Money · 2 July 2026 · 6 min read
Cash or mortgage? How Irish buyers actually pay.
There are four ways Irish money buys a Spanish home, and most buyers use a blend. Each has a cost the brochure never mentions.
1. Straight savings
The simplest and the most common. Euro to euro, no exchange risk, no lender timeline. The hidden cost is opportunity: €400,000 out of savings is €400,000 not doing anything else, and Spanish property is a slow asset to get money back out of. The practical points: check your bank's transfer limits early, and have the paper trail ready because Spanish banks will ask where a six-figure sum came from.
2. A pension lump sum
A large share of the 55-plus buyers we talk to are spending some or all of a retirement lump sum. It works well, with one caution: take proper Irish tax advice on the sequencing, especially if a move to Spain might follow. The order in which you draw the pension, buy the property and change tax residence can change what you keep. Days of advice, potentially five figures of difference.
3. Releasing equity at home
Remortgaging or topping up on an Irish property to buy in Spain outright. You become a cash buyer in Spain (fast, simple, strong negotiating position) and keep the borrowing where you understand the system. The trade-off: your Irish home carries the debt, and Irish rates and terms apply. Compare this seriously against a Spanish mortgage before defaulting to it.
4. A Spanish mortgage
Spanish banks lend non-residents 60 to 70% of price or valuation. The case for borrowing in Spain: the debt sits against the Spanish asset, in the same currency as the rent it might earn, and you keep Irish borrowing capacity free. The case against: more paperwork, a longer timeline, and terms that end by age 70 to 75. The full detail is in our mortgage guide.
The honest comparison
Cash wins negotiations and closes fastest. Borrowing preserves flexibility and, for buyers with rental plans, keeps the asset partly self-funding. What matters is deciding before the viewing trip: sellers and agents treat a funded buyer differently, and the arras deadline is no place to start a mortgage application.