Vitoria-Gasteiz: what to look at before you put down a deposit

A 1970s city and a 21st-century city

Of the 119,853 homes in the census, 25,975 are in buildings from 1971 to 1980 and 22,392 from the decade before. The second big wave came between 2001 and 2010, with 24,506 homes, and 60,155 have been built since 1981, so half the housing stock is less than 45 years old. Only 2,893 homes are in buildings from before 1941.

That mix changes the to-do list from one entrance to the next. In a 1965 block, the priorities are the structure, the façades, the shared services and any works the owners' association (comunidad de propietarios) still has to pay for. In a 2005 development the structure is rarely the question; the useful ones are the energy rating, running costs and what lies around the building. Check 06 of the report looks the building up in the Basque Government's energy certificate register and, if it is there, gives its rating and how the ratings of the flats in the block are spread.

When a Vitoria block needs its building inspection

Basque Decree 117/2018 requires the building inspection (ITE) for mainly residential buildings more than 50 years old, counted from construction or the last full refurbishment. Buildings completed in 1976 reach that age in 2026, so many of the 25,975 homes from the 1970s are entering the obligation now, and those from the 1960s should already be on their first renewal.

The inspection is renewed ten years after it is filed with the city council, which registers it. If the surveyor found serious defects, the decree gives the owners three months after the works finish to file a certificate showing they were fixed. Ask whether that certificate exists: urgent defects with no recorded repair are a special levy (derrama) that may land after you have bought.

The Basque Government publishes the inspections in Euskoregite, a register with a building search by address. HOUSINGFAX queries it from the entrance address and shows the status, the grade of each building system, the legal deadline for repairs and whether the fix is on record.

Álava's own cadastre and the year of construction

In Álava (Araba) the cadastre, the property survey used for tax, belongs to the Provincial Council, which publishes it through GeoAraba, its spatial data portal, with urban and rural plots and web services. The national cadastre does not cover the province, so tools that only accept a standard Spanish cadastral reference will not find a Vitoria-Gasteiz flat.

The report locates the entrance in the official Basque street directory and matches its position with the Álava cadastre to get the building footprint and local reference. The year of construction comes from the Provincial Council's building layer and, where that layer has no date, from the indicative year recorded in Euskoregite; the report says which one it used. In Álava it covers the whole building, without picking a single flat or estimating its price.

The Zadorra and the local streams

Vitoria-Gasteiz lies in the Ebro basin, and Spain's national flood mapping system includes the municipality in one area of significant potential flood risk, the Zadorra. Within the city boundary that area is split into several stretches: the Zadorra itself, the Mendiguren river, the Santo Tomás stream, the Ricallor river with the Acata ravine, the Batán, the Estarrona and Margarita ravines, the Arcaute river and the Uragona stream.

The ten-year flood zone crosses the municipality, which describes the area, not your entrance. Check 10 overlays the building's plot on the 10, 100 and 500-year zones and on the risk area, and tells you whether any reaches it. It deserves a careful read for a ground-floor flat, a house in one of the villages inside the municipality or a basement garage near one of those watercourses.

Radon, earthquakes and price

The municipality is not in appendix B of the building code's health section, so it is not classed in radon zone I or II; check 22 still places the building on the Nuclear Safety Council's radon potential map. It is not in the annex of the seismic standard either, which starts at 0.04 g.

The Ministry of Housing puts the average appraised value of private housing at €2,700 per m² in the first quarter of 2026, 11 % more than a year earlier. It is an average for the whole city: good for judging an asking price, not for valuing a particular flat.

Limits of the report

The report collects what official registers publish, with source and date, and flags what is missing. It does not enter the home and does not replace a technical inspection of the building: if the register lists structural defects, get a surveyor to check them before committing to the arras, the deposit contract signed before the deed.