Ownership Abroad
October 28, 2026
10
Niels Schuit
Home insurance for a Spanish second home is written for a risk most policies quietly assume away, which is a residence that stands empty for most of the year. Cover is usually adequate while you are in the house. The questions that decide a claim are what the policy says about the months you are not, how long the residence may be left before conditions apply, and whether anyone local is named as able to get in.
Owners rarely read that far. The policy is arranged at purchase, renewed by direct debit, and examined for the first time after a water leak or a break-in. By then the unoccupancy wording is not negotiable. The useful time to understand it is now.
Spanish policies are built from a small number of named sections. Knowing which is which makes the schedule readable.
This is the structure and everything fixed to it: walls, roof, floors, fitted bathrooms and kitchens, built-in wardrobes, the pool, boundary walls and usually the installations. The sum insured should reflect what rebuilding would cost rather than what the residence would sell for, which on this coast are very different numbers. As an indication, rebuild estimates are often worked at somewhere around 1,200 to 1,800 euros per square metre, with higher figures where the specification is above the ordinary. Set it too low and every claim is settled proportionately, which is the quiet way an insured owner ends up paying most of a loss.
Furniture, appliances, electronics, clothing, and in a furnished second residence a surprising amount of value accumulated over years. Art, jewellery, watches and wine usually have to be declared individually to be covered at their real value, and standard policies apply low single-item limits otherwise. Owners who built a figure for this when they first looked at the cost of owning a villa on the Costa del Sol are often carrying a contents sum that is several years out of date.
This responds when your residence causes harm to someone else: a leak into the apartment below, a wall that falls, a visitor injured on your terrace, a tree that comes down in a neighbour's garden. For a detached villa with a pool it is the section with the largest potential exposure and the one owners think about least. Check the sum insured is a realistic figure for a personal injury claim.
Most policies include emergency call-out for plumbing, electrics, glazing and locks. The value of that section depends entirely on whether anyone can let the tradesman in, which brings the discussion back to access rather than cover.
If your residence sits within a community, the community holds its own insurance for the common elements. It is easy to assume that this covers you, and it does not. It generally excludes the interior of your own property, anything you have altered or improved, your contents, and your personal liability. It may also carry an excess the community applies back to the owner.
The dividing line between common elements and private installations is set by the community statutes, and it decides who deals with a given repair. It is worth reading that boundary before you need it, alongside what the levies actually fund, which is set out in community fees in Spain.
This is the clause that matters for a residence used a few weeks a year, and the one that is almost never discussed at the point of sale. The pattern across the market is broadly consistent, although the detail is specific to each insurer.
Where the residence is empty for longer than the policy contemplates and the attached conditions were not met, water damage and theft are the first covers to be restricted or withdrawn. Those are also the two most likely claims at a closed house. The mechanics of the water side are set out in water leaks in an empty Spanish villa, and the security measures insurers look for are the subject of security for an unoccupied property in Spain.
Two further distinctions do a lot of work. Sudden escape of water is generally covered, while gradual damp, condensation and seepage generally are not, which is why the slow problems behind damp and humidity in a Spanish villa tend to fall outside a policy entirely. And theft cover often depends on evidence of forced entry together with the security measures you declared.
Premiums below are indications for guidance only, drawn from the ranges published in the Spanish market in 2026. They vary with the sum insured, the construction, the postcode, the excess, the security in place and the insurer, and your own quotation will differ.
Against the annual cost of running a residence of this kind, the difference between a thin policy and a properly specified one is small. The difference in outcome after a claim is not. Where the premium does need managing, a higher excess is usually a better lever than a lower sum insured.
Most disputes trace back to a handful of causes, and almost all of them are avoidable at the point the policy is arranged.
Insurers price what they can verify. A residence that is visited on a schedule, with a named key holder who can attend within hours, a water supply that is isolated between visits, a monitored alarm and a record of inspections and servicing, presents a different risk from a house nobody opens between August and Easter. It is also a materially easier risk to place.
That is why the access arrangement matters as much as the wording. A policy that promises emergency assistance is of little use without someone who can meet the tradesman, which is the practical point of key holding in Spain. Being a short drive from the residence is part of it as well, and it is why we work only within a defined stretch of this coast rather than across the whole of Spain.
There is no general legal obligation on an owner to insure a dwelling, although a mortgage lender will require buildings cover and a community may require its own policy. In a residence left empty for long periods the practical case for cover is stronger than any obligation.
Yes. Non-resident owners are insured routinely, by Spanish insurers and by specialist providers in other countries. What matters more than your residency is that the policy reflects how the house is used, including the length of absences and any letting.
As a general pattern, around thirty consecutive days is treated as normal, sixty to ninety days may attach conditions, and beyond ninety days an amended or specialist policy may be needed. The only figures that bind you are the ones in your own schedule, so check them and ask your insurer directly.
Both work. A Spanish policy tends to handle local claims, tradesmen and communities more easily, while a policy from your own country is easier to read and to argue in your own language. Compare the unoccupancy terms and the liability limits rather than the headline premium.
The pool is usually part of the buildings section, but cover for the plant, the lining and damage caused by the pool is not uniform, and the position changes once guests use it. Ask for written confirmation of what is included.
Isolate the water, close the shutters, make sure the alarm is active and monitored, remove or secure valuables, confirm the key holder on record with the insurer, and have the residence visited on a schedule with each visit recorded. That list is also, not coincidentally, the list that keeps a claim payable.
A policy is a document. What determines whether it ever has to be used, and whether it responds when it does, is how the residence is run in the months you are not there. Accurate sums insured, a declared pattern of use, the conditions actually met on the ground, and a record that shows it.
This article is for information. It is not insurance, legal or tax advice, and nothing here should be relied on in place of your own broker, insurer or adviser reviewing your policy against your own circumstances.
If you would like to discuss how your residence is currently managed and what that means for its cover, request a consultation.
