Insurance for Expats in Spain

Insurance in Spain, for people who did not grow up with it

Spanish insurance is not written for someone reading it for the first time from abroad. The policy wording is Spanish, the assumptions behind it are Spanish, and the questions an insurer asks — how the property is used, who holds the title, whether you are resident — have answers that are straightforward if you grew up with the system and much less obvious if you did not.

That gap rarely shows up as a dramatic failure. It shows up as a policy that quietly does not match the situation: a home insured as a permanent residence when it stands empty for most of the year, a rental property covered under a standard homeowner policy that was never designed for tenants, cover bought quickly to satisfy a mortgage lender and then never looked at again. Those gaps tend to surface at a claim, which is the worst moment to discover them.

This page exists to answer one question first: what insurance actually applies to your situation in Spain, and what should you sort out in what order? Once that is clear, the product pages below cover the detail, each with its own form.

General guidance only, for international clients considering or arranging insurance in Spain. What a policy actually covers, its excesses and its exclusions are set by the insurer and the wording of that specific policy — not by this page. Nothing here is legal, tax or immigration advice, and nothing here should be read as confirmation that a particular product is currently available: tell us your situation and we will confirm honestly what can be arranged.

What insurance do you need in Spain?

The products we can currently discuss properly for Spain are set out below. If your situation is different — a business — say so in the form at the bottom of this page and we will tell you honestly whether it is something we can help with yet.

We are building our insurer relationships in Spain. Rather than guess at what we can place, we ask you a short set of questions about the property or the situation, then come back with a clear written answer — including telling you plainly if a particular case falls outside what we can currently arrange.

What brings you to Spain?

Different situations point to different insurance — say which is closest to yours and start there. This is a routing guide, not a recommendation engine, and not immigration or relocation advice: we are an insurance intermediary, not a relocation service, and the questions below are all about cover, not about visas, paperwork or the move itself.

Not sure where you fit? Start an insurance review instead and tell us what you need help with — one form, one broker.

Life insurance and family protection in Spain

Life insurance tends to come up for the same handful of reasons — dependants, a mortgage, a business partner, or simply a foreign policy that needs reviewing now that you live in Spain. What sum insured makes sense, and what a specific policy actually covers, depends on the individual and the insurer, not on a generic rule.

This is covered in full on life insurance in Spain, including what to do about cover you already hold from another country, and how mortgage protection fits in — see mortgage protection in Spain.

Managing several risks at once

Some households simply have more moving parts — a property or two, a car, health cover for the family, some landlord exposure — arranged with different insurers at different times, in different languages. Reviewing all of it together, once, tends to surface gaps and duplication that nobody notices when each policy is looked at on its own.

This is covered in full on private client insurance in Spain — one coordinated review, not a luxury-branded product line.

Car insurance in Spain

Whether you are bringing a car with you, buying one after you arrive, or already driving on a Spanish-registered vehicle, motor cover in Spain has to match the vehicle’s actual situation — where it is registered, who holds the driving licence, and how it is used. Third-party liability is compulsory by law for every vehicle in Spain; what sits above that is a matter of insurer, plan and the profile of the driver.

This is covered in full on car insurance in Spain, including foreign driving licences, foreign-registered vehicles, and what actually affects the price.

Health insurance in Spain

Private health insurance is one of the most common questions we hear from people moving to Spain — often because a visa or residence application asks for proof of cover, and often simply because private access sits alongside the public system rather than replacing it. What a plan actually includes, and what it costs, depends on the insurer, the plan and the people being covered.

This is covered in full on health insurance in Spain, including what typically decides cover, pre-existing conditions, and what to check before a visa or residence application.

Buying or renting as you arrive

People moving to Spain usually have one insurance question that is urgent — the property they are buying or renting — and several others that can wait a few weeks. We are not an immigration or tax adviser and this page is not visa guidance; what we can do is help you sequence the insurance side sensibly once the property and the timeline are clear.

Already living in Spain

If you already have a Spanish home insurance policy, the most useful thing we can usually do is look at what you have. Sums insured that were never updated, a policy written in Spanish that nobody has fully explained, cover bought quickly on moving day and never revisited — these come up constantly, and a review costs you nothing to find out.

Send us your current policy and we will tell you plainly what it covers, in English, and whether it still matches how you actually use the property.

Buying property in Spain

Whether the property is a full-time home, a holiday house you will use for part of the year, or an investment, the starting point is the same: buildings cover in place from the date you take on the risk, and a clear answer on what contents cover you actually need. The detail — sums insured, unoccupancy terms, whether the property sits within a community of owners with its own building policy — is what the form on the next page walks through.

This is covered in full on home insurance in Spain.

Renting out property in Spain

A standard home policy is written around an owner living in the property. The moment someone else is paying to stay there — a long-term tenant or a short holiday let — the risk changes, and a homeowner policy is usually the wrong contract for it. This applies whether you manage the property yourself or through a local agency.

This is covered in full on landlord insurance in Spain.

Non-resident property owners

A large share of the international owners we hear from do not live in Spain at all — in the UK, elsewhere in Europe, or further afield — and manage a Spanish property from a distance, using it seasonally, renting it out, or leaving it with a keyholder. None of that is unusual, and none of it should mean guessing at cover in a language you do not read fluently.

Not sure what insurance you need?

That is the normal starting point, not an unusual one. Tell us about the property and your situation below and we will come back with a clear, written answer — what we think you need, what we can currently arrange, and what to look into next if it is outside what we can help with today.

Why Adler & Rochefort

Adler & Rochefort is the trading name of Ownizo, Unipessoal Lda., an insurance intermediary registered with Portugal’s insurance supervisor, the ASF (Autoridade de Supervisão de Seguros e Fundos de Pensões), under no. 425591790/3. We have spent several years arranging insurance in English for expats, foreign residents and property owners in Portugal, and we are extending that service to cover Spain.

• English throughout. The questions, the explanation of what a policy covers, and the correspondence. We do not ask you to read a Spanish policy wording unassisted.
• A straight answer, not a sales pitch. If a case falls outside what we can currently arrange in Spain, we say so rather than take a lead we cannot service.
• One point of contact. The same team that already handles home and landlord cover for international clients in Portugal.

Adler & Rochefort operates in Spain on a cross-border basis from its Portuguese registration, under the EU framework that allows an insurance intermediary authorised in one EU/EEA state to offer services in another. We do not hold a separate Spanish licence, we do not have a Spanish office, and we do not claim to compare the whole Spanish insurance market — only what we say plainly, above, that we can currently arrange.

Related reading

• Insurance in Portugal and Spain for international residents — for owners weighing up, or splitting time between, both countries

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