Referencia catastral can be translated as land number or property number. It is an alphabetical and numerical code established by the Spanish Land Office. Each property, store, garage, land, etc. has its own number. This number is similar to a person’s identity card or a car’s license number.
What is the purpose of the Referencia catastral?
Referencia catastral is used to identify and distinguish a property from the rest. Each person has his or her own ID number and a property has its own number. Therefore, the first thing you should do if you are interested in buying a property, it is to check the Referencia catastral, in order to avoid any mistakes in the transaction.
What does the Referencia catastral look like?
Referencia catastral is a long string of numbers and letters, for example: 1329204UF7612N0004FF.
How can I find out the Referencia catastral of my property?
Referencia Catastral can be found in many places, the easiest way is to check the IBI tax bill. The local government collects the IBI from the owners of the properties located in the town every year and the property number is shown on the tax bill.
The Referencia Catastral can be seen also on the contract of sale of your property. During the sale and purchase process, it is necessary to confirm which property is being bought or sold, so it is important to include the information about the property and the Referencia Catastral.
You can also apply to the Real estate Registry for a “Property reference”, called “Nota simple”, which is a document that records all type of information about the property: owner, size, location, debts, etc. It should also contain the Referencia Catastral.
Then again, you can also go to the official website of the Land Registry (“Catastro”) and enter your property information to check your Referencia Catastral:https://www.sedecatastro.gob.es/
Why do you need Referencia Catastral when you do “RENTA”?
When you file your personal income tax (“Renta“) every year, the tax office will ask you for your Referencia Catastral. This is because the tax office wants to know where you live, so it asks you to enter the Referencia Catastral of your home, either owned or rented.
Likewise, if you have other properties besides your own home, the tax office will ask you to enter the Referencia Catastral of those properties.
