Vacant house cost calculator

What counts as a vacant house

In practical terms (and, increasingly, for tax purposes in some municipalities), a vacant house is one that isn't anyone's habitual residence for a prolonged period — an inheritance not yet divided among heirs, a second home barely used, or a flat kept "just in case" instead of rented out. The typical case this calculator is built for: a property generating no income but still generating expenses.

The risks of leaving a house empty

• ⚠Faster deterioration: without regular use or ventilation, damp, undetected leaks, and small maintenance issues get worse before anyone notices.
• ⚠Less natural oversight: a property with no regular activity draws less attention from neighbors, which in practice reduces the deterrent against squatting or damage — not a risk that can be precisely quantified, but a real one worth accounting for.
• ⚠Recovering a property occupied without your consent is a legal process that can take time, especially if you don't act very quickly after discovering it. This isn't legal advice — if this concerns you, consult a lawyer about preventive measures (alarm, visits, a trusted neighbor) and the procedure that applies to your case.

The empty-home IBI surcharge

Ley 12/2023, of 24 May, on the right to housing, amended Spain's state-level rules to let municipalities apply a surcharge on IBI for habitually unoccupied dwellings. It's neither automatic nor uniform across municipalities: each one decides whether to adopt it, under what conditions, and at what percentage, through its own local tax ordinance. If your property has been empty for a while, it's worth checking your municipality's ordinance rather than assuming it doesn't — or does — apply to you.

Does renting it out beat leaving it empty?

In most cases, renting reduces the net cost of holding the property, even accounting for renting's own costs and risks (possible non-payment, wear from use, management effort). The real question isn't "does renting cost money?" but "does the risk and effort beat what I'm already losing by leaving it empty?". Use the rental yield calculator to estimate what you'd earn by renting, and the default insurance and bank guarantee calculators to see how to cover non-payment risk without needing to leave the property empty out of fear of a bad tenant.