Moving to Spain from Canada, Door to Door from Toronto

How a move from Toronto to Spain works

It starts with a survey — in person for a house, by video for a condo — so the quote is based on your actual volume rather than a bedroom count. On packing day our crew wraps and packs everything for ocean transit (export-grade cartons, paper, blankets and custom crates for art, mirrors and the TV) and builds the inventory that customs and your insurer will rely on — for Spain, a valued, itemized list in Spanish. The shipment comes to our North York warehouse, where it is loaded into a dedicated 20′ or 40′ container, or consolidated with other Spain-bound shipments if you are moving a smaller volume.

The container is drayed to the CPKC Vaughan or CN Brampton rail terminal on our own truck, railed to Montreal or Halifax, and sails to Valencia, Barcelona or Bilbao — usually through a Mediterranean or North European hub. Our Spanish partner, an IAM member agent, files the customs entry with your relief application and residence documents, collects the container, and delivers to your new home with unpacking and debris removal included in the door-to-door service.

1. Free survey (home or video) and fixed door-to-door quote
2. Assemble the customs file — visa, NIE, padrón or proof of address, proof of a year outside the EU
3. Packing, crating and the Spanish inventory at your home in the GTA
4. Loading into a dedicated container or Spain groupage at our warehouse
5. Rail to Montreal / Halifax and ocean sailing to Spain
6. Customs clearance by our Spanish agent under transfer-of-residence relief
7. Delivery to your door with unpacking and packing-material removal

Transfer-of-residence relief: how to avoid duty and IVA on your household goods

Spain applies the EU's transfer-of-residence relief: household goods you have owned and used for at least six months are free of import duty and IVA if you have lived outside the EU for at least 12 consecutive months, you bring them in within 12 months of establishing residence in Spain, and you do not sell or lend them within 12 months of import. The relief covers furniture, household items, clothing, personal effects and, under separate conditions, a private vehicle. It does not cover alcohol, tobacco, commercial goods or items bought for the move.

Spanish customs wants to see the whole story on paper: your passport and visa, your NIE, your registration on the padrón at the town hall or another proof of your new address, evidence that you lived in Canada for the past year, and a detailed valued inventory in Spanish with a declaration that the goods are yours and will not be sold. Because most people cannot register on the padrón until they arrive, the container is usually timed to land a couple of weeks after you do. Files that are incomplete sit at the port, and the port charges storage while they wait; our agent reviews the file before the container sails, not after it lands.

What it costs to ship household goods to Spain

Cost is driven by volume, so the survey matters. A one-bedroom apartment in the GTA is usually 12–20 cubic metres and ships as groupage (LCL) or a lightly loaded 20′ container. A three-bedroom house is typically 30–40 cubic metres and fills a 20′ container; larger homes ship in a 40′ or 40′ high-cube. Beyond volume, price is affected by access at both ends — a fourth-floor flat in Barcelona's Eixample with a small elevator is a different delivery from a villa in Marbella — by the amount of professional packing and crating, and by storage at either end. The Balearic and Canary Islands add a ferry or feeder leg.

Our quotes are door to door and itemize what is included: packing and materials, loading, drayage and rail, ocean freight and port charges, Spanish customs clearance, delivery, unpacking and debris removal. The only items outside the quote are duty and IVA if the relief is refused, inspection fees if customs selects the container, and storage beyond the free period at destination.

Timelines from the GTA to Spain

Ocean transit from Montreal or Halifax to Valencia or Barcelona is 14–24 days, most services routing through a hub such as Algeciras, Antwerp or Rotterdam. Around it: two to five days from packing to sailing depending on the rail cut-off, and one to three weeks at destination for customs clearance, container collection and delivery scheduling — Spanish customs is thorough, and the file needs to be complete. A dedicated container typically arrives at your Spanish door six to nine weeks after packing day; groupage shipments wait for the consolidation to fill and add two to four weeks. If your home is not ready, our agent holds the shipment in storage and delivers when you are.

What to leave behind, and what to think twice about

Spain runs on 230 volts, so Canadian 110-volt appliances need transformers or replacement. Mattresses and bulky, low-value furniture rarely justify the freight, and a Canadian sectional does not always fit a Spanish apartment. Cars can be imported under the transfer-of-residence rules with six months' ownership, but Spanish registration requires European conformity paperwork that most Canadian-market vehicles do not have, and the process is slow and expensive; we usually advise against it. Firearms need authorization before they ship, and food, plants and soil stay behind.

• Prohibited or restricted: firearms without authorization, most food, plants and soil, endangered-species products
• Restricted: alcohol and tobacco (duty payable), medicines beyond personal quantities
• Usually not worth it: 110 V appliances, mattresses, bulky low-value furniture
• Vehicles: relief possible at 6+ months' ownership, but registration is difficult for Canadian-market cars — ask us first

Why families moving to Spain choose Metropolitan Logistics

We are an IAM Core Member with IAMTrusted status and the Receivable Protection Program behind our agent relationships — which means the partner unpacking your home in Valencia is vetted and financially accountable. The shipment is loaded in our Toronto warehouse by our own crews, not handed to a consolidator you never meet, and you can see it there before it sails. And because we ship commercial containers to Europe every week, the drayage, rail and ocean legs are the same lanes and carriers we book for exporters — which keeps the cost honest.