shown that the land has not gained value, nothing is payable, although it still has to be declared (Consumo Responde).

You can choose the cheaper calculation: the objective one (cadastral value of the land multiplied by a coefficient based on the years the deceased owned the flat) or the actual one (the real gain on the land). In the city of Madrid the rate is 29% and, in October 2026, the coefficient for 20 years or more is 0.40, the one in the table of Royal Decree-law 8/2023, according to TaxDown. The coefficients in force on the date of death apply, and Royal Decree-law 29/2026 plans to change them from 1 December 2026 if it is ratified (for 20 years or more, the maximum would fall to 0.30). We cover this in “Taxes when selling a flat in Spain in 2026: plusvalía municipal in Madrid, income tax and exemptions”.

Relief for inheriting the deceased's main home when it passes to the spouse, descendants or ascendants. Source: Ayuntamiento de Madrid, press release on the plusvalía bylaw approved in May 2022. Other municipalities in the region have their own bylaws.

According to TaxDown, filing the self-assessment on time counts as the application for the relief. If the flat was not the main home, is inherited by siblings or nephews and nieces, or is in another municipality, it does not apply.

7. Lawyer or gestoría

You do not have to hire anyone. But with several heirs, debts or doubts about how to value the assets, good advice avoids mistakes that cost more than the fees. Those fees have no official scale: the General Statute of the Legal Profession provides for a letter of engagement (hoja de encargo) setting out what the matter will cost, so ask for a fixed quote in writing stating what is and is not included.

Example: two siblings inherit a flat in the city of Madrid

Suppose that in 2026 a widowed father dies in Madrid leaving a will in favour of his two children, both over 21 and without high existing wealth. He leaves the flat he lived in, valued at €360,000, with a cadastral land value of €70,000 and bought more than 20 years ago, and €30,000 in the bank. Each child receives half: €180,000 of the flat and €15,000 in cash. To keep it simple, we do not include household contents or deductible expenses.

1. Value each child receives: €195,000.
2. Kinship reduction: €16,000.
3. Main home reduction: 95% of €180,000 would be €171,000, but the limit is €123,000.
4. Taxable base: 195,000 − 16,000 − 123,000 = €56,000.
5. Tax due under the Madrid scale: €5,709.22.
6. With the 99% relief, each child pays €57.09.

If they did not apply the main home reduction, for example because they plan to sell within five years, the base would be €179,000 and each would pay €271.59. The difference is about €215 each, a useful figure when deciding.

The plusvalía: €70,000 of cadastral land value multiplied by the 0.40 coefficient gives a base of €28,000, and at 29% that comes to €8,120. As the land value is between €60,000 and €100,000 and it was the father's main home, an 85% relief applies: they pay €1,218 between the two of them.

Approximate calculation using the Comunidad de Madrid Inheritance Tax scale, the notary and Land Registry fee scales and the plusvalía rate (29%) and coefficient (0.40) for the city of Madrid in October 2026. The notary fee may vary depending on pages and copies.

If two nephews or nieces inherited instead, the sums would change completely: no main home reduction, no plusvalía relief, and only a 50% Inheritance Tax relief.

How to pay less without taking risks

• File on time and request the extension before the fifth month if the inheritance gets complicated.
• Apply for the plusvalía relief and compare the actual method with the objective one.
• Deduct the debts and deductible expenses you can prove.
• Declare a realistic value for the flat: if you sell it later, it will be the reference for calculating the gain for income tax (IRPF).

How we do it at Llavely

At Llavely we work with lawyers specialising in property sales and inheritance, with more than 35 years of experience. With the “Full inheritance + sale” service, our lawyers handle the inheritance from start to finish: the will or the declaration of heirs, the acceptance and division before a notary, Inheritance Tax, the plusvalía and registration at the Land Registry. That part has a separate fixed quote, which we give you before starting, so you know from day one how much you will pay: just ask us for the inheritance quote.

Once the flat is in your names, we sell it with “Llavely Sale”: 2.5% + VAT of the sale price, payable only if it sells and on the day of signing at the notary. Everything is included and we do it ourselves: valuation, photos, video, floor plan and virtual tour, screened and verified buyers (we speak to each one before showing the home and check their ID), viewings, offers and the arras (deposit contract), coordination with the notary, our lawyers from start to finish, who go with you in person to the notary, and a private seller portal to follow the sale. We explain the steps of the sale in “Selling an inherited flat in Madrid (2026): steps, taxes and what to do if there are several heirs”.

This article is for information only: each specific case should be reviewed with a professional.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

1. Inheritance Tax in Madrid: how much you really pay (TaxDown, 2 October 2026)
2. Comunidad de Madrid Legislative Decree 1/2010, articles on Inheritance Tax (dossier of the Cortes de Castilla y León, the Castile and León regional parliament)
3. Comunidad de Madrid. Inheritance and Gift Tax: scale and reductions (OCU, Spanish consumer organisation, September 2020)
4. Extension of deadlines for filing Inheritance Tax (Comunidad de Madrid e-office, updated 8 October 2026)
5. Madrid raises the Inheritance Tax relief to 50% for all group III relatives (Fiscal Impuestos, 30 June 2025)
6. Ruling CTE 01-14/S on the period for keeping the main home (Comunidad de Madrid)
7. The City Council plenary approves the new plusvalía tax bylaw (Ayuntamiento de Madrid, 31 May 2022)
8. Plusvalía municipal calculator for Madrid (TaxDown, 13 October 2026)
9. The plusvalía (Consumo Responde, Junta de Andalucía, the Andalusian regional government)
10. Real Decreto 1426/1989 (Royal Decree), Notary Fee Scale, consolidated text (BOE, Official State Gazette)
11. Annex 1 of the Land Registrars' Fee Scale (Iberley)
12. What the certificate of last wills is (Mapfre, updated October 2023)
13. Declaration of heirs: what it is, how much it costs and how to do it (Life5, July 2024)
14. The Supreme Court changes its approach to valuing household contents (PwC Periscopio Fiscal y Legal, May 2020)
15. Deductible charges, expenses and debts in inheritances (General Council of Administrative Agents, March 2025)
16. BOE – Real Decreto-ley 29/2026 (Royal Decree-law) of 6 October on urgent measures for the social function of housing, consolidated text (Official State Gazette, 7 October 2026)
17. Article 107 of the consolidated text of the Local Finance Act, current version (Iberley, 8 October 2026)