Buying a 1960s or 1970s flat in Spain: what to check before you decide

Is it worth buying a 1960s or 1970s flat in Spain?

Yes, if the building is well kept and you know what to check. It is the most common housing stock in many Spanish cities: in Madrid, the 2021 census counts 592,691 homes in buildings from 1961 to 1980. What decides is not the decade but the building inspection, the pending works and the cost of bringing it up to date.

A building from that period can have a sound structure, an owners' association (comunidad de propietarios) that has kept investing and a location nobody builds in any more. It can also come with an uninsulated facade, a roof that needs work, a lift still to be installed or a floor structure worth studying. The difference between a good purchase and an expensive one lies in those papers, and nearly all of them can be requested before you sign the arras (the reservation contract with a deposit).

How many homes are in 1960s and 1970s buildings?

A lot. According to the 2021 Population and Housing Census of the INE, Spain's statistics office, buildings put up between 1961 and 1980 hold 592,691 homes in Madrid, 373,571 in Barcelona, 193,385 in Valencia, 149,416 in Seville and 135,341 in Zaragoza. In Madrid, Barcelona and Zaragoza, 1961 to 1970 is the decade with the most homes.

So buying a flat from that period is not unusual: in many neighbourhoods it is the most likely outcome. The census groups buildings by decade; the exact year of yours is in its Catastro record (Spain's property register for tax purposes). HOUSINGFAX city pages give these figures with their source for each municipality.

Which risks are common in a building of that age?

Five deserve a question before you sign: insulation, asbestos, accessibility, installations and, in some floor structures, high-alumina cement. The NBE-CT-79 insulation standard only applied to projects after 1979, and asbestos was not banned in Spain until June 2002, so buildings from the 1960s and 1970s predate both rules.

Insulation: a building designed before 1980 usually has uninsulated facades and roofs unless it has been refurbished; you notice it in the bills and in the energy certificate rating. Asbestos: it may be present in downpipes, tanks or fibre-cement roofs; in good condition it is rarely an immediate problem, but any work that touches it must be done by a specialist firm.

Accessibility: many five-storey buildings were built without a lift. The Horizontal Property Act requires the owners' association to install ramps or lifts when an owner in whose home a person with a disability or over 70 lives asks for it, as long as the annual cost passed on, after grants, does not exceed twelve monthly ordinary community fees. Installations: ask whether the wiring, gas and downpipes are original or have been renewed.

Does a 1965 building have aluminosis?

Not necessarily. High-alumina cement was used in Spain from the 1950s to the 1970s to make prestressed floor joists, according to a study by INTEMAC published by the CSIC in 1992, but many buildings from those years were made with Portland cement. Only a technician who takes samples can confirm the material and its condition.

The same authors cited estimates of over 100,000 affected homes in Barcelona and 50,000 in Madrid, and called them exaggerated. From the EH-73 concrete code, approved in December 1973, using high-alumina cement required a special study for each project, but a building finished in the mid-1970s may still contain joists made earlier.

That is why HOUSINGFAX never says that a particular building «has aluminosis». It gives a level in words, from very low to very high, based on the Catastro year and on what the building inspection says when it is on record, and it tells you which documents to ask for to settle the question.

Why is the building inspection the key source?

Because it is the only document that records a technician's visit to the whole building and a written result. A building from 1960 to 1975 is already over 50, and in the Valencian Community and the Basque Country that age triggers the compulsory building inspection (ITE or IEE), which lasts ten years.

Ask the seller or the property manager (administrador de fincas) for it and look at three things: the date, the result and the defects with their deadlines. If it reports damage to the structure or floors, ask what has been done since and at what cost. If the building should have one and does not, treat it as a serious question: a request from the town hall may be on its way.

In the Basque Country, the town hall can also require it before 50 years if the condition of the building justifies it, and once filed it is renewed every ten years whatever the reason. Other regions have different rules; the report tells you which register was searched and whether the building appears in it.

What does HOUSINGFAX check for a flat of that age?

Three checks in the report answer this question: 01, «What condition is the building in?», which looks for the registered inspection in the Valencian Community, the Basque Country and Madrid; 02, on the risks common for a building of that year, such as insulation, asbestos, earthquakes and installations; and 03, on aluminosis, with its level in words.

There are 22 checks on official Spanish sources, each with its source and date, as a PDF within minutes, with a single payment and no account. Start with the free report, which shows the traffic-light rating of every check with your building's real data; the Essential report costs €11 and the Complete report, with the building's recorded condition, €19.

What should you ask the seller and the owners' association?

Six questions cover the essentials: the latest building inspection and its defects; works approved or under discussion; outstanding special levies (derramas) and who pays them; the reserve fund, which by law cannot fall below 10% of the last ordinary budget; whether there is a lift or a plan for one; and whether the joists were ever studied.

Also ask for the minutes of recent owners' meetings: repeated complaints (damp at the same downpipe, cracks on the same staircase) show up there before they become a levy. And the certificate of community debts, which the seller must provide at the deed: the flat answers for what is owed for the current year and the three before it.

How do you negotiate the price of an older flat?

With paperwork. A defect with a deadline in the inspection, an approved levy or a voted facade project are real costs that can be quoted and deducted. Ask the property manager for the amount, state in the arras contract who pays what has already been approved and, if there are technical doubts, agree a condition before committing the deposit.

Negotiating on assumptions does not work. «It's from the 60s, it must have aluminosis» is not an argument; «the 2022 inspection requires the bathroom floor to be repaired within a year and there is no record of the work» is. The HOUSINGFAX report gives you dated register data to prepare that conversation.

What can no register tell you?

Neither the Catastro, nor the building inspection, nor this report can see inside a floor structure or the current state of your flat's installations. The year of construction is a pointer; it does not say which cement was used or whether the building was reinforced. The report does not replace an on-site technical inspection of the building.

If at the viewing you see rust on joists, cracks along the ceiling or spalling concrete, the priority is to have an architect or building surveyor look at it before you sign anything, whatever the paperwork says.