Key Takeaways
- ✓ We track 900 apartments and 353 penthouses for sale across the Costa Blanca and beyond. Every figure here comes from that live book, August 2026.
- ✓ The south–north gap is the story: median €230k in Orihuela Costa and €255k in Torrevieja vs €539k in Calpe.
- ✓ A pool is the highest-demand filter buyers search for, and on the southern Costa Blanca it rarely adds much to the price, because most complexes have one.
- ✓ Entry points: from €120k in Torrevieja, €147k in Finestrat, €169k in Guardamar.
- ✓ Most supply entering the market now is new-build: compare both before you decide.
“Apartments for sale in Costa Blanca” is one of the most-searched phrases in Spanish property, and one of the least-answered. Portals return 40,000 mixed results; agency sites answer with adjectives. Here is the actual price structure, town by town, computed from our live apartment book in August 2026.
Median apartment prices by town
These medians cover flats and penthouses together, which is how most buyers search. The apartments-only figures a few paragraphs down are lower, and the gap between the two is itself worth understanding.
| Town | Median asking | Entry from | Coast |
|---|---|---|---|
| Orihuela Costa (La Zenia, Cabo Roig…) | €230,000 | €175,000 | South |
| Torrevieja | €255,000 | €120,000 | South |
| Benijófar (inland) | €330,000 | €250,000 | South |
| Pilar de la Horadada | €330,000 | €246,000 | South |
| Guardamar del Segura | €333,000 | €169,000 | South |
| Villajoyosa | €445,000 | €254,000 | North |
| Finestrat (Benidorm hills) | €470,000 | €147,000 | North |
| Calpe | €539,000 | €200,000 | North |
The pattern is unmistakable: cross the Alicante line heading north and the median roughly doubles. That is not because the north is objectively twice as good. It is scarcity (cliffs leave less buildable coast), an older tourism brand, and a wealthier resident mix. Whether that premium is worth paying is a lifestyle question, and it is exactly the question we unpack in Costa Blanca South vs North.
Apartments only: where the depth actually is
Strip the penthouses out and the picture changes. These are the twelve towns where we hold the most flats, across the whole book, so the Costa del Sol is in here too, and the comparison is the point:
| Town | Apartments in book | Median (apartments only) |
|---|---|---|
| Torrevieja (Costa Blanca) | 113 | €250,000 |
| Calpe (Costa Blanca) | 26 | €480,000 |
| Guardamar (Costa Blanca) | 25 | €315,000 |
| Benijófar (Costa Blanca) | 22 | €328,000 |
| Mijas (Costa del Sol) | 132 | €458,000 |
| Estepona (Costa del Sol) | 121 | €605,000 |
| Fuengirola (Costa del Sol) | 69 | €562,600 |
| Marbella (Costa del Sol) | 38 | €860,000 |
| Manilva (Costa del Sol) | 34 | €429,950 |
| Torremolinos (Costa del Sol) | 26 | €510,000 |
Across all 900 apartments in the book the median is €433,000, and the cheapest is €109,000. But that book-wide median is a Costa del Sol number, dragged up by Mijas, Estepona and Fuengirola, which between them hold a third of our flats. On the Costa Blanca side Torrevieja alone holds 113 apartments at €250,000, the deepest single pool of affordable coastal flats anywhere in our stock, and the reason this town appears in almost every answer on this page.
The penthouse premium
The other reason to look at flats and penthouses separately is that the gap between them is not consistent. It is small where supply is deep and large where the top floor is genuinely scarce:
| Town | Apartment median | Penthouse median | Penthouses in book |
|---|---|---|---|
| Guardamar del Segura | €315,000 | €355,000 | 17 |
| Torrevieja | €250,000 | €320,000 | 42 |
| Mijas | €458,000 | €670,000 | 38 |
| Calpe | €480,000 | €750,000 | 17 |
| Torremolinos | €510,000 | €802,000 | 10 |
In Guardamar the step up is modest. In Calpe and Torremolinos it is more than half again, because a top floor there usually comes with a sea view and a large private solarium, and those are the two things the northern coast rations hardest. If a solarium matters more than an address, Guardamar and Torrevieja are where that preference is cheapest to satisfy. Our full penthouse guide goes further into the specifics.
South or north: the honest one-paragraph answer
Buy south (Torrevieja, Orihuela Costa, Guardamar) if your priorities are budget, flat walkable towns, golf, and the strongest holiday-rental demand per euro invested. Buy north (Calpe, Villajoyosa, Altea) if dramatic scenery, greener hills and a quieter, more Spanish rhythm matter more than the extra €200k. There is no wrong answer. There is only the wrong match for how you will actually use the place.
Which town suits which buyer
Torrevieja: the widest choice and the lowest entry price on the coast, plus a working town that stays open in January. Best for first purchases, letting, and anyone who wants to walk rather than drive.
Orihuela Costa: the beach strip from La Zenia to Cabo Roig, at a town-wide median of €297,000. Best for buyers who want sand and a golf course within a few minutes and do not need a Spanish high street.
Guardamar del Segura: pine forest, dune beaches and a real Spanish town centre, with 44 listings on our book. Best for buyers who found the resort towns too built-up.
Pilar de la Horadada: 103 listings, the largest Costa Blanca stock we hold after Torrevieja, and still being built out. Best for buyers who want new construction without northern prices.
Calpe, Villajoyosa and Finestrat: the scenery end. Calpe's 58 listings sit at a town median of €670,000 and Finestrat's 82 at €635,000. Best for buyers who will look at the view every day and think the premium was fair.
What the money buys right now
€219,000Two-bed penthouse, Cabo Roig
Orihuela Costa · La Regia
€499,000Four-bed apartment, La Zenia
Orihuela Costa · La Zenia
€192,000Three-bed ground-floor bungalow
Orihuela Costa · Los Almendros
The pool question
Two of the most-typed searches in this market are “apartments for sale with pool Costa Blanca” and its Torrevieja twin, and here is the good news: on the southern coast a communal pool is close to standard. The premium for pool access is small; what actually moves price is front-line position and lift + parking. Filter directly: all property with pool or Torrevieja with pool.
New-build or resale?
The majority of apartments entering our book now are new construction. The southern Costa Blanca is in its biggest building wave since 2007, concentrated around Guardamar, Pilar de la Horadada and the Orihuela Costa fringe. But the balance varies enormously by town, and it is the first thing to check before you fall for a search result:
| Town | Listings | New build | Resale |
|---|---|---|---|
| Torrevieja | 250 | 125 | 125 |
| Pilar de la Horadada | 103 | 101 | 2 |
| Finestrat | 82 | 80 | 2 |
| Calpe | 58 | 58 | 0 |
| Orihuela Costa | 48 | 19 | 29 |
| Guardamar del Segura | 44 | 42 | 2 |
| Benijófar | 37 | 37 | 0 |
| Villajoyosa | 23 | 23 | 0 |
Counts cover all property types, not only flats. Read it this way: if you specifically want a resale apartment (an established block, a mature community, a position built decades ago), there are effectively two towns holding real choice, Torrevieja and Orihuela Costa. Everywhere else on this list is a new-build market where a resale is the exception. That is not a judgement on quality; it is simply where the stock is, and buyers who ignore it spend months hunting something that is not there.
New build costs more per square metre but arrives with insulation, warranties and today's build codes, and the payments are staged through construction rather than due at once. A good resale beats it on location, because the best plots were built first. The full trade-off is in New-build vs resale in Spain, and the current developments are in our new-build section.
What to check in an apartment block
Buying a flat means buying into a community of owners, and the community is the part of the purchase most buyers never inspect. Four things settle it.
The accounts and the minutes. Ask for the last two years of both. Arrears among owners, an empty reserve fund, or major works already voted through are all your problem from the day you complete. Blocks full of absent overseas owners are the ones most likely to be underfunded. See community fees in Spain, explained.
The lift and the stairwell. A lift is standard in new build and far from standard in older central blocks. If a lift is retro-fitted later, owners pay for it by share. Look at the stairwell paintwork and the entrance door: they tell you how the community actually spends.
Orientation and what is next door. South and west-facing terraces are hot in August and lovely in January, which is the right way round for most owners here. Then look at the plot next to the block. An empty one in a new-build town is a future crane, not a future park.
The licence and the letting rules. Check the licence of first occupation exists, and if you intend to let short-term, check the community statutes do not forbid it and that the property can obtain a tourist licence. The rules are set regionally; ours are covered in the Valencia holiday-let licence guide.
Buying costs, briefly
On the Costa Blanca (Valencia region) add roughly 12–14% to a resale price: 10% ITP transfer tax plus notary, registry and legal fees. New builds swap ITP for 10% IVA plus 1.5% AJD stamp duty. On a €250,000 Torrevieja flat that is roughly €30,000–€35,000 in cash on top of the price, and no Spanish mortgage will lend against it. Budget the annual costs too: IBI, community fees, and non-resident income tax if you do not live here. Full breakdown with worked examples: the complete buying guide.
Tell us your budget and the two or three things you will not compromise on, and we will come back with what is genuinely available this month, including the towns we would rule out for you.

