NIE now mandatory for non-resident property purchases

Planning to buy or sell property on Lanzarote? Then make sure that you have a NIE number – a Numero Personal de Indentificacion de Extranjero – which is a tax identification number for non-residents.

Until fairly recently non-residents purchasing or selling property could provide their passport as identification. But reports have reached us that Notary Offices on the island are now tightening up their requirements and will refuse to process property transactions in the absence of this form of fiscal identification. A change which has, apparently, caught more than a few island lawyers and estate agents on the hop in recent weeks.