Forty-eight hours and a flight to Faro
It is Thursday evening in Stockholm. The offer on the house near Lagos was accepted an hour ago, and the agent has just written: the reservation agreement needs signing within 48 hours or the property goes back on the market.
The buyer opens a flight search. Friday morning to Faro, back Sunday. Six hundred euros and two days of annual leave, for a document that fits on three pages.
That trip is often unnecessary. Sometimes it is unavoidable. The difference is worth knowing before the deadline, not during it.
The chain of documents, and where the notary sits
A purchase in Portugal, Spain, Italy or France is not one signature. It is a sequence, and the documents in it are not legally alike.
The reservation agreement comes first. Signed once an offer is accepted, usually with a payment of between 5,000 and 15,000 EUR to take the property off the market. It buys a window, commonly 7 to 15 days, in which the buyer's lawyer runs due diligence: title at the land registry, tax records, condominium debts, the habitation licence, whether the seller has authority to sell. The money normally sits in an escrow account held by the lawyer or the agency. No notary is involved.
The promissory or preliminary contract comes second. The CPCV in Portugal, the contrato de arras in Spain, the compromis de vente in France. This is the binding commitment, with a real deposit behind it, commonly around 10% in Spain as arras. It is generally not a notarial act, though practice varies.
The deed comes last. The escritura, the acte authentique. This is where the property changes hands, and where remote signing stops being the answer.
| Document | What it does | Notary typically involved | Usually signable remotely |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reservation agreement | Takes the property off the market, opens the due diligence window | Generally not | Generally yes |
| Promissory / preliminary contract | Binds both sides, deposit paid | Generally not, but varies by country | Usually yes, subject to national form rules |
| Powers of attorney and supporting paperwork | Authorises someone to act for the buyer | Often yes, sometimes with apostille | Varies, mostly not |
| The deed | Transfers ownership | Yes | Generally not |
The position varies by country and by the specific transaction. The buyer's lawyer confirms what applies to their purchase.
What the law says about the electronic part
The starting point is Regulation (EU) No 910/2014, eIDAS. Article 25(1) states that "an electronic signature shall not be denied legal effect and admissibility as evidence in legal proceedings solely on the grounds that it is in an electronic form or that it does not meet the requirements for qualified electronic signatures."
That is the floor. A document does not fall over for being electronic.
Article 25(2) sets the ceiling: "a qualified electronic signature shall have the equivalent legal effect of a handwritten signature." Where national law demands a handwritten signature, a qualified electronic signature answers it.
What eIDAS does not do is remove a notarial requirement. If a country's law says an act must be authenticated by a notary, that is separate from the signature, and no signature level substitutes for it.
Where each country actually stands
The picture is not uniform.
In Germany, contracts by which a party agrees to transfer or acquire ownership of land require notarisation, and so does the transfer of ownership itself. Documents requiring notarisation cannot simply be e-signed.
In Spain, real estate transfers and notarial acts typically call for a qualified electronic signature or wet ink. Since Law 11/2023, in force from 9 November 2023, Spanish notaries can authorise a defined list of acts online by secure videoconference. The scope is limited and the process is notary-led.
In France, notarial deeds require in-person notarisation or a qualified electronic signature under the national implementation. A limited remote option exists, comparution à distance, used notably for powers of attorney, but most deeds and real estate deeds in particular remain in person.
In the Netherlands, notarial deeds for real estate still require a notary. Since 1 January 2024 a BV can be incorporated fully online with a digital notarial deed and a video connection. Real estate deeds still require physical presence.
In Italy, the advanced electronic signature, firma elettronica avanzata, is valid for most private contracts, with scope limitations set by Italian law.
One structural difference is worth knowing. In France and Portugal the notary is central to the whole transaction. In Spain and Italy the notary certifies the deed but does not stand in for an independent lawyer acting for the buyer.
Which of these applies to a specific document in a specific purchase is a legal question, and it belongs to the buyer's lawyer rather than to a signing platform.
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Power of attorney, or sign it yourself
For a buyer who cannot travel, two routes exist. They are usually presented as a choice. They are not.
The power of attorney authorises a lawyer to sign contracts and complete on the buyer's behalf. It is the route most often offered, it is well established, and it works.
It also has real costs. It takes time to arrange, which is exactly what a 48 hour reservation deadline does not leave. It often needs notarising, and depending on where the buyer lives it may need an apostille on top. It costs money. And it means granting another person authority to act in the buyer's name.
Signing remotely yourself covers the documents that are not notarial acts. The buyer reads the document and signs it personally, from wherever they are.
The useful answer for most buyers combines the two. Sign the reservation agreement yourself, tonight. Sign the promissory contract yourself too, if national law permits it for that document. Then arrange a power of attorney for the deed, and only for the deed, if attending in person is genuinely impossible. A narrow power of attorney for one act is a smaller thing to grant than a broad one covering the whole purchase, and there is time to prepare it properly between the promissory contract and completion.
What signing remotely needs to look like
A property purchase is not an internal approval. If the transaction is later questioned, by the seller, a tax authority or a court, the evidence needs to hold.
The right signature level per person. Levels are chosen per signer when the envelope is created, and different levels can coexist in one envelope. A reservation agreement and a promissory contract do not carry the same exposure, so choosing the level is a separate decision for each.
Qualified signatures without a European eID. A buyer in Stockholm has a Swedish eID. A buyer in Boston or Sydney has none, and often assumes that closes the door. It does not: a qualified certificate can be issued after remote identity verification, using a passport from the buyer's own country.
Both buyers, in the order that suits them. Couples buying jointly both have to sign. Sequential and parallel signing are both supported, so two people in two cities do not have to coordinate a single moment. Where several parties sign on both sides, the order itself becomes a decision.
An audit trail that survives scrutiny. Per signer: when they were notified, when they first and last viewed the document, how many times the link was opened, when they signed, the IP address and user agent. Plus the SHA-256 hash of the original and the signed file, so a signed PDF can be looked up by its hash and traced back to its envelope. Documents are timestamped.
That is what a paper agreement, scanned and emailed back, cannot give anyone.
What this does not solve
It does not make the deed signable from a kitchen table in Amsterdam. Where a country requires a notarial act, that requirement stands. The options are attending in person, using whatever limited remote notarial procedure that country offers, or granting a power of attorney.
It also does not replace the buyer's lawyer. Due diligence during the reservation window, checking the seller's authority, reviewing the contract terms, advising on which documents require which form: that is legal work on the transaction. We are specialists in signing and documenting transactions, not in property law or conveyancing.
What it does solve is the gap between an accepted offer and a signed reservation agreement, which is where deadlines are lost and flights are booked.
Frequently asked questions
Can I buy property in Portugal without going there? Partly. The reservation agreement and generally the promissory contract can be handled without travelling. The deed is a notarial act, so it requires physical presence or a power of attorney authorising someone to attend for the buyer. What applies to a specific purchase is confirmed by the buyer's lawyer.
Can I sign a property reservation agreement remotely from another country? In most cases yes. A reservation agreement does not normally involve a notary, so it falls into the category of documents that can be signed electronically. The signature level worth using depends on the amount at stake and on national form rules.
Do I need a power of attorney to buy property in Spain if I live abroad? Only for the parts that require presence. A power of attorney is commonly used for the deed, and since Law 11/2023 Spanish notaries can also authorise a limited list of acts by secure videoconference. Earlier documents can typically be signed directly by the buyer.
Is an electronic signature valid on a property contract in the EU? Under eIDAS an electronic signature cannot be denied legal effect solely for being electronic, and a qualified electronic signature has the equivalent legal effect of a handwritten one. That does not override a national requirement for a notarial act, which is separate from the signature itself.
Can I get a qualified electronic signature without a European ID card? Yes. A qualified certificate can be issued following remote identity verification using a passport or national identity document from the buyer's own country. There is no EU residency or nationality requirement for the signatory.
My partner and I are buying together from two different cities. How does that work? Both signatures are needed, and both can be collected in one envelope. Parallel signing lets each person sign whenever suits them, and sequential signing puts them in a set order if the transaction calls for it.
This is general information about signing documents across borders, not legal advice on a specific purchase. The buyer's lawyer advises on the transaction, the due diligence and the form each document must take.
Buying across a border and not sure what you can sign from where you are? Talk to us.