Tenerife is our historic heartland: two anchors — Luxembourg and Costa Adeje — and sixteen neighbourhoods we know house by house. This page describes the territory as we actually work it, and what our guidance changes in practice.
Tenerife covers 2,034 km², yet the climate changes every ten kilometres. The north is green, humid and often overcast; the south, sheltered by the ridge and by Mount Teide, lives under clear skies for most of the year. That is why the bulk of the international residential market is concentrated on the south and south-west coasts — and that is where we work.
On this coast the average hovers around 23 °C and temperatures generally range between 20 and 25 °C through the year: there is no dead season, only months busier than others. Shops, private clinics, international schools and flight connections run twelve months a year, for a second home and for a permanent move alike.
From Luxembourg, allow around 4h30 of flying time from Findel, and a single hour of time difference: the archipelago runs on Greenwich Mean Time, one hour behind Luxembourg all year round. A call to the notary, a transfer, a video viewing all stay within office hours. On the island our guidance remains entirely in your language from start to finish, and we coordinate professionals used to foreign clients: notaries, lawyers, banks, tradespeople.
A first conversation, in your language, to establish the real use of the property, the overall budget including costs (allow 9 to 12% in the Canaries) and the timeline. We translate that brief into precise search areas, because in Tenerife ten minutes by car separate two very different markets.
We view before you do. Aspect and actual hours of sunlight, seafront noise, condition of the common areas, occupancy out of season: an advert says none of this. You receive a commented video report, then we arrange grouped viewing days for your visit.
Nota simple at the Registro de la Propiedad, planning compliance and declared floor areas, cédula de habitabilidad or first-occupancy licence, community charges up to date, tourist letting licence (VV) if the property is let. A lawyer independent of the seller carries out these checks: we coordinate them and report back to you in writing.
We put the offer in your name, with the ground-level arguments that justify it. Once agreement is reached, the contrato de arras commits both parties: around 10% of the price, a firm signing deadline and the conditions we have had written in.
Signing of the escritura pública before a notary, in person or by power of attorney. We prepare the settlement of the Canarian taxes (IGIC on new builds, ITP on resales) then the entry in the Registro de la Propiedad that formalises your title.
Transfers of water, electricity and community charges, insurance, alarm, tradespeople contacts. If the property is intended for letting, we point you to the tourist registration formalities and to local managing agents. We stay reachable afterwards: that is often when the support matters most.
A first conversation, in your language, to establish the real use of the property, the overall budget including costs (allow 9 to 12% in the Canaries) and the timeline. We translate that brief into precise search areas, because in Tenerife ten minutes by car separate two very different markets.
We view before you do. Aspect and actual hours of sunlight, seafront noise, condition of the common areas, occupancy out of season: an advert says none of this. You receive a commented video report, then we arrange grouped viewing days for your visit.
Nota simple at the Registro de la Propiedad, planning compliance and declared floor areas, cédula de habitabilidad or first-occupancy licence, community charges up to date, tourist letting licence (VV) if the property is let. A lawyer independent of the seller carries out these checks: we coordinate them and report back to you in writing.
We put the offer in your name, with the ground-level arguments that justify it. Once agreement is reached, the contrato de arras commits both parties: around 10% of the price, a firm signing deadline and the conditions we have had written in.
Signing of the escritura pública before a notary, in person or by power of attorney. We prepare the settlement of the Canarian taxes (IGIC on new builds, ITP on resales) then the entry in the Registro de la Propiedad that formalises your title.
Transfers of water, electricity and community charges, insurance, alarm, tradespeople contacts. If the property is intended for letting, we point you to the tourist registration formalities and to local managing agents. We stay reachable afterwards: that is often when the support matters most.
A tax regime of its own, insularity, strict coastal planning: buying in Tenerife follows rules that do not apply in the rest of Spain. That is why guidance needs to be local.
None of them is an obstacle. All of them need handling before the offer, not after.
The Canary Islands sit outside the European Union VAT territory. On a new build you pay IGIC, the Canarian general indirect tax at 7% standard rate, plus stamp duty (AJD), where the mainland applies 10% VAT. On a resale it is ITP at the Canarian standard rate of 6.5%, one of the lowest in Spain. On a new-build property at €600,000, the gap with mainland VAT comes to around €18,000.
The Canary Islands Economic and Tax Regime (REF), recognised by the European Union under outermost-region status, carries schemes such as the Reserve for Investments in the Canaries (RIC) and the Canary Islands Special Zone (ZEC), which cuts corporation tax to 4%. Let us be clear: these regimes target economic activity — employment, productive investment, prior authorisation. They do not apply to a private individual buying a home. Be wary of anyone who tells you otherwise.
Everything arrives by ship. Kitchen, furniture, renovation materials, a car: allow for shipping times and a freight premium, on top of IGIC and, depending on the goods, the AIEM import duty. Building works cannot be planned as they would be in Luxembourg: we frame the supply schedule with the tradesperson before signing, not after.
The Ley de Costas defines an inalienable public maritime-terrestrial domain, together with a 6-metre right-of-way easement and a 100-metre protection easement, reduced to 20 metres in areas already urbanised. On top of that comes extensive environmental protection: a large share of the island is classified as protected natural space, and building permits (licencia de obra) are issued by the municipality, under rules that differ from Adeje to Granadilla. An extension that “was already there” is not thereby regularised.
Short-term letting in the Canaries is not a matter of simply going online. The vivienda vacacional falls under a regime of its own: a declaración responsable filed with the tourism authority, entry in the general tourism register, a registration number that must appear in every advert, plus habitability and equipment requirements. The community of owners may also restrict or prohibit that use by qualified majority: the statutes are read before the offer. And the framework is moving — we check the state of the law case by case.
These points concern the territory itself. For the detail of the stages, the costs and the formalities (NIE, bank account, notary, budget item by item), the transactional guide takes over.
Read the “Buying in Tenerife” guideFrom the south-east coast to the western seaboard, every zone has its own market and its own pitfalls. Click a pin or a card to go into the detail.
Our online selection is located entirely in the south of the island. That is a deliberate choice: we list only what we can visit and verify. Seafront apartments, villas in the hills above Adeje, new-build developments completed or under way: every listing states the neighbourhood, the charges, the aspect and what you should know before viewing.
Part of the market never reaches the portals: properties circulate between agents and developers before going online. Tell us what you are looking for, and that part opens up too.
Tell us how you intend to use the property, your overall budget including costs and your dates: we come back to you with an honest first reading — relevant neighbourhoods, a realistic order of magnitude, properties to follow.
