The plusvalía coefficients that keep coming back, and the empty-home IBI surcharge: what a Fuerteventura owner pays in 2026

Twice in two Decembers, and a third time this autumn, the Spanish government changed the table that decides how much plusvalía a seller pays, and each time the Congress threw the change out: twice within five weeks, the last time within two days; on 8 October 2026 the same table came back in a fifth decree-law that awaits its own vote. An owner in Fuerteventura who sold in January, or who is deciding whether to leave a flat empty, has been reading news about rules that were born and died in the same month. This note sets out the law as it stands on the day we write it, with the history that explains the noise: the municipal plusvalía and its coefficients, which table applies to a deed signed on a given day, what the six councils of the island add to it, and the surcharge on empty homes that has been in the IBI's Act for years and that the repealed decree tried to enlarge, and the new one enlarges again.

A table that has fallen three times

The plusvalía, the Impuesto sobre el Incremento de Valor de los Terrenos de Naturaleza Urbana, taxes the increase in the value of the land under a home between the day it was acquired and the day it is transferred. Since the reform of November 2021 the base is, as a rule, the cadastral value of the land multiplied by a coefficient that depends on how many whole years the seller held it, and the law fixes a maximum coefficient for each period that no council may exceed (Real Decreto Legislativo 2/2004, article 107). The law also promises to keep that table moving: Estos coeficientes máximos serán actualizados anualmente mediante norma con rango legal, pudiendo llevarse a cabo dicha actualización mediante las leyes de presupuestos generales del Estado, these maximum coefficients shall be updated every year by a rule with the rank of law, which may be done through the State budget Acts. There has been no budget Act since the one for 2023, and that is where the trouble starts.

The table in force today was written by Real Decreto-ley 8/2023 for the year 2024. In December 2024 a second decree-law replaced it, with effect from 1 January 2025, with higher figures for most periods; the Congress refused to convalidate that decree, the repeal was published on 23 January 2025 and the old table came back. In December 2025 a third decree-law did the same, with the same figures as the year before and from 1 January 2026; its repeal was published on 28 January 2026, and the table of 2024 came back again. On 30 September 2026 a fourth decree-law published a new table, higher for every holding of up to sixteen years and lower from seventeen on; it entered into force on 1 October and the Congress repealed it on 2 October. That fourth table never applied to anyone: its own article said that the new figures took effect Con efectos desde el 1 de diciembre de 2026, with effect from 1 December 2026 (Real Decreto-ley 26/2026, article 10). On 6 October 2026 the consolidated text of the Act on the BOE's site shows the table of 2024 once more, with a note for each of the three repeals. On 7 October 2026 the Gazette published Real Decreto-ley 29/2026, in force from 8 October, whose article 10 writes the fourth table again, figure for figure, and again Con efectos desde el 1 de diciembre de 2026; it must be convalidated by the Permanent Deputation of the dissolved Congress within thirty days, and nothing had been published by 21 October. Until 30 November 2026 the table of 2024 applies in any case; from 1 December, the new one if the decree-law is convalidated, the one of 2024 if it is not.

A council may set lower coefficients in its own ordinance, never higher ones, and where an ordinance's figure is above the legal maximum the law corrects it by itself: se aplicará este directamente hasta que entre en vigor la nueva ordenanza fiscal que corrija dicho exceso, the maximum applies directly until a new ordinance removes the excess (article 107). The cadastral value of the land, the whole-year count and the rate the council applies to the base are explained, with a worked example, in our note on selling a home in Fuerteventura as a tax resident; this one is about which table and which council rules apply to you.

A deed takes the table of its day

The tax accrues when the property is transferred, en la fecha de la transmisión, on the date of the transfer, and in an inheritance on the date of the death (article 109). The table that counts is therefore the one in force on the day of the deed, not the one in force when the council sends its assessment. That turns the two short-lived decrees into something practical. A sale signed between 1 and 22 January 2025, or between 1 and 27 January 2026, accrued under the decree table of its January wherever the council applies the State's maxima, and on this island every ordinance we could read does; the repeal that followed did not reach back to it. For most holding periods that table was the heavier one: a flat held eight years was taxed on a coefficient of 0.23 instead of 0.19, a flat held ten years on 0.16 instead of 0.12. For the longest holdings it was the lighter one: twenty years or more carried 0.35 instead of 0.40. Anyone who sold in one of those windows and was assessed on a different table than the one the deed's date called for has a liquidation to check.

Two things soften the arithmetic for every seller. The first is the exemption for a sale at a loss: there is no tax where se constate la inexistencia de incremento de valor por diferencia entre los valores de dichos terrenos en las fechas de transmisión y adquisición, it is established that there was no increase in value between the prices of the land at the dates of transfer and acquisition, which the seller proves with the two deeds (article 104). The second is the right to be taxed on the real gain where it is smaller than the coefficient method gives: at the seller's request the council takes the actual increase as the base instead (article 107). Both are the seller's to claim; neither is applied unasked.

What your council adds

Six councils collect the tax on the island, and in the five whose ordinances we could read the coefficient is the State's maximum: in four by the ordinance's own words, in one by the law's default. Puerto del Rosario, La Oliva and Tuineje say that the coefficient for each period is el máximo actualizado vigente, the updated maximum in force, and that an update by the State is adopted without a change to the ordinance, the mayor merely publishing the figures. Pájara prints a table and says that its figures serán actualizados y sustituidos automáticamente por los coeficientes máximos actualizados, shall be updated and replaced automatically by the updated maximum coefficients, and it has published a notice each time the State's figures changed, in 2023 and 2024. The tables of 2021 still printed in three of those ordinances are the figures of the day they were written, not the ones a seller pays. Betancuria's published ordinance predates the reform of 2021 and still cites the Act of 1988, and the decree-law that made that reform settled what happens then: until a council adapts its ordinance the tax is settled tomándose, para la determinación de la base imponible del impuesto, los coeficientes máximos establecidos en la redacción del artículo 107.4, taking, to determine the base, the maximum coefficients of article 107.4 (Real Decreto-ley 26/2021, transitional provision). Antigua's current texts were not available on its portals on the day we checked; its town hall is the source there. So every change in the State's table reached every one of those municipalities on the day it was made, and every repeal too.

What the councils decide is the rate on the base and the relief for an inheritance. La Oliva taxes the base at 30 per cent, the ceiling the Act allows. Pájara applies 28 per cent to holdings of up to five years, 26 from six to ten, 24 from eleven to fifteen and 22 beyond; Puerto del Rosario and Tuineje 25, 22, 20 and 19 per cent for the same four bands; Betancuria 26 per cent whatever the period. When a home passes on death to the spouse, the children or the parents, the four ordinances written after the reform relieve most of the bill: 95 per cent in Pájara; 95 per cent of the family home and of one further property in La Oliva and Tuineje, falling to 85, 70 and 40 per cent for that second property as the cadastral value of its land rises above 60,000, 100,000 and 138,000 euros; in Puerto del Rosario 80 per cent of the family home, 95 for an heir who is a pensioner, unemployed, under thirty, disabled or a victim of gender violence, and 70 to 15 per cent for other property by the same bands. Every one of those reliefs is asked for with the self-assessment or the declaration, not granted by default. Inheritances are the field of our colleagues at Olga Caballero; the plusvalía of an inherited home is a question for the week after the deed of acceptance, not the week after the funeral.

The empty-home IBI surcharge: the 2023 text stands for 2026, the decree's returns for 2027

The surcharge on empty homes is older than the decree, and it has fallen with a repealed decree before. The 2004 text of the Act already let a council add up to 50 per cent to the IBI of a home that stands permanently empty, but hung the definition of such a home on a regulation; a decree of December 2018 rewrote the paragraph to make it work and the Congress repealed it in January 2019; the Housing Act of May 2023 wrote the definition into the Act itself, and its wording is the one that governs the IBI of 2026, after the repeal of 2 October 2026; the decree-law of 6 October rewrites the paragraph for the tax periods that begin after it, that is from the IBI of 2027, as the section below explains (Real Decreto Legislativo 2/2004, article 72). For residential property that stands permanently empty a council may demand un recargo de hasta el 50 por ciento de la cuota líquida del impuesto, a surcharge of up to 50 per cent of the net IBI bill. The definition is narrow. The property must have been empty, continuously and without justified cause, for more than two years, and it must belong to owners who pertenezcan a titulares de cuatro o más inmuebles de uso residencial, hold four or more residential properties; one empty flat, or three, carries no surcharge at all. After three years of vacancy the surcharge may reach 100 per cent, and a council may add up to 50 points more for owners with two or more empty homes in the same municipality.

The Act then lists the causes that always excuse a vacancy, and one of them is written for the island: a temporary move for work or training, a change of address for dependency, health or social emergency, inmuebles destinados a usos de vivienda de segunda residencia con un máximo de cuatro años de desocupación continuada, property used as a second home, with a maximum of four years of continuous vacancy, property under works or renovation or otherwise impossible to occupy, a home tied up in litigation, and a home offered for sale at market terms, for up to one year, or for rent, for up to six months. A holiday flat in Costa Calma that its owners use two months a year is a second home, and the four-year clock is the only one that runs against it.

None of this operates by itself. The surcharge exists in a municipality only if its council writes it into the IBI ordinance, conforme a los requisitos, medios de prueba y procedimiento que establezca la ordenanza fiscal, in accordance with the requirements, means of proof and procedure the tax ordinance establishes; it se devengará el 31 de diciembre, accrues on 31 December, is assessed once a year after the council has established the vacancy at that date, and the declaration that a home is permanently empty needs a hearing of the owner first and evidence of the signs of vacancy the ordinance names, among them the municipal register and the consumption of utilities. On 6 October 2026 we read the IBI ordinances of Puerto del Rosario, La Oliva, Pájara, Tuineje and Betancuria as the councils and the provincial gazette publish them: none of the five has adopted the surcharge. Antigua's we could not read. Until an ordinance appears in the BOP, there is no empty-home surcharge to pay in those five municipalities, whatever the headlines say. The bill itself, its rate in each municipality and the waste fee that travels with it are in our note on the IBI, the waste fee and the cadastral value in Fuerteventura.

What the repealed decree would have changed, and the new decree-law changes again from 2027

For a single day the Act read differently. The decree of 29 September moved the surcharge into a paragraph of its own and split it in two. Where the Act stood as before, en el caso de que no se trate de municipios ubicados en una zona de mercado residencial tensionado, where the municipality is not in a stressed residential market area, the 2023 rules stayed. In a municipality declared a stressed area under the Housing Act, every permanently empty home could carry up to 50 per cent, four homes or not, up to 100 per cent for owners of four or more, and 50 points more for those owners after three years of vacancy. It added a second surcharge, on homes let as tourist accommodation in those stressed areas: up to 50 per cent, up to 100 per cent for owners of two or more such homes and hasta el 150 por ciento de la cuota líquida del impuesto cuando se trate de titulares de cuatro o más inmuebles de uso residencial destinados a alojamientos de uso turístico, up to 150 per cent of the net bill for owners of four or more residential properties let to tourists. Both were written for tax periods beginning after the decree's entry into force, so for the IBI of 2027 at the earliest, and no municipality in Fuerteventura appears in any of the quarterly lists of declared stressed areas that the Ministry has published in the BOE since March 2024, so neither could have reached the island before a declaration that has not come. Both paragraphs fell with the decree on 2 October, together with the new plusvalía table and the rental measures that our colleagues at Olga Caballero describe in their note on the rental decree of October 2026, and on 8 October both came back, word for word, in Real Decreto-ley 29/2026 (articles 8 and 10), which the Permanent Deputation of the dissolved Congress has to convalidate or repeal within thirty days of its publication on 7 October. If it is convalidated, the two surcharge paragraphs govern the tax periods that begin after 8 October 2026, so the IBI of 2027 onwards, and the new plusvalía table the deeds signed from 1 December 2026; if it is voted down, the Act goes back to its September text, as it did on 2 October, and what was done under the decree-law stands. For the island the result is the same either way until a stressed area is declared, which none has been, or a council adopts the surcharge, which none of the five we could read has done.

What our advisory does

A plusvalía assessment on the wrong table, a surcharge announced by a council that has no ordinance for it, or a sale at a loss taxed as if there were a gain are the kind of letter we answer for the owners we advise. Property purchases and sales, the non-resident tax and administrative appeals and fines are part of our advisory for individuals, and the same questions for a company that holds homes on the island belong to our tax advisory, with representation before both agencies. Bring the deed and the council's letter to Caleta de Fuste or Costa Calma, or request an appointment, and we will tell you which table your sale took and whether there is anything to claim back.

Common questions

I sold in January 2026. Which coefficient table applies to my plusvalía?

The one in force on the day of the deed. A sale signed between 1 and 27 January 2026 accrued under the decree table of that month in every municipality whose ordinance follows the State's maxima, which is every one we could read on the island; from 28 January the table of 2024 applied again. Check the coefficient on your assessment against the date of your deed.

Did the new coefficients of the decree of 29 September ever apply?

No. The decree said its table took effect from 1 December 2026 and it was repealed on 2 October, so no deed was ever taxed on it. The table in force is the one of 2024, for every deed signed until 30 November 2026. The same figures are written again in Real Decreto-ley 29/2026 of 6 October, for deeds from 1 December 2026, if the Permanent Deputation convalidates it.

I own three flats in Fuerteventura and one is empty. Can the council surcharge my IBI?

No. The surcharge needs an owner of four or more residential properties, a vacancy of more than two years without justified cause, and an ordinance that adopts it. On 6 October 2026 none of the five ordinances we could read had done so. The decree-law of 6 October keeps those three conditions for a municipality outside a stressed area, and none in Fuerteventura is one.

Our holiday home in Costa Calma is empty most of the year. Is that a vacant home?

Not under the Act: a second home is a justified cause for up to four years of continuous vacancy, and the surcharge in any case needs four or more residential properties and a municipal ordinance. There was none in Fuerteventura on the day we checked.

I sold for less than I paid. Do I still pay plusvalía?

No, if you prove it. Where the deeds of purchase and sale show no increase in the value of the land, the transfer is not subject to the tax; you declare the sale and attach both deeds. Where there is a gain but a smaller one than the coefficient method gives, you may ask to be taxed on the real gain instead.

Facts verified in October 2026 (Real Decreto Legislativo 2/2004, articles 72, 104, 107, 108 and 109, in the text in force since 2 October 2026 and in its versions of 25 December 2024, 23 January 2025, 25 December 2025, 28 January 2026 and 1 October 2026, as the BOE consolidates them; Real Decreto-ley 26/2021, transitional provision; Real Decreto-ley 9/2024, article 9; Real Decreto-ley 16/2025, article 18; Real Decreto-ley 26/2026, articles 8 and 10, repealed on 2 October 2026; Real Decreto-ley 29/2026, articles 8 and 10 and eleventh final provision, in force from 8 October 2026 and awaiting convalidation on 21 October 2026; the Resolutions of the Congress of 22 January 2025, 27 January 2026 and 2 October 2026; the plusvalía and IBI ordinances of Puerto del Rosario, La Oliva, Pájara, Tuineje and Betancuria as the councils and the Boletín Oficial de la Provincia de Las Palmas publish them, read on 6 October 2026; Antigua's were not available). General information, not advice on a particular sale or property: the date of your deed, your council and your own deeds decide what applies to you.