Algorfa City Guide

Alicante City Guide

City guide

Alicante, the gateway city of the Costa Blanca, is the most international property market in Spain. Foreign buyers account for close to half of all transactions in the province, drawn by 300-plus days of sunshine a year, a busy international airport and direct beach access. Prices have climbed sharply: the city average reached roughly 2,435-2,508 euros per square metre by early 2026, a year-on-year rise of around 16%, yet values remain affordable next to Spain's capitals and prime coastal hotspots. Rental yields are competitive at about 5.5% gross for long lets, while short-term holiday rentals in premium seafront areas can return 6-10% per annum given the year-round tourism season. Demand is broad-based (UK, German, Dutch, Scandinavian and Belgian buyers dominate the international segment), and emerging neighbourhoods such as San Blas-PAU and Villafranqueza posted growth above 22% in 2025. Nearby Costa Blanca markets like Torrevieja, La Mata and Punta Prima offer higher-yield, lower-priced alternatives. As a Eurozone destination Alicante provides currency and legal stability, but investors must weigh genuine risks: rapid price appreciation raises overheating concerns, Spain ended its Golden Visa in 2025 (removing the residency-by-purchase route), and several municipalities are tightening short-term-rental licensing.

Altea City Guide

City guide

Altea is the Costa Blanca's bohemian-chic address — a whitewashed artists' hill town crowned by the blue-domed church of Nuestra Señora del Consuelo, with labyrinthine old-town streets, a Russian Orthodox church, and the upscale Altea Hills and Puerto Luis Campomanes marina along the coast below. Quieter and more upmarket than neighbouring Benidorm, it has a population of about 24,600. For buyers, this is a higher-end, villa-weighted market: current platform listings run roughly €495,000–€2,295,000 (Altea Hills sea-view villas at the top), with an indicative gross rental yield around 4.7%. Altea sits on the FGV TRAM Line 1 (Alicante–Benidorm–Dénia) with AP-7/N-332 access and Alicante Airport about an hour away. The buyer base is international lifestyle demand — British, Scandinavian, Dutch and Belgian — drawn to the art-town character and sea-view villas rather than mass resort product. See the Spain Investor Guide.

Barcelona City Guide

City guide

Barcelona, the capital of Catalonia, blends Mediterranean lifestyle, world-class beaches and the unmistakable modernisme of Antoni Gaudi (Sagrada Familia, Park Guell, Casa Batllo) with a fast-growing tech and startup economy anchored in the 22@ innovation district. It is a top global tourism destination and a magnet for international residents - foreign nationals make up around 26% of the city's population. Foreigners can buy property freely with no nationality restrictions, but the investment landscape has shifted sharply. Spain abolished its Golden Visa (residency-by-property-investment): the program closed to new applicants on 3 April 2025. Barcelona is also phasing out short-term tourist-rental apartments - the city will not renew any of its ~10,000 HUT (tourist-use housing) licences when they expire in November 2028, effectively ending legal tourist flats (a phase-out upheld by Spain's Constitutional Court). Separately, in January 2025 the central government proposed a tax of up to 100% on second-hand homes bought by non-EU non-residents; this remains a proposal, not law, and faces significant legal and political obstacles.

Benahavís City Guide

City guide

Benahavís is an inland gastronomy-and-golf white village behind Marbella and Estepona — reputedly Spain's most expensive municipality, and home to La Zagaleta, one of Europe's most exclusive gated estates. A village of around 10,000 with more restaurants per capita than almost any Andalusian pueblo (the self-styled "culinary capital of the Costa del Sol"), it is ringed by nine-plus golf courses including Marbella Club Golf Resort, Los Arqueros and El Higueral, with the Guadalmina river gorge for nature. For buyers, this is an ultra-prime market: the municipal average is around €5,600/m² (mid-2025, ~+15% YoY), with apartments €4,500–€6,000/m² and modern villas €6,000–€9,000/m² (ultra-prime beyond €10,000/m²); within La Zagaleta villas average ~€8,365/m² and reach €20–30M+. Over 84% of residential purchases are by foreign nationals — UK-led, then Swedish, Belgian, German and Dutch. Málaga Airport is ~71 km (≈60 min). See the Spain Investor Guide.

Benalmádena City Guide

City guide

Benalmádena is a three-in-one Costa del Sol town — the whitewashed hilltop Benalmádena Pueblo, the bustling inland hub of Arroyo de la Miel, and the marina-and-beach coast of Benalmádena Costa — and the most attraction-dense family-tourism town of the central coast. Its award-winning Puerto Marina, the Teleférico cable car up 770 m Mount Calamorro, Colomares Castle and Selwo Marina anchor a municipality of about 78,000, with the Cercanías C1 train at Arroyo de la Miel putting Málaga Airport ~20 minutes away. For buyers, the average is around €4,139/m² (apartments ~€4,375/m², houses ~€3,502/m²), with district spread from Arroyo de la Miel (~€3,223/m²) to Parque de la Paloma (~€4,936/m²) and the Puerto Marina area (~€4,687/m²). Gross rental yields run ~4–5.5% long-term (licensed holiday lets higher). The buyer base is heavily international holiday-home and lifestyle demand — British, Scandinavian, Dutch and German — plus a large resident expat base. (Note: the historic Tivoli World theme park has been closed since 2020, with redevelopment projected later this decade.) See the Spain Investor Guide.

Benidorm City Guide

City guide

Benidorm is Spain's high-rise beach-resort capital — the "New York of the Mediterranean" — where the Levante and Poniente beaches sit beneath a Manhattan-style skyline anchored by the Intempo tower and the Gran Hotel Bali. Backed by theme parks (Terra Mítica, Aqualandia, Mundomar) and the Balcón del Mediterráneo viewpoint, it is one of Europe's most intensive tourism economies, with a resident population of about 77,300 that multiplies in season. For buyers, Numbeo puts city-centre apartments around €4,613/m² (and ~€2,258/m² outside the centre), with gross rental yields cited at ~4.2% in the centre and ~6.8% outside; current platform listings run roughly €349,000–€1,650,000 with an indicative yield around 5.8%. Benidorm is a hub of the FGV TRAM Metropolitano (toward Alicante and Dénia), with AP-7/N-332 access. The buyer base mixes strong domestic Spanish demand with British, Scandinavian, Dutch and Belgian holiday-let and second-home buyers. See the Spain Investor Guide.

Benitachell City Guide

City guide

Benitachell (El Poble Nou de Benitatxell) is a tranquil clifftop town between Jávea and Moraira, dominated by the large international Cumbre del Sol urbanisation and one of the Costa Blanca's most dramatic cove-and-cliff coastlines. Around 2 km of cliffs up to ~100 m drop to the sea at the cove of Cala del Moraig and the Cova dels Arcs sea cavern, while the old village keeps its Santa María Magdalena church. At about 4,900 residents — over 60% of them foreign — it is one of the most international municipalities in Spain. For buyers, this is a villa- and sea-view-led market: current platform listings run roughly €473,000–€4,236,000 (Cumbre del Sol sea-view villas weighting the top end), with an indicative gross rental yield around 4.6%. Benitachell has no marina of its own (Moraira and Jávea are nearest) and no rail station; Alicante Airport is about an hour by road via the N-332. The buyer base is overwhelmingly international second-home demand around the Cumbre del Sol resort, supported by the British Lady Elizabeth School. See the Spain Investor Guide.

Calpe City Guide

City guide

Calpe (Calp) is defined by the Peñón de Ifach — the sheer 332 m limestone rock that rises straight from the sea between two long sandy beaches and forms Spain's smallest natural park. A long-established, heavily international second-home market (nearly half the population is foreign), it pairs the Arenal-Bol and Fossa/Levante beaches with a working fishing port, a marina, and the flamingo-filled Las Salinas lagoon right in town. The population is about 27,600, swelling sharply in summer. For buyers, current platform listings run roughly €374,000–€1,650,000 (apartments from the high-€300,000s, villas to ~€1.1M+), with market €/m² broadly €4,000+; indicative gross rental yield is around 5.2%. Calpe sits on the FGV TRAM Line 9 (Alicante–Benidorm–Dénia) with AP-7 (exits 63–64) and N-332 access; Alicante Airport is about an hour by road. The buyer base is strongly international second-home and holiday demand across both apartments and villas. See the Spain Investor Guide.

Cartagena City Guide

City guide

Cartagena is a historic Roman and Carthaginian Mediterranean port city — Spain's main Mediterranean naval base — blending ancient remains with early-20th-century Art Nouveau, and fronting the Costa Cálida and Mar Menor coast. Its superbly restored 1st-century-BC Roman Theatre, the still-operational naval arsenal, the unspoilt Calblanque Regional Park and the La Manga del Mar Menor resort strip define a municipality of about 219,000 — the region's second largest. For buyers, the market splits between the urban city and the coast. In the city, apartments run roughly €1,640–€2,789/m² and villas average ~€3,157/m² (sea-view ~€2,815/m²); on the coast, La Manga del Mar Menor apartments average ~€2,556/m², with entry stock from ~€80,000. A Cartagena-specific rental yield isn't separately published. Murcia-Corvera Airport is ~30 km. The buyer base divides between domestic Spanish buyers in the apartment-dominated city and Northern European holiday and second-home buyers along the Mar Menor coast. See the Spain Investor Guide.

Dénia City Guide

City guide

Dénia is a castle-topped port town on the northern Costa Blanca between Alicante and Valencia, wedged between the Montgó massif and long sandy beaches, with a working marina and daily Baleària ferries to Ibiza and the Balearics. A UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy, it blends its hilltop castle and old town with the fine-sand Las Marinas strip north of town and the rocky Les Rotes coves to the south. The population is about 47,300, roughly doubling in summer. For buyers, current platform listings run roughly €339,000–€675,000, with an indicative gross rental yield around 5.0%. Dénia is the northern terminus of the FGV TRAM Line 9 (to Benidorm and Altea/Calpe), with AP-7 and N-332 access; Alicante Airport is ~110 km (≈1 h 20 m) and Valencia a similar distance north. The buyer base is a long-established international market — British and German led — across apartments and villas, from the Las Marinas beachfront to Montgó-slope and Les Rotes villas. See the Spain Investor Guide.

Estepona City Guide

City guide

Estepona — the "Garden of the Costa del Sol" — pairs a flower-filled, mural-decorated old town with the coast's hottest luxury new-build and branded-residence market, just west of Marbella. Its Ruta de Murales street-art trail (70+ facade artworks), the Orchidarium, a 447-mooring marina, Selwo Aventura wildlife park and the beachfront Laguna Village on the New Golden Mile anchor a town of about 79,600 people that has grown into one of Andalusia's most dynamic property markets. For buyers, the municipal average is around €3,900/m² (mid-2025, up ~19% year-on-year), with apartments near €4,236/m² and villas ~€3,625/m²; prime new-builds benchmark €7,000–€9,000/m². Gross rental yields run roughly 4.2–6.1% (short-lets up to ~7.8%). Málaga Airport is ~82 km (≈55 min) via the AP-7. The buyer base is strongly international — British and Scandinavian led, with Dutch and German demand — split between off-plan/branded new-build and resale. See the Spain Investor Guide.

Finestrat City Guide

City guide

Finestrat is a mountain-backed town beside Benidorm, split between a historic whitewashed hilltop village (Finestrat Pueblo) and a coastal resort strip around Cala de Finestrat and the Sierra Cortina hills — where new sea-view developments rise under the dramatic 1,410 m Puig Campana peak. Its single beach, the ~270 m Cala de Finestrat, adjoins Benidorm's Poniente side, and the Terra Mítica theme park is a few kilometres away. For buyers, idealista indicative ranges are apartments roughly €2,840–€5,900/m² (sea-view newer stock at the top end) and villas €3,380–€5,730/m² (the Balcón de Finestrat urbanisation averaging ~€3,383/m²). A Finestrat-specific rental yield isn't separately published; the Costa Blanca benchmark is ~5–6% gross. The town has ~9,900 residents and sits ~8–12 km from Benidorm and ~50 km (≈1 hr) from Alicante Airport, with AP-7 and N-332 access. The buyer base is Northern European resort and second-home demand — British, Belgian, Dutch and Scandinavian — plus Benidorm-overflow. See the Spain Investor Guide.

Spain country guide

Country guide