Food truck business in Spain: prices, where you can trade and payback

A food truck in Spain costs about €10,000: half of 204 listings in 2026 asked €6,000–16,000, a trailer about €9,000 and a van about €16,000.

Street trading is banned almost everywhere, so trucks work festivals, markets, private events and private land.

In our illustrative case, a €25,000 investment pays back in 2.4 years.

Looking at a food truck or food trailer for sale in Spain?

Below: what used and new trucks cost, what is actually sold with them, where a food truck is allowed to trade under national law and under the rules of Madrid, Catalonia and Valencia, the paperwork a trailer and a van need, food hygiene, what a truck earns in a season, how it is taxed and what to check before buying.

The page includes a payback calculator with an illustrative truck.

If you want a fixed site with a kitchen, see Buying or opening a café or bar in Spain and Restaurant for sale in Spain; for a bar on the sand, see Beach bar (chiringuito) for sale in Spain.

What a food truck costs

We reviewed 204 food truck sale listings on Wallapop (October 2026), excluding build-to-order offers from manufacturers, rentals and loose equipment.

The median is €10,000, half the listings fall between €6,000 and €16,000, and the range runs from €2,500 for a van needing repair to €82,000 for a company with a truck and a sales route. These are asking prices: they come down in a deal.

Regions differ less than types: the median is €12,600 in Catalonia (63 listings), €11,000 in Andalusia (38), about €9,700 in the Valencian Community (42) and about €9,650 in the Madrid region (34).

A food truck is easy to drive across the country, so unlike a café its market is national.

Examples from the sample: an equipped 4×2 m trailer with griddle, fryer and extraction in Málaga — €8,900; a trailer with griddle, fryer and crêpe maker near Barcelona — €10,000; a Mercedes MB140 van with kitchen paperwork near Valencia — €20,000; a 2003 Renault Master, “ready to trade”, in Reus — €28,000; a new Fiat Ducato converted into a food truck at a dealer near Valencia — €41,500 plus VAT.

What is actually for sale

Unlike a café, a food truck is almost always sold as equipment on wheels rather than as a business with a pitch.

Trading permits are issued to a specific person or company for a specific place and term, so as a rule they do not pass with the vehicle. The buyer gets:

• The vehicle and its papers. A trailer or van, its technical card and the record of the kitchen conversion. This decides whether it can go on the road at all.
• The kitchen. Griddle, fryer, fridges, sink, extraction, generator — and the gas and electrical certificates that event organisers will ask for.
• Sometimes, a business. Such listings are rare: a truck with a long-term lease on a pitch at the Málaga Automobile Museum — €24,000; a truck “with concessions” in Cubelles — €30,000; a company with a truck, two vans and a route across Murcia and Albacete — €82,000. Here you pay for the pitch and the customers, and they need checking like any going concern.

What it costs to build a food truck from scratch

New trucks are ordered from builders of kitchen trailers. Guide prices from their listings in October 2026:

• Empty 3×2 m trailer shell — €6,000–7,000 excluding VAT and delivery; a “designer” shell — €8,800–9,800 excluding VAT. Inside there is only wiring and a sink; the kitchen goes in separately.
• Equipped trailer up to 750 kg — from €10,000–11,500 for 3–4 m with a griddle and fridge; trailers over 750 kg — from €19,900 to €28,000.
• Kitchen van — from €15,000–25,000 for a converted used base to €40,000–50,000 for a new vehicle.
• Launch — generator, gas and electrical certificates, re-registration, insurance, branding and first stock: €10,000 in our example. Plus a towing car if you do not have one.
• Reserve — for the winter, when there are few events but insurance and storage still have to be paid. How to size it is covered in Cash gap.

Hence the main case for buying used: a trailer with a kitchen and papers costs less at the median than a new one and has already been through the paperwork.

The case against: old vans are often sold without a valid ITV or temporarily deregistered, and repairs eat up the difference.

Where a food truck may trade

Under the national retail trade law, selling outside a permanent establishment, including from “camiones-tienda”, is allowed only in markets and authorised places; the town hall issues the permit, never indefinitely and without automatic renewal (arts. 53–54 Ley 7/1996).

The national decree on street trading (RD 199/2010) was repealed in 2021, so the rules are set by the regions and town halls — and almost everywhere they close the street to food trucks.

• Madrid region. The regional law allows trading at markets (mercadillos), at local fiestas, at seasonal pitches and — with a justified town hall permit — from vehicles moving along a route; sellers prove public liability insurance every year (Ley 1/1997, arts. 3, 6 and 9). An example of a multi-year pitch: in 2026 Aranjuez tendered three food truck pitches at sports grounds and a pool for 2–4 years with minimum fees of €4,000, €3,600 and €900.
• Catalonia. Town halls may authorise trading from “vehicles botiga” on public land only through their own bylaw; if there is no bylaw for that form of trading, the town hall is deemed not to allow it (Llei 18/2017, art. 15). Barcelona has no specific food truck licence: on public land trucks work only at fairs and fiestas; the rest is private markets and venues.
• Valencia. The city bylaw expressly bans trading on the move within the city and does not allow food sales from stand-alone pitches, except under a mayoral order for traditional fiestas; the only exception on public land is horchata and orange juice (arts. 2, 3 and 13 of the 2019 bylaw). Private land is not a free-for-all either: a market organiser must file a declaration with the town hall a month before opening (Decreto 65/2012, art. 21).

That is why the core food truck model in Spain is events.

The town hall hands a site to an organiser, who brings in the trucks: for the 2024 Pilar fiestas in Zaragoza, the concession for a food truck festival (up to 20 trucks) was tendered at a base fee of €50,000, and the winner bid €70,000.

The truck pays the organiser a fixed fee or a share of sales; there are no public rate cards, so terms have to be checked for each festival.

Other income comes from weddings and corporate events on private property, weekend markets and long-term leases of a pitch on private land: at a shopping centre, a museum, a petrol station.

Paperwork for trailers and vans

• Van. A kitchen in a van is a conversion that changes the data on the vehicle’s technical card. Such a modification is documented with an engineer’s project or a workshop certificate and presented for ITV inspection within 15 days; the same rules apply to light trailers (RD 866/2010, arts. 2, 7 and 8). The vehicle classification has a separate use type for this — “tienda”, a vehicle permanently adapted for selling (General Vehicle Regulation, Annex II). After that, the van follows the normal ITV schedule: every six months once over 10 years old.
• Trailer up to 750 kg. Such a trailer is not registered separately — it runs on the towing car’s plate — but it has its own technical card (arts. 25 and 26 of the General Vehicle Regulation); it has no periodic ITV, as light trailers are not in the ITV frequency table (RD 920/2017, Annex I). That is why most trailers in the listings are “under 750 kg, drivable on a B licence”.
• No papers. A “vintage” van without ITV or temporarily deregistered can stand on a private site but cannot be driven on roads; legalising it is a separate project and cost.

Hygiene, gas and electricity

In law a food truck is a retail food establishment, like a shop or a bar (“vehículos de venta ambulante” are named in RD 1021/2022, art. 2); it is not entered in the national RGSEAA sanitary register but in the regional register, on notification or a responsible declaration (RD 191/2011, art. 2.2).

Kitchen requirements follow the EU regulation for mobile and temporary premises: hand-washing facilities, drinking water, clean surfaces and food kept at the right temperature (Regulation 852/2004, Annex II, Chapter III).

Gas and electricity are checked by event organisers: they want certificates for the gas installation and the wiring, with a generator or a site hook-up depending on the festival.

Temporary electrical installations at fairs fall under a dedicated instruction of the low-voltage regulation (ITC-BT-34).

Public liability insurance is needed both for permits and for organisers; the vehicle or trailer is insured separately.

What a food truck earns

There are no official statistics on food trucks, so we work from costs. The event season runs from spring to autumn; there is little work in winter.

Daily takings depend heavily on the event: at a big festival they are several times higher than at a weekend market, and pitches at the best festivals cost more.

A food truck usually rests on the owner, who cooks and serves, plus a helper in season.

Under the Alicante province hospitality collective agreement, a bar waiter earns €19,635 a year gross in 2026, and employer contributions add about 32% — about €2,160 a month.

The helper is hired for the season on a fijo discontinuo contract and costs only the months worked.

Food truck payback calculator

The calculator holds an illustrative food trailer: a ready trailer with a kitchen and papers bought for €15,000 (above the median), plus €10,000 to launch.

The season is 8 months, revenue €9,000 a month excluding VAT (for example, 12 event days at €750; €72,000 a season), food and packaging 33%, a helper at €2,160 per season month, pitch and organiser fees of €10,800 a year (€900 a month in the “rent” field), and other costs (fuel, gas, insurance, gestor, winter storage) of €600 a month.

Pre-tax profit is €12,960 a year, after tax about €10,500, and the €25,000 investment pays back in about 2.4 years.

Two caveats. First, a food truck’s profit is very sensitive to revenue and season length.

If revenue falls 10%, pre-tax profit drops to €8,136; at 15%, to €5,724; if the season lasts 6 months rather than 8, to €5,220.

Break-even is about €6,580 of revenue per trading month. Second, the model has no salary for the owner, although they stand at the griddle all season.

Without a helper, pre-tax profit would rise to €30,240, but that is essentially pay for the owner’s own work. A food truck is self-employment more than a capital investment. How to read a payback period is covered in Payback period.

If you buy a truck together with a business, take revenue per event from bank statements, till reports and VAT returns (modelo 303), not from the seller’s word.

How a seller justifies the price is covered in How to value a business for sale.

Taxes: VAT and modules

• VAT. Food and drink served for consumption on the spot are taxed at the reduced 10% rate (art. 91.Uno.2.2º Ley 37/1992); if you sell food as goods, most of it is also 10%, but alcohol is at the standard 21% rate. How to split takings is something to settle with your gestor.
• Modules. In 2026 the modules system covers food retail outside a permanent establishment (heading 663.1) and kiosks and stalls (heading 675), with an annual base of about €14,000 per working owner. The catering heading “other food services” (677.9) is not in the modules system. Which heading suits a truck with a hot kitchen has to be decided before registering: it determines whether modules are available.
• SL. A food truck run through an SL pays corporate tax: in 2026, with turnover under €1m, 19% on the first €50,000 of profit and 21% above; the calculator uses the same. How to take profit out is covered in Salary or dividends from a Spanish SL.

What to check before buying a food truck

1. Vehicle papers. Technical card, trailer weight (up to 750 kg or more), the recorded kitchen conversion, ITV for a van. Without them the truck cannot go on the road, and legalising someone else’s conversion costs more than buying a documented one.
2. Gas and electrics. Certificates for the gas installation and wiring, the state of the generator. The first organiser will ask for them.
3. Kitchen and hygiene. Hand-wash sink, drinking-water tank, fridges, extraction, surface materials. Replacing equipment costs several thousand euros.
4. Where it has traded. Which events, markets and private sites, on what terms, and whether the contracts pass to you. Town hall permits are usually personal.
5. The numbers. If you are buying a business — revenue per event over 2–3 seasons from statements, the till and modelo 303, pitch fees, purchases.
6. Deal taxes and debts. A truck bought from a company or autónomo carries 21% VAT; from a private individual there is no VAT but transfer tax (ITP) applies under regional rules. If you buy a going business rather than just a vehicle, you are liable for the seller’s tax debts unless you obtain a Tax Agency debt certificate (arts. 42.1.c and 175.2 LGT) and for Social Security debts (art. 168.2 LGSS), and employees transfer to you with all their rights (art. 44 ET).

How an existing business is checked before a deposit is described on the traspaso audit page.

If you are moving to Spain for this business

A non-resident can buy a food truck, but a non-EU citizen can live in Spain and work it personally only with a residence permit — usually a self-employment permit, for one year at first.

The golden visa has been abolished, and the startup visa does not suit an ordinary business of this kind.

How the self-employment permit works and how it differs from an employment permit is covered by Relotus in «Cuenta propia in Spain».

The sensible order is to confirm the permit first and only then buy the truck.

Frequently asked questions

How much does a food truck cost in Spain?

In a sample of 204 listings from 2026, a food truck costs €10,000 at the median, with half between €6,000 and €16,000. A trailer with a kitchen is about €9,000, a van about €16,000. A new empty trailer shell from a builder starts at €6,000 excluding VAT; a new kitchen van costs €40,000–50,000.

Can you sell food from a food truck on the street in Spain?

Almost nowhere. Trading outside an establishment is authorised by the town hall — at markets, fiestas and at specific pitches awarded by tender. Valencia expressly bans trading on the move, and in Barcelona trucks on public land work only at fairs and fiestas.

Do you need a license to sell food from a food truck in Spain?

You need three things: permission for the pitch (from the town hall, the event organiser or the private landowner), registration in the regional food hygiene register, and vehicle papers recording the kitchen conversion. Event organisers also ask for gas and electrical certificates and insurance.

Does a food trailer need an ITV in Spain?

A trailer up to 750 kg is not registered separately and has no periodic ITV, and it can be towed on a B licence. Heavier trailers and vans are registered and inspected, and a kitchen conversion is processed as a vehicle modification.

How much does a food truck earn in Spain?

In our illustrative case, with an 8-month season and €72,000 of revenue, a truck with a helper makes about €10,500 after tax if the owner works without a salary. Without a helper it makes about €30,000 before tax, but that is essentially the owner’s pay.

Which is better: a trailer or a van?

A trailer up to 750 kg is cheaper — a median of about €9,000 against €16,000 for a van — and has no ITV, but needs a towing car. A van is more mobile and visible, but its conversion is harder to legalise and old vehicles often need repairs.

Can a food truck pay tax under modules?

Only if its activity falls under a heading covered by modules: food retail outside an establishment (663.1) or kiosks (675). The catering heading “other food services” (677.9) is not covered, so the heading is chosen with a gestor before registering.

Key points about a food truck business in Spain

• A used food truck costs about €10,000 at the median: a trailer about €9,000, a van about €16,000.
• You buy a vehicle and a kitchen, not a pitch: trading permits are personal and usually do not transfer.
• The street is closed to food trucks almost everywhere; the work is festivals, markets, private events and private land.
• A trailer up to 750 kg is simpler: no separate registration and no periodic ITV; a kitchen van needs its conversion documented.
• In our example a €25,000 investment pays back in 2.4 years, but much of the profit is pay for the owner’s own work.

Sources

• Ley 7/1996 on retail trade, arts. 53–55 — BOE; RD 199/2010 (repealed) — BOE.
• Madrid region Ley 1/1997 — BOE; Aranjuez food truck pitch tender — BOCM, 11.06.2026.
• Catalonia Llei 18/2017, art. 15 — BOE; food trucks in Barcelona — betevé.
• Valencia bylaw on non-sedentary trading (2019) — sede.valencia.es; Valencian Community Decreto 65/2012 — CIDOC.
• Food truck festival tender, Pilar fiestas 2024 — zaragoza.es.
• RD 866/2010 (vehicle modifications) — BOE; General Vehicle Regulation — BOE; RD 920/2017 (ITV) — BOE.
• RD 1021/2022 — BOE; RD 191/2011 (RGSEAA) — BOE; Regulation (EC) 852/2004 — EUR-Lex.
• Ley 37/1992 (VAT) — BOE; Orden HAC/1425/2025 (2026 modules) — BOE; LGT — BOE; Workers’ Statute — BOE.
• Alicante province hospitality collective agreement, 2026 tables — BOPA; Orden PJC/297/2026 (contributions) — BOE.
• Food truck sale listings — Wallapop, October 2026.