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Working out the building share

The part of what you paid that was the building, not the land under it.

Only the building is depreciated. Land does not wear out, so none of what you paid for it can be written off against your rental income. Everything above the ground can: the Renta lets you deduct 3% of the building's value every year.

A flat always comes with a slice of the land under the block, so the building share is never 100%. If you enter 100 the app refuses it, because it would depreciate the plot along with the walls.

In Spain you do not have to work it out

Your IBI bill splits the valor catastral into land and construction, and the app uses those two figures directly. Enter them on the property and leave the building share alone.

Outside Spain you do

There is no valor catastral, so you and your gestor agree a figure. Here is the arithmetic.

A worked example

  1. The block of 20 flats sits on a plot worth about £200,000.
  2. Your slice of that plot is £200,000 divided by 20, which is £10,000.
  3. Say you paid £80,000 for the flat.
  4. £10,000 of £80,000 is 12.5% land, so the building share is 87.5%.

If nobody has valued the land

Between 80% and 90% is a common working figure for a flat. Pick one you can explain, write down how you got there, and use the same figure every year: the depreciation runs for decades and changing the basis halfway is harder to defend than a rough figure held consistently.

An estimate to plan with, not a filed return. Check it with your gestor.

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