Off-market without promises

What off-market actually means

Off-market (a property not advertised on public portals) describes only the channel through which you heard about it. The label does not establish quality, a good price or exclusivity. A private listing is useful if it fits your brief and passes the same checks as any other property.

Two questions come on top of the usual checks: where the listing comes from and who is entitled to show it. Until you have answers, you do not know who you are negotiating with.

Source and permission to share

• Who passed it on. The owner, the owner's representative, the seller's agent or an acquaintance. Ask directly what role the person has and whose interests they represent.
• Agent registration. In Catalonia anyone who regularly provides brokerage services for the sale or rental of homes must be listed in the public Registre d'agents immobiliaris de Catalunya. Check the entry. Registration does not replace checks on the property and the owner.
• Owner's mandate. Ask whether the intermediary holds a written mandate to sell or show the property and what it says about sharing information.
• Fees. According to the Generalitat, agency services on a sale are a seller's cost. If you are asked to pay a commission, find out for what work and on whose behalf, and put the agreement in writing before any payment.

Owner and property

Order a nota simple (an information extract from the Registro de la Propiedad): it shows the owner, the share owned, mortgages, attachments and restrictions as of the date of issue. Check that the seller is the registered owner. The seller must be the owner or a representative with a power of attorney, which the notary checks. How to read it: what a nota simple is.

Ask for the documents the seller must hand over: the cédula de habitabilidad (certificate of fitness for occupation) and the energy performance certificate. Find out whether there are debts to the comunidad de propietarios and whether the flat is let. A tenant has a pre-emption right with 30 calendar days to respond (article 25 LAU). If the seller is a large corporate owner and the home is in a stressed market area, the Generalitat may have a pre-emption right (Llei 11/2025): ask the notary. Checks before paying a deposit: nota simple and arras.

How to compare it with public alternatives

Ask for the same data a public listing would show: address, usable area, price and condition. Compare the property with several public options of the same type in the same area. Ajuntament de Barcelona publishes average transaction prices by area on its Barcelona Dades portal, based on notary and registry data: a reference point, not a valuation of a specific flat.

Compare the terms as well. An offer of a discount for declaring a lower price in the deed gains nothing: ITP is calculated on the highest of three figures (cadastral reference value, declared value and contract price). INCIBE lists pressure to act quickly among the warning signs of fraud in housing adverts. A deadline does not cancel the checks.

Your data and your money

• Minimum data. EU Regulation 2016/679 requires that only necessary data be collected. Do not send your passport or bank statements at the first step; documents go only after the owner has been checked, and only through an agreed secure channel.
• Before any payment. You must be given the identification of the home with its usable area, the total price including taxes and the terms of sale, and a document confirming any sum paid (Agència Catalana del Consum).
• How to pay. By transfer to the seller's account named in the contract. Not in cash and not to a third party's account.
• Who checks what. ReloVictory is not a law firm: a lawyer reviews the contract and title, an architect the condition, a tax adviser the tax.

Guide updated on 26.10.2026.