Sorello Guides

Buying in Alcalá de Henares: tax, IBI and the market

At 2.838,6 €/m² appraisals are firmly in the expensive half of the country. Alcalá de Henares is a city, and in Madrid that means its districts behave like separate markets that happen to share a town hall. Almost nothing here is a second home: 8,29 % of dwellings are not somebody's main residence.

What you pay once, at the deed

At Alcalá de Henares price levels the Community of Madrid transfer tax is worth several months of most household budgets, so it belongs in the offer, not after it. Community of Madrid charges 6 %, one of the lighter rates in the country.

Transfer tax on a resale purchase, at three illustrative prices
Purchase priceTransfer tax
200.000 €12.000 €
350.000 €21.000 €
600.000 €36.000 €

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 Community of Madrid

Put beside its neighbours

Judged only against Madrid, the population here is the third highest in the guide.

Country-wide, that count of registered residential units is one of the third-dearest twentieth.

Of the Madrid municipalities covered here, this one comes fourth highest on total dwelling stock.

Nationally, that number of notarised home sales falls in the third-dearest twentieth.

Set against the other Madrid municipalities in this guide, it has the second highest number of urban cadastral units.

How it ranks

Set the national range end to end and this number of appraisals behind the average lands in the third-dearest twentieth.

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

Over the whole guide, the average cadastral value per home recorded here falls within the third-dearest twentieth.

Ranked against its neighbours in Madrid, it holds the twelfth lowest urban property-tax rate of the group.

Set the national range end to end and this share of dwellings that are not a main residence lands in the second-cheapest twentieth.

Put beside its neighbours

Of the Madrid municipalities covered here, this one comes eighth lowest on appraised value per square metre.

On a national view, its rural property-tax rate falls into the seventeenth twentieth from the bottom.

Compared with the rest of Madrid in this guide, it sits fourth lowest on appraised value of an older home.

Put beside the rest of the country, its appraised value of a home under five years old belongs to the thirteenth twentieth from the bottom.

A stock of homes people actually live in

Only 8,29 % of Alcalá de Henares dwellings are not somebody's main home, so the market is driven by people who live here.

Renting accounts for 18,25 % of main homes in Alcalá de Henares, close to the Spanish norm.

The census counted 79.588 dwellings across the municipality.

An ageing cadastral register

Alcalá de Henares has not revalued since 2009, which is long enough for the gap to market values to be substantial.

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

An expensive market, measured

Homes under five years old are appraised at 3.083,4 €/m² against 2.821,6 €/m² for older stock — a modest premium.

Alcalá de Henares appraises at 2.838,6 €/m², expensive by national standards and rising faster than incomes.

573 appraisals stand behind it, enough for the average to be stable.

The pace of sales

Alcalá de Henares saw 2.688 notarised home sales over the year, a steady rate for its population.

Against 82.250 registered residential units, a healthy share of the stock changes hands each year.

First quarter carried far more deeds than Third quarter, so timing an offer against the calendar is worth something here.

Notarised home sales by quarter, 2025
QuarterSales
First quarter838
Second quarter585
Third quarter507
Fourth quarter758

The yearly bill, and why it is small here

At 94.196 € per dwelling, the Alcalá de Henares cadastral base is high enough that the rate matters.

Alcalá de Henares levies 0,41 % on urban property, one of the lowest IBI rates you will meet.

Rural property is charged 0,9 %, which is steep for land.

On 180.000 € of cadastral value the 0,41 % rate yields 738 €, on a register that has not been refreshed in a long time.

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.

Related guides

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