Take one apartment at €1,200 a month ($1,368) and rent it in eight countries. In Germany, the civil code lets a landlord hold up to three months’ rent as a deposit: €3,600, about $4,100. In Mexico City the cap is one month. Same flat, same tenant, a three-to-one gap in cash you won’t see again until you move out. That’s the first of the renting abroad lease rules worth knowing, and it comes from the statute, not the listing.
And the deposit is the easy part.
How long you can stay, how much notice you owe when you leave and whether you pay the agent are also set by law in most countries Americans move to. A landlord who knows you don’t know the rules may quote you whatever the last foreigner agreed to.
Below are eight places, Spain, Portugal, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico City, Costa Rica and Greece, read from their own legal texts in September 2026. This is the default law for a long-term home lease; holiday lets and short furnished stays often sit under other rules. Then comes the check I’d never skip. Who owns the place?
Renting abroad lease rules at a glance
| Country | Maximum deposit | Minimum home lease | Notice you owe to leave | Who pays the agent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spain | 1 month cash, plus up to 2 in other guarantees | 5 years (7 if the landlord is a company) | 30 days, after the first 6 months | The landlord, by law since 2023 |
| Portugal | 2 months, plus up to 2 months’ rent in advance | 1 year | 120 days (60 on leases under a year), after a third of the term | No rule in the rental law |
| France | 1 month unfurnished, 2 furnished | 3 years unfurnished, 1 year furnished | 3 months unfurnished (1 in tight markets), 1 month furnished | Split; tenant’s share capped per m² |
| Germany | 3 months, payable in 3 installments | Open-ended by default | About 3 months | Whoever hired the agent |
| Italy | 3 months | 4 years plus 4 (3 plus 2 on regulated rents) | 6 months, for serious reasons | No rule in the rental law |
| Mexico City | 1 month | 1 year, binding on both sides | 30 business days on open-ended leases | No rule in the rental law |
| Costa Rica | No general cap | 3 years | 3 months | No rule in the rental law |
| Greece | No cap found in official texts | 3 years, even if the contract says less | No early exit found | No rule found |
A contract can always give you more than the law does. It can’t give you less. If someone asks for more than the numbers above, you can quote the article back to them.
Deposits: the cap, and where the money sits
Spain. One month of rent in cash, the fianza. The landlord can ask for another guarantee on top, but on leases of up to five years (seven if the landlord is a company) it can’t exceed two more months. That’s article 36 of Spain’s urban tenancy act, the LAU, as published in the official state gazette. We rent a house outside Valencia for €850 a month, so the most our landlord could ever hold is €850 in cash plus €1,700 in anything else: €2,550, about $2,907. Regions can require it to be lodged with a public body. And a balance not returned within a month of handing back the keys starts earning legal interest.
Germany. Three months’ rent, not counting utilities, and you may pay it in three monthly installments. The landlord has to keep it apart from their own money, and the interest belongs to you.
Italy. Three months, and the deposit earns legal interest that’s owed to you at the end of every year. Every lease also has to be registered with the tax agency within 30 days of signing. Either side can file it. Don’t assume the landlord did.
France. One month, excluding charges, for an unfurnished flat; two months furnished. It comes back within a month if the move-out inspection matches the move-in one, two months if it doesn’t.
Portugal. A guarantee of up to two months, and no more than two months of rent paid in advance. Both caps went into the civil code at the end of 2022.
Mexico City. One month. Rent has to be set in pesos, it can rise only once a year and by no more than the inflation rate the Bank of Mexico reports, and the landlord must register the lease in the city’s digital registry within 30 days of signing.
Costa Rica. No ceiling on guarantees for ordinary housing; the one-month cap applies only to social housing. Advance rent is limited to one month. And if your income is in dollars, note this: rent agreed in a foreign currency can’t rise for the whole contract, which runs at least three years. Rent in colones can rise with inflation. Choose at signing.
Back home, deposit limits are a state-by-state patchwork. Abroad they’re usually national, and usually short.
How long you can stay, and how long you’re held
A minimum term protects you from being pushed out. It can also hold you in.
Spain gives the tenant five years on a home lease, seven if the landlord is a company. You can sign for one year, but the lease rolls over year by year until you reach five, unless you give 30 days’ notice before a renewal date. You may leave early once six months have passed, with 30 days’ notice, and the contract can make you pay one month’s rent for every year left, pro-rated. Look for that clause.
The exception is the one newcomers fall into. A lease por temporada, a seasonal contract, isn’t legally a home at all. The five-year protection doesn’t apply, and the cash deposit is two months instead of one. Plenty of first-year contracts are written exactly this way.
Greece sets a three-year minimum on a home lease, even when the contract says less. Greece’s Supreme Court applied it in ruling 650/2007: a tenant who walked out at the end of a two-year contract was held to three years and owed the third year’s rent. Headed to Athens on a one-year plan? Read that twice.
Italy lets you out early only for serious reasons and with six months’ notice, unless your contract gives you a wider exit. Half a year of rent on a flat you’ve left is real money. And “serious reasons” is a judgment call.
The rest, briefly. Portugal: one year, renewing automatically; the landlord’s first refusal to renew takes effect only three years after signing. France: three years unfurnished (six with a company landlord), one furnished. Germany: a fixed term needs a written reason, such as the landlord moving in. Mexico City: one year, and you can add another if your rent is paid up. Costa Rica: three years, renewing for three more unless the landlord gives three months’ notice.
Who pays the agent
Only three of the eight countries answer this in the rental law.
Spain settled it in 2023. Since Ley 12/2023, agency fees and the cost of drawing up the contract on a housing lease are the landlord’s. If an agent asks you for a fee on an ordinary long-term home lease, raise it before you sign.
Germany uses “whoever hires the agent pays.” You pay only when the agent was working for you alone and found the flat because of your own search agreement.
France splits the cost and caps the tenant’s share: €12.10 per square meter in the tightest markets such as Paris, €10.09 in other tense areas and €8.07 everywhere else, plus up to €3.03 per square meter for the move-in inspection. On a 50-square-meter Paris flat, the most you can owe is €756.50, about $862. The move-out inspection costs you nothing.
Everywhere else on the list, treat the fee as negotiable and get the answer in writing before the first viewing.
Check who owns it before any money moves
My rule is three things before a cent leaves your account: the registry record with a name on it, a written contract with the same name, and the flat itself, seen in person or by someone you trust. Registry, contract, keys. In that order.
The FTC’s warning signs for rental scams hold abroad too: pressure to decide fast, rent far below the neighborhood, an owner who’s conveniently out of the country, and payment by wire service, gift card or crypto. Spain’s national cybersecurity institute, INCIBE, adds a good one. Be wary when you’re asked to pay into a bank in a different country from the supposed owner.
Every country on this list keeps a record of who owns what. Here’s what to ask for.
| Country | What to order | Cost | What to know |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spain | Nota simple from the Registro de la Propiedad | €9.02 plus VAT (about $10) online | Under two hours on average; shows the owner, mortgages and seizures |
| Portugal | Certidão permanente predial | €15 online ($17.10), €20 at an office ($22.80) | Valid six months, shows pending filings; an owner’s access code can be checked free |
| Italy | Visura catastale | Free online with an Italian digital ID; a fee at a provincial office | Same day at the counter; the catasto can name the wrong person, so treat a match as strong evidence |
| France | Form 3233-SD to the local land registry office | €12 ($13.68); free by email, €2 ($2.28) by post | Needs the cadastral reference, from cadastre.gouv.fr |
| Mexico | Certificate from the state’s Registro Público de la Propiedad | Set by each state | One registry per state; bring the folio from the owner’s deed |
| Greece | Copy of the Ktimatologio cadastral sheet | €9.50 ($10.83) | Online ordering needs Greek taxisnet credentials |
In Spain, the registrars’ own association sets the nota simple price at €9.02 plus VAT. Compare the name on it with the contract and with the landlord’s ID. Both names if it’s a couple. The company if it’s a company. For about $10, it’s the cheapest check in this whole process.
A registry match proves the person owns the place. It doesn’t prove they’re the person messaging you. So finish with identity: meet in person, or on video from inside the flat, and match the ID to the registry name. Someone other than the owner renting it out? Ask for the written authority. Then pay by traceable transfer to an account in the owner’s name, get a receipt for every payment, and keep screenshots of the listing and the chat.
Check the street, too
Crime data narrows a shortlist. It doesn’t decide. Spain’s Interior Ministry publishes a quarterly crime balance for every municipality of more than 20,000 people. Statistics Portugal gives recorded crimes per 1,000 residents for each municipality: 32.0 nationally in 2025, 49.9 in Lisbon and 66.3 in the resort town of Albufeira, where visitors show up in the crimes but not in the population. UK police maps show street-level crime monthly, but each point is shifted to an anonymous location for privacy. One dot on “your” street may belong around the corner.
Then go and look. Around 10 p.m. on a weekday, and again on a Friday. Walk from the nearest bus stop or metro to the front door, check that the entrance locks by itself, and find the pharmacy that’s open at night.
Three things renters get wrong
“A one-year lease is a one-year commitment.” In Greece the law turns it into three. In Spain it quietly becomes up to five in your favor, but leaving early can carry a penalty clause. The term that counts is the one the law writes into the contract, not the one printed on page one.
“The agent’s fee is just how it works here.” On a long-term housing lease in Spain, it’s the landlord’s by law. In Germany you pay only if the agent worked for you alone.
“Few recorded crimes means few crimes.” In Mexico, INEGI’s 2026 victimization survey found that 93.4% of the 33.8 million crimes committed in 2025 were never reported or never led to an investigation. Every country has that gap. Mexico’s is just the widest here.
Where this page stops
Tenancy law changes often and regions add their own rules. None of this is legal advice for your contract. If the lease is long, in a language you don’t read, or asks for more than the table allows, an hour with a local lawyer costs less than a lost deposit. I don’t have an arrangement with any lawyer, agency or registry service.
The lease matters beyond the flat, too. In Spain, the town-hall registration you need for your residence card usually requires a signed one, which is why the visa timeline and the first-year deadlines both run through it. For what the rent itself will cost, start with living costs in Spain.
