What an estate agent charges in Alicante: 3% to 5% plus VAT

There is a moment in every sale when someone puts two sheets of paper and a pen on the table. Not the notary: that comes months later. It is the agent, sitting at your kitchen table, late afternoon light coming in off the terrace, holding a document called a nota de encargo, the listing agreement. You sign it almost without reading, because it looks like a formality.

It is not. That paper decides how much you will pay, how long you are tied in, and what happens if you end up selling the house yourself. Here is what it says, and what it costs, in Alicante province.

What an estate agent charges

Agency fees in Spain are unregulated. There is no legal minimum or maximum: each agency sets its own rate and the owner accepts it or negotiates before signing. In practice the market runs from 3% to 7% of the final sale price, with the average sitting just under 5%. On top of that comes 21% VAT, which plenty of sellers discover late.

The percentages make more sense against a real home. On a penthouse in La Mata listed at 285 000 euros, 3% is 8 550 euros and 5% is 14 250. With VAT: 10 345 and 17 243. Choosing one agency over another, on that same sale, is a difference of almost 7 000 euros.

Who pays? By custom the seller, because the seller is the one hiring the service. It is not a legal rule: some agencies charge the buyer, some split it. In rentals the rule did change, and explicitly: since the 2023 housing act (Ley 12/2023), agency fees are borne by the landlord, never by the tenant. In a sale it remains a matter of contract.

Payment normally happens on the day of the deed, when the money actually moves.

What the listing agreement actually is

The nota de encargo is the contract between you and the agency. No single statute governs it: it is an atypical contract, held up by the Civil Code, by consumer law and by decades of case law. Which is exactly why the drafting matters so much.

Five clauses account for nearly every later dispute:

• The asking price, and whether the agency can move it without your signature.
• The term, and above all whether it renews itself when nobody says anything.
• The fee: the percentage, whether the figure quoted includes VAT, and the moment it becomes payable.
• Exclusivity, if there is any.
• The penalty for breach.

Exclusivity, and what the Supreme Court said

Exclusivity is the clause that generates the most arguments. It means that for a fixed period, six months with automatic renewal being the norm, that agency is the only one allowed to sell your home.

Spain’s Supreme Court ruled on it in judgment 263/2019, of 10 May. In short: an exclusivity clause is valid and not unfair, provided it is written in clear, plain terms and there is a genuine balance between what each side owes. The agency undertakes to work intensively on the sale, putting its material and human resources at the client’s service; the owner undertakes to respect the exclusivity for the agreed term.

In that case the court also declined to treat the agreed compensation as unfair, precisely because it matched the percentage set as the commission and the agency had done its part. Translated: if you sign an exclusive, you have really signed it. The term is negotiated before signature, not after.

The viewing sheet: what the buyer signs

There is a second document on the other side of the counter. When a prospective buyer views your home with the agency, they are asked to sign a hoja de visita, a viewing sheet. Its purpose is to record that this agent was the one who showed them the property, in case they later try to close the deal directly with you and skip the fee.

Here the case law is split, and it is worth knowing. The majority position among the provincial courts is that signing a viewing sheet is not the same as signing a brokerage contract: it evidences that a viewing happened, and little more, because free and informed consent to a professional engagement cannot be inferred from that signature alone. A minority line has ordered buyers to pay, where the document was drafted clearly as a standalone contract with properly defined mutual obligations.

In practice, a viewing sheet is worth exactly what its wording is worth. It is neither meaningless nor a blank cheque.

The register almost nobody checks

Since 16 October 2022, anyone wanting to act professionally as an intermediary in a property transaction in Alicante, Valencia or Castellón must be entered in the Register of Real Estate Intermediation Agents of the Valencian Community, created by Decree 98/2022, of 29 July. The register is public and free, and its stated purpose is consumer protection in housing.

There is a twist few people know about. Spain’s competition authority (CNMC) challenged the decree, and in 2024 the High Court of Justice of the Valencian Community partly agreed: it annulled several of the solvency and training requirements imposed for registration, holding that the decree had not sufficiently justified those restrictions on free competition. The register stands. Part of its small print does not.

For you as an owner it is still the cheapest check available: ask for the registration number, then look it up.

What to look at before you sign

This is not legal advice, it is trade common sense. Before you put your name on it:

• Read the term and hunt for automatic renewal. If it is there, ask how it is cancelled and how much notice you need to give.
• Ask in writing what the fee covers: photography, floor plan, portal listings, running viewings, screening buyers, accompanying you to the notary.
• Confirm whether the percentage is with or without VAT. That is 21 points of difference.
• Check when the fee falls due. Paying because a buyer appeared is not the same as paying at the signing of the deed.
• If there is exclusivity, negotiate the term and ask for a commitment on activity: photos, portals, regular reporting.
• Ask for the agent’s registration number.
• If something is unclear, do not sign that day. A lawyer or the municipal consumer office will read it in twenty minutes.

A good agency has no problem with any of these questions. It usually answers them before you ask.

The asking price is the other half of the equation, and it decides more than the percentage you end up paying: here is how to price your home in Alicante to sell within 90 days. And if the deal reaches the deposit stage and then goes wrong, these are the five reasons a sale falls through before the notary.

If you are thinking of selling on the Costa Blanca, you can explore our properties to see how a home is presented on the market today, or contact us and we will talk it through.