A living place or a local in an inhabited area a highly sought-after and highly valuable commodity. That is why it is important that, from a legal point of view, it is clear what are its exact measurements and characteristics.

This is handled by Cadastrewhich is an organization in charge of taking the statistical census of all the real estate of a population.

Each dwelling or premises has a unique code that identifies it. A kind of ID. It is what is known by the name of cadastral reference.

The cadastral reference It is a very important piece of information that the owner of a house or premises must know, because the Treasury can request it at any time, or must include it in the rental, purchase or sale contracts of the house, inheritances, and other documents.

It is a public data, so anyone can consult the cadastral reference of any housefor example if you intend to rent it, to obtain important information such as the year of construction, square meters, plans, etc.

We’ll see How to find online the cadastral reference of a propertyin a very simple way.

How to know the cadastral reference

What is the cadastral reference?

As we have mentioned, it is the official and mandatory identifier of real estate: houses, premises, plots, etc.

Is about an alphanumeric code made up of 20 letters and numbers, which is unique in the whole country. It has a function similar to the DNI of people.

The cadastral reference it is unique for each entity, within a building. That is, if there are 20 floors in a building, everyone has their own reference, it is not a single code for the entire building. If a property is divided into two, you must inform the Cadastre to obtain two cadastral references.

How to read the cadastral code

The 20 characters of the cadastral reference they are not chosen randomly. On the contrary, they offer a lot of information on their own.

There are two main methods of assigning references, which depend on the municipalities.

With the first method, the cadastral reference contains 7 digits that indicate the farm or plot, 7 digits with the plan sheet, 4 digits for the premises or flat, and 2 digits that function as a control code. You can see it clearly in this image:

The second method uses a different nomenclature. We have 2 province codes, 3 codes for the municipality, 1 for the sector, 3 for the polygon, 5 for the plot, 4 for the property, and 2 for the control code.

You can see it clearly in this example:

Although the codes do not tell us anything, for experts they include valuable information.

Also, in the Cadastre website This code will provide us with important information.

What is it needed for?

The cadastral reference must be included in the Income Statementif we own the property.

Also in any contract or related negotiation: rental, sale, inheritance, creation of a business within the propertyetc.

They will ask you whenever you want contract an energy service: electricity, gas, etc.

Finally, with this data we will be able to consult in the cadastre information such as the year of construction of the house, plan, exact measurements, etc. It is important if you are going to rent a property, or buy it second-hand.

How to get the cadastral reference without Internet

If for some reason you don’t have Internet, or you’re not good at using online tools, or you haven’t found what you were looking for, you can consult the cadastre old fashioned

Namely, going to an official office of the Cadastreand asking for the cadastral reference.

There are two places you can go. The first are the Cadastral Information Points, which are centers authorized by the General Directorate of Cadastre and located in public entities. you can look for the Cadastral Information Point closest to you on this website.

The second option is Cadastral Offices, the official offices in each municipality. In this other website you can find the one closest to you.

How to get the cadastral reference online by data

The fastest and easiest way to consult the cadastreis through its official website.

If we know the details of the property, that is, street, number and floor, we must access the Electronic Headquarters of the Cadastre. Here we touch on the map that is in the center of the cover page, the Property Finder:

Once inside we will see a form with five ways to search for the property.

By cadastral reference, which is just the data we want. Or by street, polygon, GPS coordinates, or unique registration code (CRU):

If it is our house, or we know this information, the simplest thing is search by Street / Number. We simply enter the information requested: province, municipality, road, number, floor, etc.

We press the button DataY we will obtain the cadastral reference, along with many other data, such as the year of construction, surface, the plan of the property, etc:

The website itself gives you the option of copying the reference, or obtaining it in the form of a barcode. Since all this data is public, you do not need to register or create an account to get them.

It is possible that do not find the place you are looking for, even if you know their data. Try to change values ​​such as floor, stairs, letter, because that’s where the fault usually lies. Maybe what for you is a staircase, for the Cadastre is a block.

How to get the cadastral reference online by map

If you do not know the details of the property, because it is a home or premises that you want to buy or rent, or you simply want to obtain data from this area, you can use the map.

Access the Electronic Headquarters of the Cadastre and tap on the map in the center of the cover page to enter the Property Finder.

Now instead of touching the tab with the Street / Number, as we have done before, press the cartography buttonon the bottom:

It will open an interactive map of Spain, divided into autonomous communities.

Access the community you want to search for, but do not click on the map, because it will select a parcel directly. Instead use the zoom and approach the location you want.

Go zooming and dragging the map, until locate the property you are looking for:

Keep coming closer until you see a number that is in the buildings, plots or farms.

Tap on the number to obtain a photo of the facade, plan and the cadastral reference of each property in that building:

As you can see, it is a very simple and very visual process that anyone can complete.

We have seen how to find online the cadastral reference of a house or premises.