Buying on the Costa Blanca: a French Buyer’s Guide

French buyers arrive on the Costa Blanca for a simple reason: it is the same sea as Provence at a different price. But the buying process is not the French one with Spanish vocabulary. Several of the assumptions a French buyer brings from home are wrong here, and one of them is expensive. This guide covers the differences that matter.

The price gap, in plain numbers

Torrevieja is the anchor of this coast and the reason most French buyers end up here: a median of €260,000 for a coastal town with a year-round population, two marinas and a working winter economy. Entry starts at €89,900. Calpe, further north, is the scenic premium option and roughly two and a half times the price.

Four things that differ from buying in France

1. The notary is neutral. Hire your own lawyer. This is the single most important difference. In France the notaire handles the transaction and carries a duty to both parties. In Spain the notario witnesses and formalises the deed but does not investigate the property for you, does not check for debts, and does not represent your interests. A French buyer who treats the notary as a notaire is effectively unrepresented. Engage an independent Spanish lawyer (abogado) before signing anything.

2. There is no cooling-off period. France gives a buyer ten days to withdraw after signing the compromis de vente. Spain gives you none. The contrato de arras is binding the moment you sign it, with a defined penalty: back out and you lose your deposit; the seller backs out and owes you double. Read our guide to the arras contract before you sign one.

3. It is faster. A French purchase commonly runs three to four months from compromis to acte. A Spanish resale typically completes in six to ten weeks. Have your funds and your NIE ready earlier than French timing would suggest.

4. You need an NIE. The número de identidad de extranjero is required to buy, open a bank account or connect utilities. Start it early. See the NIE guide.

What the money buys

What each budget band actually holds

French buyers usually arrive with a number in mind and no sense of where it sits in the local distribution. These are the bands across our whole live book, which covers the Costa Blanca and the Costa del Sol together.

Two numbers are worth holding on to. Everything under €250,000 comes to 218 listings out of 2,108, about one in ten of what we hold. Everything above €400,000 comes to 1,373, roughly two thirds. Coming from a French coastal market, that ratio surprises in both directions: the genuinely cheap end exists here in a way it does not in Provence, but it is a small and competitive slice rather than the bulk of the market. If your budget is under €200,000, expect to move quickly and to compromise on something: usually the view, sometimes the floor area, occasionally the town.

The mistakes French buyers make

Reading the advertised surface as loi Carrez. Spanish listings quote superficie construida: built area measured to the outside of the walls, frequently including a share of communal space. There is no Carrez-style certified private area on the deed. Ask the agent for superficie útil before you compare anything to a French apartment on paper.

Expecting a diagnostics pack. A French sale arrives with a dossier de diagnostic technique: asbestos, lead, termites, electrics, gas, energy. Spain hands you an energy certificate and very little else. Nothing about the wiring, the plumbing or the structure comes as standard. If you want that information you commission it yourself. Work through our inspection checklist and budget for a surveyor.

Assuming a condition suspensive de prêt. In France a financing condition is close to automatic. In Spain it is not. If your purchase depends on a mortgage, that condition has to be negotiated into the contrato de arras in writing before you sign. Without it, a refused loan costs you the deposit.

Ignoring the community accounts. Unpaid community charges attach to the property, not only to the person who ran them up, so they can follow you through completion. Ask for a certificate that the seller is up to date (certificado de estar al corriente de pago) and for the last two years of accounts and minutes. The minutes are where planned works and disputes appear.

Assuming one property means one price. There is no mandat exclusif norm here. Several agencies can market the same home at the same time, occasionally at different asking prices. Note the reference number of anything you like, then check that it is one property rather than three copies of the same one.

Buying the summer and forgetting the winter. Almost every French buyer views between May and September. Come back in February before you commit, and see whether the street is inhabited, the restaurants open and the bus running.

Costs and tax, briefly

Budget 12–14% above the asking price on a resale: 10% impuesto de transmisiones patrimoniales (the rough equivalent of French droits de mutation), plus notary, registry and legal fees. New build swaps that for 10% IVA plus 1.5% stamp duty. Ongoing, you will pay IBI (like the taxe foncière) and community fees; there is no direct equivalent of the taxe d’habitation. Non-residents also file an annual return on imputed income even when the property is not let, a genuine surprise for many French owners. The detail is in annual property taxes in Spain.

Line by line, on a resale, the 10% ITP is the large item and it is payable shortly after completion rather than months later. The notary’s fee and the Land Registry fee are both modest and both scaled to the deed value. Your abogado is the line with no French counterpart, because in France the notaire absorbs that work. Here it is a separate engagement and it is not optional. Add a valuation if you are borrowing, and a small allowance for the NIE and any power of attorney. On a new build the arithmetic changes shape rather than size: 10% IVA plus 1.5% AJD, and the developer normally covers its own costs of subdivision.

Budget in euros rather than percentages, because the fixed elements do not shrink with the price. On a purchase at Torrevieja’s €89,900 entry point, the notary, registry and legal fees are a far larger share of the total than they are at the town’s €260,000 median. That is the single most common budgeting error we see, and it usually surfaces a fortnight before completion.

Start with the Torrevieja book or Orihuela Costa, and tell us your budget below. We will send what genuinely matches it.