The three minute decision
Somewhere between agreeing a price and signing a contract, someone asks whose name the property should be in. The answer is usually given quickly, often by whoever is standing nearest, and it then sits on a legal document for decades.
It deserves longer, because that single line interacts with three separate things: how many properties a foreign buyer may hold, what happens if one owner dies, and what it costs to change your mind later. Changing your mind later is the expensive option in every case.
What follows is a map of the structures buyers here actually use and what each is trying to solve. It is not legal or tax advice, and it cannot be, because the right answer depends on your nationality, your marital property regime at home, your own tax position and what your existing documents already say. Take it to a qualified independent lawyer. The point of this article is that you arrive at that meeting knowing what to ask.
The structures, side by side
| Structure | Typically chosen when | Watch for |
|---|---|---|
| One individual name | A single buyer, or a couple with a specific reason | The partner who is not named has no registered interest, so a separate document matters |
| Two individual names | Couples who want both positions recorded from the start | Interacts with foreign ownership allowances and with your home country rules |
| Parent and adult child | Families planning ahead, or a child contributing to the purchase | A gift in one country is not always treated as a gift in the other |
| A company | Multiple properties, or a genuinely commercial purpose | Real annual costs: accounts, filings, and a structure that has to be maintained properly |
Note the middle column. Each structure is answering a different question. Problems start when a buyer picks the structure that answered somebody else's question, usually because it worked well for a friend whose circumstances were nothing like theirs.
The allowance rules, the fee position and the succession outcome all hang off one line on one document. Spend an hour on that line.
Couples: two names is a decision, not a default
Most couples we work with put both names on the deed, and for most of them that is the right call. It records both positions from day one and it makes the succession conversation dramatically simpler later.
It is still a decision rather than an automatic answer. Foreign buyers face limits on how much property may be held in one name, and those allowances were widened by the 2025 reforms but they still exist. If you intend to buy more than one property over time, how you allocate names on the first purchase affects what you can do on the second. That is a conversation to have before purchase one, not during purchase two.
There is also a cost question. Ask your lawyer plainly whether registering two names changes your transfer fee position or your purchase permission timeline. Get the answer in writing and keep it with the contract.
Buying with adult children
This comes up constantly, usually in one of two forms. Either the parents are buying and want a child on the deed so the property passes cleanly, or the child is contributing money and wants that contribution recognised.
Both are reasonable. Both have a trap, and it is the same trap: what a family considers an obvious internal arrangement, two tax authorities may consider a transfer of value.
Before anyone signs, write down the answers to these.
- Who is paying what, from which account, and is that visible in the paper trail?
- If a child is on the deed but contributed nothing, is that a gift, and where would it be treated as one?
- What happens if that child later divorces, or is themselves the subject of a claim?
- Can a name be added or removed later, and what does that cost in fees and time?
- Does the arrangement match what your wills already say, or does it now contradict them?
Families that answer these five in advance almost never have a problem. Families that assume everyone will always agree occasionally have a very large one.
The company route, honestly assessed
Buyers hear that a company structure gets around ownership limits and immediately want to know more. It is a legitimate route for the right buyer, and completely unsuitable for most.
A company is a live entity that has to be maintained. It needs proper formation, ongoing accounts, filings and local compliance, and every one of those has an annual cost and a person responsible for it. If the property is a holiday home you will use six weeks a year, that overhead almost certainly outweighs the benefit. If you are genuinely building a portfolio or the purpose is commercial, the arithmetic can look very different.
The question to ask any adviser recommending this route is not whether it is possible. It is what it costs to run every year for ten years, who does the filings, and what happens if you later want the property back in a personal name. If those three answers are vague, so is the recommendation.
Whoever is not on the deed needs a document
If for any reason the property goes into one name and someone else has an interest in it, financial or intended, that interest needs to exist on paper. Not in an understanding, not in a family conversation, on paper.
Your lawyer will know which instrument suits your situation. What matters is that the conversation happens before completion, while everyone is friendly, present and motivated. Every unhappy version of this we have seen involved people who fully intended to sort it out later.
What to take to the meeting
Bring this list to your lawyer, and bring it before you sign anything.
- Who is contributing what, and from which accounts
- Whether you intend to buy again here in the next five years
- What your existing wills say, in both countries
- Your marital property regime at home, if you are married
- Whether anyone on the list is not a national of the same country
- What you want to happen to the property in twenty years
That last item is the one people find odd and lawyers find most useful. Structures are chosen backwards from the outcome you want.
Our part is straightforward. We will not tell you how to hold the property, because that is not our expertise and pretending otherwise would be doing you harm. We will make sure the question reaches the table before the reservation is signed, introduce you to independent local firms with no interest in the sale, and hold our copy of whatever you decide. If you are a few weeks from a purchase and this has not been discussed, say so and we will slow the process down.
