Residence Permits and Foreign Real Estate

We support the procedure of obtaining a residence permit and purchasing foreign real property in different European countries, together with the related consultancy work.

These two matters are usually raised together, and they interact more than clients expect. A property purchase can support a residence application; a residence permit can change where you are taxed on your worldwide income. Each should be decided with the other in view.

Residence permits

Grounds for residence differ by country, but generally fall into recognisable categories: employment or self-employment, company ownership and management, investment, property acquisition, study, family reunification, and independent means.

Our role is to establish which ground is genuinely available to you, what it requires you to demonstrate, and what it obliges you to do afterwards — because most permits carry continuing conditions. Minimum physical presence, maintained investment, continued employment or a maintained address are common, and losing the permit at renewal is usually the result of a condition nobody explained at the outset.

We assist with assessing eligibility, assembling and legalising documents, preparing the application, and advising on the renewal cycle and the route to permanent residence where one exists.

Foreign real property

Buying property in an unfamiliar legal system carries risks that are not obvious to a buyer applying assumptions from home.

We advise on:

• Title and encumbrances. Who actually owns the property, what charges, easements or claims exist against it, and whether the seller is entitled to sell.
• Restrictions on foreign ownership. Several jurisdictions restrict acquisition by non-residents, or by non-residents purchasing agricultural or border land. Some require the purchase to be made through a local entity.
• Planning and building status. Whether what has been built matches what was permitted — a frequent and expensive problem in resort areas.
• Contract terms. Deposit protection, completion conditions, and what happens if a development is not finished.
• Purchase structure. Whether to hold personally or through a company, and the consequences of each for tax, succession and future sale.

The tax consequences

This is the part most often overlooked, and the most expensive to get wrong.

Owning property abroad can create local tax obligations — acquisition tax, annual property tax, income tax on rental receipts, and capital gains tax on sale. Spending time in a country can make you tax resident there, with a claim on your worldwide income, sometimes after a shorter period than the residence permit itself suggests. Holding property through a company changes the analysis again, and not always favourably.

We assess these consequences before the purchase, alongside our tax planning work, so the decision is made with the full cost visible rather than discovered in the following tax year.