The Levantine city concentrates a fifth part of the luxury real estate offer in Spain. The Costa Blanca is the new Costa del Sol.
The secret of Alicante is that it is “cheap” in this market.
Is the Costa Blanca the new Marbella? Judging by the number of luxury villas that inhabit it, well it could be it. Alicante has become the Spanish province with more high-end homes for sale. According to one of the most important websites specialized in luxury homes, this enclave, one of the most important tourist destinations in the country, concentrated at the end of 2017 a fifth of luxury real estate in Spain, over traditional for this market, such as Malaga and the Balearic Islands.
One of the secrets of Alicante is that it is “cheap”. In Spain, the average price of luxury housing stood at 6,700 euros per square meter in the first half of the year (after a rise of 3% year-on-year). In some areas, this increase has been 5%: on the Valencian coast, the Catalan Costa Brava, the Andalusian Costa del Sol, the Balearic Islands, Barcelona, Madrid and San Sebastián. Even so, the Costa Blanca is far below other coastal provinces.
In a prime area of Alicante capital such as Cabo Huertas [one of the most sought after land of San Juan Beach, full of rocky coves], the average price of the villas is € 3,150 / m2, and the properties cost between a million euros and 6 million. In the center of the city, average sales prices do not exceed € 4,000 / m2.
Mallorca and Marbella are another league: in Marbella, in Los Monteros [one of the most exclusive urbanizations in the Andalusian city] you can find houses for € 6,000 / m2, and in Los Flamingos [in Benahavís, between Marbella, Estepona and Ronda], € 5,000 / m2 The most affluent tend to choose Mallorca and Marbella, but the good thing about Alicante is that it has a seaport and good communications (it’s two hours by train from Madrid), it’s a very good place to live, and many who spend the summer in Mallorca, tired of so much German, come here.
You may not find so many Germans in Alicante, but the number of foreigners is very high. Mainly, Swiss, English, Belgian, Dutch and Scandinavian. Its average budget, like that of the Spaniards seeking to invest in this region, is 1.8 million euros. And luxury properties costs an average of 3.1 million in Benidorm, 2.7 in Villajoyosa and 2.5 million in Benissa. They are the most expensive areas.
The Costa Blanca lacks the glamor that the rich and famous take to Mallorca, Ibiza and the Costa del Sol. But the demand for property purchases has gone up by 20% in the last year. And the rent has skyrocketed by 80%. Some Arab with petrodollars in his pocket has already dropped by. We may be facing an incipient Marbella on the Valencian coast.
