Sorello Guides

Buying in Sabadell: tax, IBI and the market

Sabadell is a city, and in Barcelona that means its districts behave like separate markets that happen to share a town hall. An appraised average of 2.446,0 €/m² puts this above the national middle. Almost nothing here is a second home: 9,93 % of dwellings are not somebody's main residence.

The bill that lands on the day of the deed

Catalonia charges transfer tax on a progressive scale rather than a single rate, starting at 10 % and rising through bands as the value goes up; the table below applies the scale bracket by bracket. On a Sabadell resale the Catalonia transfer tax is the single largest item after the price itself.

Transfer tax on a resale purchase, at three illustrative prices
Purchase priceTransfer tax
200.000 €20.000 €
350.000 €35.000 €
600.000 €60.000 €

The three prices are round illustrative figures chosen to bracket the ordinary range, not measurements of this market.

The reduced rates, stamp duty and the deed checklist for Catalonia

A sense of scale

Judged only against Barcelona, the number of appraisals behind the average here is the third highest in the guide.

Country-wide, that number of notarised home sales is one of the second-dearest twentieth.

Take Barcelona alone: among the municipalities here, its population is the fifth highest.

Put beside the rest of the country, its count of registered residential units belongs to the second-dearest twentieth.

Within Barcelona, that is the fourth highest total dwelling stock among the municipalities this guide covers.

The comparison that matters

Country-wide, that number of urban cadastral units is one of the third-dearest twentieth.

Of the Barcelona municipalities covered here, this one comes highest on share of the urban register that is housing.

Measured against the whole batch, that premium a new build commands over an older home sits in the seventeenth twentieth from the bottom.

Among the Barcelona towns and cities covered here, it records the nineteenth lowest share of dwellings that are not a main residence.

Put beside the rest of the country, its average cadastral value per home belongs to the band just below the top quarter.

A sense of scale

Judged only against Barcelona, the average cadastral value per home here is the fifteenth lowest in the guide.

Put beside the rest of the country, its rural property-tax rate belongs to the top quarter.

Within Barcelona, that is the fourteenth lowest year of the last cadastral revision among the municipalities this guide covers.

Set the national range end to end and this appraised value per square metre lands in the thirteenth twentieth from the bottom.

What the town hall charges every year

Sabadell sets its urban IBI at 0,66 %, a little above what most town halls charge.

Cadastral values in Sabadell average 70.997 € per dwelling, an ordinary base.

The rural rate of 0,87 % is unusually close to the urban one.

180.000 € of cadastral value at 0,66 % is 1.188 € a year, but the base is dated and a revision would change it sharply.

The cadastral value in this example is a round illustrative figure, not the cadastral value of any particular property here. Ask for the last IBI receipt: it states the real one.

Appraised values and what they imply

With 1.010 appraisals behind it, the quarterly average barely moves on individual transactions.

At 2.446,0 €/m², Sabadell appraisals sit above the national middle.

The premium for new build is clear: 3.020,8 €/m² against 2.421,0 €/m² for anything older.

A stock of homes people actually live in

The census counted 92.772 dwellings across the municipality.

Only 9,93 % of Sabadell dwellings are not somebody's main home, so the market is driven by people who live here.

20,83 % of Sabadell main homes are rented, above the national pattern.

The cadastral values are dated

The Sabadell register dates from 2002; a future revision could move the yearly bill significantly even if the rate never changes.

The construction tax is 4 %, the statutory maximum, which matters if you plan to renovate.

The pace of sales

Fourth quarter was the busiest quarter and Third quarter the thinnest, but the spread was mild.

Sabadell saw 3.656 notarised home sales over the year, a steady rate for its population.

Against 92.612 registered residential units, a healthy share of the stock changes hands each year.

Notarised home sales by quarter, 2025
QuarterSales
First quarter885
Second quarter953
Third quarter798
Fourth quarter1.020

Related guides

Sources and licences